Drue Heinz Study Center for Drawings and Prints and Henry Luce Study Room for American Art

About

Cooper Hewitt’s Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design department, among the world’s foremost repositories of European and American works on paper, holds over 147,000 drawings and prints dating from the Renaissance to the present. Included are designs for architecture, decorative arts, interiors, ornament, jewelry, textiles, graphic and industrial design, and the fine arts. The department’s collection is a vital resource for study, actively supports original research and scholarship, and fosters greater understanding and appreciation of the integral role of works on paper in the history of design and decorative arts up to the present day.

The Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design department welcomes scholars, students, researchers and members of the public to the Drue Heinz Study Center for Drawings and Prints and the Henry Luce Study Room for American Art by appointment.

Learn More

Learn more about Cooper Hewitt’s Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design collection at collection.cooperhewitt.org

Collection Highlights

Architectural Drawings

Design for proposed additions to an octagonal church. The structures project from the choir of a church, the choir being three sides of an octagon in the plan. The plans of each structure are halves of hexagons. The elevations show sockles, orders of imbedded Doric columns containing niches and being triangular pediments, balustrades from which obelisks rise in the lateral structure, upon which statues stand, in the center. Segments of lanterns and domes form the top parts, the central one being much higher and more elaborate than the lateral ones.

Drawing, Proposed Additions to an Octagonal Church, 1573; Designed by Bernardino Sozi di Vincenzo (Italian, 1573 – 1603); Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund, 1938-88-2648

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Poster featuring the slogan Women Free Angela. Twelve triangles printed in black, red, and green each contain one of three words in a contrasting color:

Poster, Women Free Angela, 1971; Designed by Faith Ringgold (American, born 1930); Museum purchase through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, and from the General Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2022-20-4

Designs for Ornament

Vertical rectangle completely filled with swirling arabesques and acanthus leaves. Tangled at center is a nude.

Print, Plate 3, from Diverses pièces de serruriers (Various Designs for Locksmiths), 1662; Designed by Hugues Brisville (French, active ca. 1663); Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council, 1921-6-261-3

ILLUSTRATION

Drawing, The hacksaw has two blades (from Love by Assata Shakur), 2020; Oasa DuVerney (American, born 1979); Brush and sumi ink, watercolor, and gold leaf on paper; Museum purchase through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Women’s History Initiative, 2022-22-2

American Art

A low wooded promontory protrudes toward the right in the left middle distance. Boulders are shown in the right foreground. Hilly coast in rear. A dark reddened cloud bank stretches across the sky, the ocean below.

Drawing, Schoodic Peninsula from Mount Desert at Sunrise, 1850–55; Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900); Gift of Louis P. Church, 1917-4-332

Industrial Design

A depiction of a portable television set in lower half of sheet on blue-gray ground. Television has upright rectangular shape with a with white metal or plastic body with blue base, feet, and top. Two large conically shaped gold dials, one above the other on narrow upper right side. A pop-up screen, encased in blue metal or plastic, shows woman's face. Screen is surmounted by a streamlined handle from which projects a chrome antenae with three cross bars of graduated length from top to bottom. Light reflects off the antenae on the vertical stem and on the lowest of the three cross bars producing white star-like highlights.

Drawing, Design for Visionette Portable Television, 1947; Designed by Richard Arbib (American, 1917–1995); Museum purchase through the gift of Mrs. Edward C. Post; 1992-183-7

TRANSPORTATION Design

On white ground, a narrow, single-seated silver concept car, on four wheels, with futuristic pointed bumper reminiscent of a bullet, the wheels with protruding circular hubcaps, the cabin wrapped in yellow-toned glass, lines extending from the body of the car indicating speed and movement, the tires turned sharply to the right. Seated inside, the figure of a light-haired man wearing a green-glass eye-shield. At bottom, erased graphite elevation sketch of a similar missile-shaped automobile.

Drawing, Concept Car with Pointed Bullet Front, 1958; Designed by Carl Renner (American, b. Germany, 1923 – 2001); Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2017-18-2

TEXTILE Design

Design for the central portion of the scarf: design of yellow ground layered with blue curved lines and green splotches bordered with peach color; spotted peach, black, yellow, and blue exotic bird with wings open.

Drawing, Design for a Central Portion of a Scarf, ca. 1985; Designed by Natalie Du Pasquier (French, active Milan, b. 1957); Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment, 1986-10-2

CONTACT

Email: CooperHewittStudyCenters@si.edu

HOURS

Visits available by appointment on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. or 2:30 p.m.–4 p.m.

Please reach out by email to schedule an appointment.

LOCATION

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

2 East 91st Street, New York, NY 10128