Object of the Day
Discover a different object from the Museum’s collection every day of the week!
Museum curators, conservators, and educators, as well as design enthusiasts like our teen Design Scholars, docents, and Master’s students, are sharing their favorite objects from Cooper-Hewitt’s incredible collection.
Many of these objects will be featured in the expanded collection galleries when Cooper-Hewitt reopens in 2014. Until then, “Object of the Day” is your uniquely-curated corner of the Museum!
Roche MailPosted by Stephen H. Van Dyk, on Sunday March 03, 2013Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), a painter of flora and fauna, was one of the first naturalists to have observed insects directly from nature. She was a pioneer in the study of how caterpillars become butterflies and moths, which was still a mystery at the time. Her large folio volume http://archive.org/details/Metamorphosisin00Meri depicting on its first plate Cockroaches on a Flowering Pineapple (above), was considered the most outstanding work on insects of its day. botanical illustration, insects, U.S. postal stamps, Maria Sibylla Merian |
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Pulsating LifePosted by Alison Charny, on Saturday March 02, 2013Gunta (Aldegunde) Stölzl is known for her weaving and teaching at the Bauhaus. Her compelling textile designs, which play on line and color, appeal as independent artworks in themselves. Gunta (Aldegunde) Stölzl, Bauhaus, textile design, drawing, watercolor, World War I, Germany, Color |
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Amusing and Decorative WallpaperPosted by Gregory Herringshaw, on Friday March 01, 2013While Steinberg trained as an architect he is best known for his satirical cartoons in The New Yorker. He began drawing shortly after enrolling in college and had his first cartoon published in The New Yorker in 1941, and even after joining the US Navy in 1943 he continued sending in cartoons from his various stations across Europe. Over the span of his career he was given 85 covers and had 642 illustrations published in The New Yorker. Steinberg, horses, wallpaper, circus, military, uniform |
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Cushy CardboardPosted by Cynthia Trope, on Thursday February 28, 2013Frank O. Gehry, chaise longue, New City Editions, cardboard, Architect-designed furniture |
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Looking into the FuturePosted by Gregory Herringshaw, on Wednesday February 27, 2013I have always been fascinated by these wallpapers with flying space ships and astronaut papers designed for boys in the 1950s. With their scenes of lunar landings and astronauts charting their progress, they really were looking to the future. Printed in 1954 this paper pre-dates Sputnik, the Soviet Union’s successful launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957, and the first walk on the moon by Neil Armstrong in 1969. This is one of many wallpapers featuring space ships and astronauts designed for boys in the 1950s. wallpaper, outer space, astronaut, moon, lunar |
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Sea of MysteryPosted by Alison Charny, on Tuesday February 26, 2013This design for a stained glass window of a mermaid beneath the sea was commissioned by Associated Artists (the decorating firm of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler, with (at times) Samuel Colman and Lockwood de Forest) for the Manhattan home of Wells Fargo President Ashbel H. Elihu Vedder, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler, Samuel Colman, Lockwood de Forest, Associated Artists, New York, stained glass, drawing |
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The Wikipedians are coming and we've opened the doorsPosted by Micah Walter, on Monday February 25, 2013One of the main goals with our new collections website has been to create connections between the Cooper-Hewitt collection and the rest of the world that already exist out on the Internet. Wikipedia is a key part of that world, and Wikipedia is becoming more 'museum-friendly' every day. |
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A Busman’s HolidayPosted by Gail S. Davidson, on Sunday February 24, 2013Winslow Homer and his brother Charles Savage Homer Jr. Winslow Homer, Charles Savage Homer Jr., Quebec, Canada, fishing, Lake St. George, watercolor |
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Noah's ArkPosted by Alison Charny, on Saturday February 23, 2013In this ornate design made of cut paper, contemporary artist Ernst Oppliger depicts three pairs of couples in windows at the top of a towering structure, while the windows below contain silhouettes of many exotic animals, including elephants, giraffes, and ostriches. Ernst Oppliger, cut paper, silhouette, Switzerland, religious subjects, animals |
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Nothing's FlockingPosted by Joanna Burgess, on Friday February 22, 2013Christina Malman was born in Southhampton, England in 1912. When she was two year’s old she moved to New York City, where she lived and worked for the rest of her life. Christina began her career as a cover artist for the “New Yorker” magazine in the mid 1930’s. Over the course of twenty years, she designed numerous covers, 34 of which were actually published by the New Yorker. She also drew more than 500 "spot" illustrations, many of which were used in the “Goings on About Town” section of the magazine. New Yorker, magazine cover, Audobon, bird watching, satire |
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