Cooper Hewitt National
The Cooper Hewitt Museum, located near Central Park, which you can include in your New York City tour.
Founded in 1896, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum is a design-focused museum located in New York City’s famous Museum Mile district, which is also home to museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim, the Neue Galerie and the main unit of the amazing and must-see Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Inspired by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, the collections presented at the museum showcase some 240 years of aesthetic design and creativity. It is the first Smithsonian museum to be located outside of Washington DC. Since 1976, it has been housed in the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, a 64-room Georgian-style mansion built between 1899 and 1902.
Original Museum
The museum has a wide variety of objects in its collection, ranging from matchboxes to shopping bags, Soviet porcelain and the works of graphic artist Tibor Kalman. The Cooper Hewitt Museum has remarkable objects in its collection, such as a chair used by Abraham Lincoln and a Rolls-Royce that once belonged to the Beatles. In addition, Cooper Hewitt is the home of the National Design Awards, an award which since 2000 has recognized projects in seven different categories: architectural design, communication design, fashion design, interior design, interaction design, landscape design and product design.
How to visit the museum
Cooper Hewitt’s collections are made up of decorative and design objects. The museum’s original collection focused on architecture, sculpture, painted architecture, decorative arts, carpentry, locksmithing, pottery, fantasy, musical instruments and furniture. The Cooper Hewitt Museum exhibits are located on the different floors of the building, as shown on the map below.
Video
The museum’s diverse collection spans thirty centuries of historical and contemporary design, including significant works. Due to the enormous amount of objects, the museum presents its collection through interesting and, in some cases, interactive periodic exhibitions. Consult the complete list of planned and past exhibitions by accessing this link. Below is a breakdown of the objects in the museum’s collection.
The different worlds of the museum
– DESIGN, PRINTING AND GRAPHIC DRAWING: dedicated to works on paper in the fields of architecture, decorative arts, gardens, interiors, jewellery, theatre, industrial and graphic design, as well as plastic arts. This department has nearly 129,000 objects, which represents about 60% of the online collection.
– PRODUCT DESIGN AND DECORATIVE ARTS: encompasses a wide range of decorative arts, industrial and contemporary design objects, including ceramics, furniture, metalwork, lighting, glass, jewellery, architectural elements and industrial design. There are nearly 33,000 objects in this department.
– TEXTILE: represents the full range of weaving and non-woven techniques as well as a wide variety of printing and dyeing methods. There are more than 26,000 objects in this department.
- WALL COATINGS: with over 10,000 items, this department contains the largest and most varied wallpaper collection in the United States. The collection includes hand-printed designs, custom designs, mass-produced decorations and much more.
- CONSERVATION: The Conservation Department supports the Conservation Division and the Exhibits and Archives Departments in preserving the museum’s collection and lending items for display and storage. Conservators analyze and treat objects to maximize their longevity, aesthetic quality, and technical interpretation.
How to get to the museum
The closest metro stations to the museum are located :
At the intersection of 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, served by lines 4, 5 and 6.
At the intersection of 96th Street and Lexington Avenue, served by Line 6
At 86 Street, served by the N and Q lines
At 96, served by lines N and Q
Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily
Adults: $16 15 euros
Pay what you want on Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm.
https://www.cooperhewitt.org/
2 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128, USA
