This wallpaper sample comes from a book put out by Imperial Wallcoverings in 1948. It would have been used in a family room or den—spaces that were relatively new concepts at the time. For many young men and women settling down in post-war America, a casual home life that revolved around leisure time with the...

At our panel discussion last month about fashion, curator Dilys Blum mentioned that she likes to include catwalk videos in fashion exhibitions, since a garment in motion looks totally different from a garment on a mannequin, its folds and forms jumping to life. Fashion photographer Bill Cunningham made a similar observation in Richard Press's new...