Hewitt Sisters Collect

About

Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt were the granddaughters of industrialist and inventor Peter Cooper, founder of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1897, the sisters established a museum within Cooper Union and curated its core collection. It was conceived as “a practical working laboratory” where students and designers could go to be inspired by actual objects in the four collecting categories then known as Drawings and Prints, Decorative Arts, Wallcoverings, and Textiles. These departments and the objects the Hewitt sisters collected both in the United States and throughout Europe became the basis for Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection.

With an emphasis on participation, objects could be touched, moved, sketched, photographed, and measured and the museum was open to “anyone who wanted to use it as a place to work and learn.” In galleries that were formerly Mr. and Mrs. Carnegie’s bedrooms, the Hewitt sisters’ collecting philosophy are celebrated with objects they gave to the museum, or which were acquired under their guidance, ranging from prints, drawings, and textiles to furniture, metalwork, and birdcages.