Welcome to our collection!

Explore over 30 centuries of design online, from ancient Roman marble to Pre-Columbian textiles, Renaissance drawings, contemporary 3D-printed chairs, and digital code. Please note that cataloging a collection of over 215,000 objects is a work in progress. You may come across records with very little information, factual errors, or harmful language. We appreciate your help in addressing these concerns and invite your feedback.

Example Searches: Chair Poster Fork Sidewall Matchsafe Sampler

Collection Highlights

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A speckled shell; second state with dark background, with additional shading on the shell and its right side shortened.

Dürer to Rembrandt: Northern European Prints from the Wallerstein Collection
Children's paper showing scenes from the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built". Vertical rectangle of full width, giving one repeat. In center, seated in high-backed Gothic chair, the Priest all Shaven and Shorn, before whom kneel the Maiden all Forlorn and the Man all Tattered and Torn. Other elements of the rhyme incorporated in the design. Printed in greens and reds on pale yellow ground. Designed in the Aesthetic style: elements all very flat with little sense of depth, and shapes are heavily outlined.

In the Nursery: Wallpaper for Children's Spaces
Abstract butterfly form comprising simple, curved body studded with small diamonds, flanked by wings with polychrome lacquer, mother-of-pearl, egg shell, and gold decoration inspired by ‘Kodai-ji makie’ using Chinese bell flower motif.

Insects!

Featured Objects

Exhibitions on View

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Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer
Black flag with alternating squares of red and white forming a border. Flag depicts an all-female militia confronting a male intruder who reacts with fear to their presence. The two women closest to the intruder carry a flag and a drum while the others carry rifles and a machete. A small British flag appears in the upper left hand corner. The initials of the militia are embroidered along the bottom edge. The flag is fringed on three sides.

Jon Gray of Ghetto Gastro Selects
Textile design consisting of cream and pink striped flowers with orange centers, along with orange and black-spotted cheetahs, against a pink background with orange spots. The cheetahs initially appear to be part of the background and are not immediately visible.

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints That Made the Fashion Brand
A house in middle surrounded by symmetrically arranged flower and topiary beds. A densely planted border of trees surrounds on three sides. Entrance to garden at center bottom edge of drawing.

The Modernist French Garden: Design by the Vera Brothers

Willi Smith: Street Couture
Silk embroidery in pale colors on dark blue linen. A horizontally and vertically symmetrical floral pattern in the Morris style.

Botanical Expressions

Nature by Design: Cochineal
Large tortoiseshell comb with pierced stylized flower and vine motifs.

Plastics
Anatomical model of Theobroma Cacao glued to a vertical rod mounted on a stepped base with affixed paper label

Botanical Lessons

Collections in Motion

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Arc Touch Mouse: Production Process

The Arc Touch Mouse was designed to be portable, comfortable, and sleek.

Curatorial Departments

Horizontal rectangle showing an interior view. At right, two stools, one red and one blue, stand before a bar with a yellow foot rail. Behind are three floating shelves with bottles. At left, a blue banquette stands behind a row of tables with rectilinear decoration in black, white orange and yellow. The walls are white with horizontal detailing. There is a white dropped ceiling with round colored lights.

Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design
Grey-glazed gourd-like form (a), having bulbous lower section tapering up to a curved neck; the rounded top with four holes set off-center; cork stopper (b) in underside.

Product Design and Decorative Arts
Gentleman's waistcoat with standing collar, straight hem edge and pocket welts, with ten worked buttonholes and covered buttons, lined with twill. Embroidered in twenty-five colors of silk floss and chenille on an ivory silk taffeta ground. Overall small floral sprig, with a deep border of irises and other flowers down center front and across bottom. On the larger flowers at the bottom, caterpillars are embroidered in various shades of chenille.

Textiles
Scenes of black lambs in a dressing room or sitting on chairs in between bouquets of flowers, pink perfume bottles, and lipstick cases on a metallic silver ground.

Wallcoverings