about

The Object of the Week blog is written by Cooper Hewitt’s curators, graduate fellows, and contributing researchers and scholars. Posts are published every week and present research on an object from the museum’s collection. With over 210,000 objects spanning thirty centuries of decorative arts and design, Object of the Week explores the material culture of textiles, graphic design, furniture, products, architectural drawings, wallcoverings, and much more.

Image features a rough sketch in black, gray, tan, and blue, showing a long corridor that terminates in a view through a window onto a central stone garden. The view highlights the mirrored surface on the opposite side of the garden, which reflects the colors of the sky and landscape, here suggestive of a colorful sunset. Please scroll down to read the blog about this object.
An Infinite Reflecting Vista
In celebration of  National Design Month, October’s Object of The Week posts honor past National Design Award winners. This post was originally published on November 10, 2016. In the late 1990s, the Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) in Tacoma, Washington announced its plan to relocate from the bank building that it had occupied since 1935 to...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Caitlin Condell
Date
October 26, 2020
Image features: Columns of irregularly spaced stripes, each stripe alternating rectangles of black and white with rectangles of bright orange and pink. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A New Way With Color
In celebration of National Design Month, October’s Object of the Week posts honor past National Design Award winners. In 2011, Knoll won a National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement. The company, known for fostering many talented international designers over the decades, is represented by more than 170 objects in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection.  ...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Kimberly Randall
Date
October 19, 2020
Image features a length of wallpaper printed in black on a light gray ground, showing a stylized rendering of a forest with trees represented as strong vertical lines with periodic circular, oval, and conical masses of foliage. The differing scales and overlapping lines create a shallow sense of depth. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Now Entering Lines Forest
In celebration of National Design Month, October’s Object of The Week posts honor past National Design Award winners. This post was originally published on July 9, 2017. This wallpaper by Geoff McFetridge somewhat resembles a circuit board with its minimal rendering of visual elements, but the title, “Lines Forrest,” clearly sets the record straight that...
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Gregory Herringshaw
Date
October 12, 2020
Image features a ceramic tea service composed of a hot water pot, sugar bowl, creamer, and cup and saucer. Each simple cylindrical vessel is decorated on one side with a colorful urban scene featuring a Soviet monument or state building in Leningrad. The opposite side of each piece is decorated with a gilded image of a historical site in Leningrad. The pieces are further embellished with classically-inspired gilded ribbons and marshal trophies at the edges, spouts, and loop handles. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this service.
An Early Eva Zeisel Design
In celebration of National Design Month, October’s Object of The Week posts honor past National Design Award winners. A version of this post was published on November 13, 2012. Eva Zeisel, a major figure in twentieth-century industrial design, won the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005. Although best known for her contributions to mid-century...
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Cynthia Trope
Date
October 5, 2020
Image features: Three white-on-white patterned textiles sewn together, each having four selvages. The two outer textiles are patterned with stripes of geometric shapes including a bird. The center is patterned with zigzag bands, one above the other, to form an elongated diamond shape. Head opening is uncut. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this image.
Translucent Cloth
September is New York Textile Month, a citywide celebration of textile creativity. As in past years, the museum is collaborating with the Textile Society of America. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide....
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Kimberly Randall
Date
September 28, 2020
Image features: Black headcovering made from stretchy mesh fabric. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this image.
A Modest Achievement
September is New York Textile Month, a citywide celebration of textile creativity. As in past years, the museum is collaborating with the Textile Society of America. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide....
Read Time
2 minutes
Posted By
Kimberly Randall
Date
September 21, 2020
Image features: Large wrapping cloth made from sheets of paper from account ledgers, glued together and stained with persimmon, giving a brownish color except where later patched with lighter colored papers. Writing still evident on sheets. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object
Only Seeing 
September is New York Textile Month, a citywide celebration of textile creativity. As in past years, the museum is collaborating with the Textile Society of America. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide....
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Kimberly Randall
Date
September 14, 2020
Image features: Samples of yarns dyed by members of the Society, affixed to the backs of admission tickets to the Annual Exhibition of 1908. Recipes for some colors are written below. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Preserving Knowledge, Preserving Color
September is New York Textile Month, a citywide celebration of textile creativity. As in past years, the museum is collaborating with the Textile Society of America. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about textiles worldwide....
Read Time
3 minutes
Posted By
Kimberly Randall
Date
September 7, 2020
Image features a drawing of a young girl sitting on a bentwood caned chair in front of a table holding and sewing a piece of cloth. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Mary Hallock Foote: A Summer on Long Island
Author: Ava Hathaway Hacker By the end of her artistic career, Mary Hallock Foote was one of the most recognized illustrators of life in the American West. Often focusing on images of women and children, her illustrations provided a vision of the West not simply as a rugged frontier but as a place where families...
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Laura Fravel
Date
August 31, 2020