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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

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

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