I recently returned from Cincinnati, where I gave a talk on the early career of Donald Deskey, whose archive is held at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. I was asked to speak by the University of Cincinnati and by Deskey Associates, headquartered in Cincinnati, in conjunction with their joint installation on Donald Deskey’s design career. Among...

As a guest of Jean and Frederic Sharf, I spent this past weekend celebrating the Arnold Scaasi exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museum’s recent acquisition of his archive and more than 100 of his designs. Festivities commenced at the Sharfs’ home in Brookline, with a delectable dinner for nearly 70...

Combining pictures, words and a wealth of personal ephemera, scrapbook makers preserve on the pages of their books a moment, a day, or a lifetime. Join Jessica Helfand, graphic designer, co-editor of Design Observer, and author of Scrapbooks: An American History, and Rebecca Johnson Melvin, manuscripts librarian and curator of Self Works: Diaries, Scrapbooks, and...