Sarah & Eleanor Hewitt: Designing a Modern Museum chronicles the colorful lives and contributions of the dynamic sisters and explores how they created The Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Through archival photography and documents, personal drawings and correspondence, news clippings and ephemera, the exhibition introduces the sisters as educators, collectors, and philanthropists.

In the early 1890s, Sarah and Eleanor began designing a museum for the arts of decoration within The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the public school founded by their grandfather, Peter Cooper, in 1859. Modeled on the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the sisters followed advice from the directors of the Paris museum on how to organize, collect, and exhibit objects for their museum and library.

This exhibition marks the 125th anniversary of the opening of the museum galleries at Cooper Union in 1897, and celebrates the Smithsonian Institution’s 175th year.

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

Young woman dressed in formal clothing looking directly at the viewer. — Photo of Sarah Cooper Hewitt, ca. 1890–92; Collection of Edward Parmee

Photograph of a young lady sitting in a chair surrounded by other pieces of furniture. — Photo of Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, ca. 1888; Collection of Edward Parmee

Piece of paper with cursive text written in black ink announcing the opening and purpose of the Museum of the Arts of Decoration. — Handwritten Announcement, 1897; Written by Sarah or Eleanor Hewitt; Ink on paper; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A historic plan view of the fourth floor of the Cooper Union building, the Museum for the Arts of Decoration, depicting a horizontal, architectural layout for an angular built structure with four main straight sides. — Floor Plan of Cooper Union Museum, 1913; Ink on paper; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Faded photograph of a gallery space that has rows of chairs and sculptures of cherubs and urns on the right, on the left is a paneled storage wall with a panel containing two fans pulled out. — Photographs, Cooper Union Museum Galleries, 1905; © MAD, Paris – Christophe Dellière

Piece of paper portraying a woman in different states of mood and timeframe. — Guestbook, Ringwood Manor, Vol. 3, 1892; Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, F142.P2 R564

Rear view of a floor-length black silk evening cloak embroidered with a repeating pattern of large red and yellow parrot tulips with a sweeping train and a black lace collar. — Evening Cloak with Tulipes Hollandaises Textile, 1889; Charles Frederick Worth (French, born England, 1825-1895) for Maison Worth; Textile designed by A. M. Gourd & Cie; Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of the Princess Viggo in accordance with the wishes of the Misses Hewitt, 1931, 2009.300.1708

Book open to two pages each one containing a photograph. — Pages from United States Travel Diary, ca. 1913-24; Ink on paper, leather, metal, board; Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, E664 .H5234H49; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

Book open to two pages with writing and drawings on them. — Pages from Italy Travel Diary, ca. 1913-24; Ink on paper, leather, metal, board; Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, E664 .H5234H49; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A birdcage in the shape of the Rialto bridge in Venice, with a wooden frame painted in olive green and intricate wire scrollwork along the sides, door and top. — Rialto Bridge Birdcage (Italy); Late 19th-early 20th century; Previously owned by Alexander Wilson Drake (American, 18431916); Wood, wire, metal, paint; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt, 1916-19-14; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A mid-toned landscape with billowing pink-tinged grey clouds and a stripe of vibrant rainbow cascading from the top right above deep green and earth brown plains and blue-grey mountains. — Drawing, Clouds and Rainbow, Jamaica, 1865; Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900); Brush and oil paint on cardboard; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Gift of Louis P. Church, 1917-4-384-b; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

A chocolate brown square fragment of a woven wool and linen tapestry with nine circular cream sections containing stylized colorful flowers and bowls of fruit split by a repeating ochre pattern. — Fragment (Egypt), 4th-5th century; Linen, wool slit tapestry with supplementary weft wrapping; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Gift of John Pierpont Morgan, 1902-1-34; Photo by Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution

About sarah and eleanor hewitt

Sarah (1859–1930) and Eleanor (1864–1924), also known as “Sallie” and “Nellie,” were two of six grandchildren of industrialist and educator Peter Cooper, and daughters of Abram and Sarah Hewitt. Smart, fun-loving, witty, and social, Sarah and Eleanor were competitive athletes, accomplished linguists, prolific writers, amateur actors, skilled musicians, and talented artists. An upbringing that prioritized education and philanthropy shaped the sisters’ creative and spirited personalities. Sarah and Eleanor were strongly influenced by their family and also shared their family’s opposition to granting women the right to vote.

Making a Modern Museum

After years of planning and soliciting wealthy family and friends to donate textiles, furniture, decorative engravings, etchings, books, and plaster casts for study, the Museum for the Arts of Decoration opened to the public on the fourth floor of The Cooper Union in 1897. The sisters called their museum “modern,” and planned the galleries, collections of objects, and reference materials to be freely accessible and open in the evenings so that working artisans could use it. Reference books and scrapbooks filled with visual aids were readily available to broaden the visitor’s education and visual vocabulary. Photographs on view in the exhibition show students actively engaging with the collection, studying, and sketching from works on view.

In their lifetimes, Sarah and Eleanor collected and donated over 50,000 objects (Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection currently has more than 215,000 objects). The collection of design objects they amassed is the foundation of Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection today.

Published Content

Meet the Hewitts

This blog series explores the lives and work of Sarah and Eleanor, including their collecting pursuits, family travels, recreational activities, and social circle. Read more.

Cooper Hewitt Short Stories

Cooper Hewitt Short Stories highlights important acquisitions to the collection, as well as key figures that contributed these gifts and shaped the museum’s development. Read more.

Sarah & Eleanor: The Hewitt Sisters, Founders of the Nation’s Design Museum

This brochure contains Sarah and Eleanor’s journey from childhood, to research in Paris, to the founding of the Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Download the brochure to read Sarah & Eleanor’s story.

Support

Sarah & Eleanor Hewitt: Designing a Modern Museum is made possible with generous support from The Masinter Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Organized by a cross-departmental Cooper Hewitt team with project coordination by Matthew Kennedy, Cross-Platform Publishing Associate, and concept and research contributions by Margery Masinter, design historian and Cooper Hewitt trustee.

Exhibition design and graphic design by Kelly Sung.