Author: Hannah Maureen Holden

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Further Reading on Collective Memory
On the occasion of the exhibition Willi Smith: Street Couture, Cooper Hewitt hosted a virtual discussion on the role of memory in recording and reflecting upon history. Moderated by Eric Darnell Pritchard, author and Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo, the panel featured Steven G. Fullwood, Archivist and Co-founder of the Nomadic...
In profile, Ralph Caplan, a white man with white hair in advanced age wearing a suit, at a podium. Behind him is a red wall.
Remembering Ralph Caplan
Author: Ellen Lupton Ralph Caplan (1925–2020) was a writer and thinker. His 1982 book By Design: Why There Are No Locks on the Bathroom Doors in the Hotel Louis XIV, and Other Object Lessons appeared at a time when few people were addressing the everyday impact of design. His 2005 book Cracking the Whip is...
A handdrawn banner shows the faces of dozens of people of many skintones and gender expressions
A Message to Our Community
We are heartbroken and anguished by recent events. As Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III stated, “Once again, we struggle to make sense of the senseless. Once again, we bear witness to our country’s troubled history of racial violence, from Freddie Gray and Eric Garner to Sandra Bland and Trayvon Martin. Once again, we try...
A painterly wallpaper depicting a regal peacock surrounded by flowers
Discover Smithsonian Open Access with Treasures from the Cooper Hewitt Collection
This year, the Smithsonian Institution launched its Open Access initiative. Smithsonian Open Access invites you to share, remix, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking.  Discover Smithsonian Open Access with these five designs drawn from the Cooper Hewitt collection. What will you create?  PRINT, FAUST IN HIS STUDY, CA. 1652, Rembrandt Harmensz...
A mannequin head wears a face shield with a large orange headband connected to a curved clear piece of plastic that extends from the forehead to below the collar bone. The image is captioned dtm version 3.0 face shield front view.
How National Design Award Winners are Fighting the Pandemic
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, National Design Award winners Design that Matters, threeASFOUR, and Open Style Lab are working to increase access to personal protective equipment for medical workers and face coverings for civilians. This article highlights their distinct strategies. Design that Matters In 2012, Design that Matters (DtM) received a National...
An egg-shaped vessel on which are painted historic figures. In one small painting, a man on horseback with a large black moustache and green shirt throws an arm into the air as another man in horseback appears to reach toward him. In another painting two men in historic garb, including tunics and brimmed hats, look on as another man rolls a barrel.
Hidden Objects
Can you spot 10 egg-shaped objects from the Cooper Hewitt collection hidden in the entrance of Carnegie mansion?  Download and print the puzzle (includes answer sheet) This activity was created by Ann Sunwoo, graphic designer at Cooper Hewitt.
A model whose long dark hair obscures her face lifts above her head a navy blue scarf speckled with an irregular pattern created by raindrops. The sky behind her is gray and stormy.
Q&A with Aliki van der Kruijs, Designer
Aliki van der Kruijs is a Dutch designer who invented “pluviagraphy,” a technique with which she records the falling of raindrops on textiles and porcelain as part of an ongoing project titled Made by Rain. Made by Rain recently entered the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt, following its inclusion in the exhibition Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design...
Portrait of Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, cofounder of Cooper Hewitt, superimposed on a 1999 blue Mac laptop. Behind her is a wallcovering depicting shiny green beetles.
7 Funky Backgrounds for Your Next Virtual Happy Hour
Now that we’ve moved happy hours, birthday parties, and celebrations of all kinds into the digital realm, we’re sharing designs drawn from Cooper Hewitt’s astonishing collection of wallcoverings—among the world’s largest—for you to use as backgrounds on your video conference calls. Think of it as an Immersion Room experience for your home.  These wallcoverings take...
Diptych. Left: installation view of Contemporary Muslim Fashions shows three mannequins. One mannequin wears a brown tunic with red and gold decorations, camoflage scarf, giant hoop earrings, and an orange head wrap. Mannequin in center wears a dark draped jacket and matching headcovering. Right most mannequin wears brilliant red and gold Pakistani wedding dress
Q&A with Saba Ali, Stylist for Contemporary Muslim Fashions
The exhibition Contemporary Muslim Fashions examines the ascendancy of the global modest fashion industry. On view are 80 ensembles, ranging from high-performance sportswear to haute couture, that showcase how emerging and established designers are meeting the needs of stylish Muslim women. For the exhibition, the San Francisco-area image consultant Saba Ali styled the mannequins’ head...