Collections

• About the Collections
• Drawings, Prints, & Graphic Design
• Product Design & Decorative Arts
• Textiles
• Wallcoverings
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Textiles

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Textiles collection contains more than 30,000 pieces representing an extraordinarily wide range of woven and non-woven techniques. Extending from ancient to contemporary examples, the earliest pieces in the collection are from Han Dynasty China (206 BC–AD 221).

The scope of non-woven techniques represented in the collection includes embroidery, knitting, crochet, braiding, knotting, needle and bobbin-made lace, and quilting. Printing and dyeing techniques include plate, block and roller printing, lithography, silk screen, resist dyeing (tie-dye, ikat, batik, stenciled resist), and painted textiles. The full spectrum of weaving techniques is also represented in the collection, from simple plain weave to jacquard and complex drawloom woven pattern.

Special strengths:

• woven European silks from the 13th through 18th centuries
• 18th- and early 19th-century French and English printed fabric
• nearly 1,000 embroidered samplers
• classic European laces from the 16th and 17th centuries
• a collection of costume accessories, including fans, hats, and bags from the 17th through 19th centuries

Textiles is open to visitors by advance appointment. Please contact the department for further information, at least two weeks prior to anticipated visit.

Phone: 212.849.8452
Fax: 212.849.8401
Email: chtextiles@si.edu

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