Last month in Cooper Hewitt Short Stories, Dr. Gail Davidson wrote about how American drawings by Winslow Homer, Frederic Church, and Thomas Moran entered the museum’s collection. February’s Short Story twitters romance! A passionate collector pursued beautiful homes for birds. Enamored, Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt bought his birdcages for their museum. Chirp! #HewittSisters Margery Masinter,...
“Can you help us in identifying where our birds were made?”[1] This inquiry is one of numerous others regarding two fowl from a 1968 letter from Catherine Lynn Frangiamore, then an assistant in the Department of Decorative Arts (now Product Design and Decorative Arts) at Cooper Hewitt, to Lino Sandonnini, then director of the Museo...
Two years ago, we launched a series of monthly blogs titled “Meet the Hewitts” in order to provide a social history of the Cooper Union Museum and its founders—sisters Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt—from 1859 to Sarah Hewitt’s death in 1930. We are supplementing that history with “Cooper Hewitt Short Stories,” brief observations about the Hewitt...
Two years ago, we launched a series of monthly blogs titled “Meet the Hewitts” in order to provide a social history of the Cooper Union Museum and its founders—sisters Sarah and Eleanor Hewitt—from 1859 to Sarah Hewitt’s death in 1930. We are supplementing that history with “Cooper Hewitt Short Stories,” brief observations about prominent figures...
In Meet the Hewitts Part 14, the amusing artistry found in the Ringwood Guest Books was highlighted by Matthew Kennedy. Shopping is never out of season! This snippet looks at a wonderful new shop in the early twentieth century filled with artistic gifts and decor for the home. Created by the Cooper Union Museum for...
While this drawing is the sole example in the Cooper Hewitt’s collection of Giovanni Piancastelli’s work as an artist, his impact on the museum as a collector is astronomically greater: over 12,200 of Cooper Hewitt’s drawings and prints came directly or indirectly from his personal collection. Born in a town near Ravenna, Italy in 1845,...
Meet the Hewitts: Part 13 traveled abroad with Sarah and Eleanor. This month, we travel back to their country estate of Ringwood Manor to take another look at the residence’s guest books. In Meet the Hewitts: Part Five and Part Eight, Margery Masinter and Sue Shutte wonderfully describe the events and country life of Ringwood Manor,...
Meet the Hewitts: Part 12 sent you digging in the Ringwood gardens. This snippet follows Sarah and Eleanor through their lifetime of travel. Margery Masinter, Trustee, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Sue Shutte, Historian at Ringwood Manor THE SISTERS’ TRAVELS Sarah and Eleanor accompanied their parents—Abram and Sarah Amelia—on yearly voyages to Europe throughout their...
Meet the Hewitts: Part Eleven revealed new discoveries that recently surfaced to enrich our story about the Hewitts. We think June is a perfect time to return to the Hewitt summer estate, Ringwood Manor, to discuss various architects and designers who influenced the gardens and landscape surrounding the property. Sue Shutte, Historian at Ringwood Manor...
