In celebration of World Pride, June Object of the Day posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection. This post has been excerpted and adapted from “Celebrating Pride Month with Paper Engineers,” originally published on Unbound, the blog of Smithsonian Libraries. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library includes more than 2,000 pop-up and movable books dating from the sixteenth century to the present day—one of...

During the 1920s and 30s, child-rearing experts pointed out the negative effects of mass recreation, especially movies, to the growth of American children. They argued that as passive spectators, children would likely bring home images of glamour and a sense of the social power of consumer goods after attending movies since what they saw in...

This charming children’s wallpaper illustrating the tale of Alice in Wonderland contains many of the delightful characters we remember from childhood: the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Queen of Hearts, the caterpillar, and of course Alice, both big and small. This was designed by Tony Sarg, artist, illustrator, puppeteer, and balloon designer for...