In the rear of a large atelier of the French Academy in Rome, three students (called pensionnaires) are at work. One, by the window, labors over a drawing; a second stands near a bas-relief, and a third, seated, bends over a work in progress. The remainder of the space is filled with studio equipment: canvases,...

When the collector and art dealer Eugene Thaw asked Cooper Hewitt if we would be interested in the collection of eighteenth- to twentieth-century staircase models that he had assembled, he was displaying the generosity of spirit and desire to share his collections that informed much of Gene and his wife Clare’s philanthropy. He knew that...

As documents of domestic life, the watercolors featured in House Proud celebrate nineteenth-century interiors and the designers that conceived of them. Cooper-Hewitt invites contemporary designers Hermes Mallea, Carey Maloney, Mitchell Owen, and Thomas Jayne to join exhibition curator Gail Davidson for a roundtable discussion on residential interior design, historic restorations, design promotion, and the role...