about

Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt were two sisters who established the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration in 1897. Granddaughters of famed industrialist Peter Cooper, they used their considerable means and impressive intelligence to amass a collection comprised of centuries of furniture, textiles, drawings, wallcoverings, and more—the basis of the collection now housed at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

This blog series chronicles the lives and work of Sarah and Eleanor, including their collecting pursuits, family travels, recreational activities, and social circle. From treatises on design education to generous gifts of decorative arts from prominent society friends to playful shenanigans at Ringwood Manor (the Hewitt family’s country estate), explore the lives and times of Sarah and Eleanor.

Painting of a young woman in a white dress looking at the viewer and somewhat smiling.
Meet the Hewitts: Part Two
  In last month’s Meet the Hewitts “snippet” you met the Cooper and Hewitt grandparents and Amelia Cooper and Abram Hewitt.  This brief chapter pictures the early years of the Hewitt children. Margery Masinter, Trustee, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and MA ’93, History of Decorative Arts and Design, Parsons the New School for Design Sue Shutte,...
Read Time
6 minutes
Posted By
Margery Masinter
Date
December 4, 2013
very old black and white portraits of elegant looking older white folks.
Meet the Hewitts
Introduction This is the story of the Hewitt sisters, Amelia, Sarah and Eleanor, and their family. You will meet and get to know them all in twelve monthly “snippets.” We think that Sarah and Eleanor, who never married, were remarkable as independent women who not only were pioneers in the field of design education but...
Read Time
5 minutes
Posted By
Margery Masinter
Date
November 5, 2013