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Image features laptop computer in a low, black rectangular housing, hinged at top center to open, clamshell-style, revealing a screen and keyboard. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Milestone of Early Laptop Computer Development
The GRiD Compass laptop was an innovation due to its clamshell case. A media conservator discusses how to assess and maintain the digital elements within.
Image features brown metal unit housing electric motor, having on/off switch at top, circular projection at front with black cord below; pen-like metal "wand" holding cylindrical pink rubber eraser at end. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Presto! Erased in Seconds
The Illinois-based office supplies manufacturer Metal Specialties Manufacturing Company first released a line of “Presto” products in 1939. Originally the line only included pocket and desk-sized staplers, but the firm would eventually create a wider range of products such as this electric eraser. This relatively simple and nondescript device allowed the user to store the...
Spindle with a slender wooden shaft tapered to ends; both ends broken. Black ceramic disk whorl in center with geometric design incised and painted in red and white. Traces of black, white and red painted rings on center of shaft.
Stick and Stone
Author: Gabe Duggan In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination...
Rectangular sheet composed of multiple layers of mulberry paper. A design of clumps of juniper branches and leaves with scattered berries of varying sizes is created by cutting away most of the ground leaving the positive of the design. The interstices of the design are supported by strands of human hair.
Between Plants and People
Author: Hillary Waters Fayle In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and...
Getting a Grip on User-Inspired Design
In celebration of the museum’s inaugural Cooper Hewitt Lab: Design Access taking place in the Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery through February 15, we are highlighting innovative accessible design from the permanent collection. Peeling potatoes is tedious enough without having to do battle with ill-designed kitchen gadgets. Why hadn’t these objects evolved to accommodate...
Designed for Generations of Use
Feeling nostalgic at the beginning of the New Year, well just the sight of this pencil sharpener will bring back memories of school days past, that curiosity and slight fear you felt the first time you put your pencil through the opening into the sharpener. What about the first time you emptied one and found...
Blue-purple toned long cylindrical shaft, with knurled grip section, topped by narrow tulip-shaped head with clear lens. Removeable circular cap at end unscrews to reveal battery housing; spare bulb stored in cap.
Mini-Maglite
Although now familiar tools used during power outages and camping trips, personal flashlights were revolutionary in the early twentieth century. The invention of the dry cell battery in 1896 enabled the first non-combustible lighting devices, allowing for safer handheld options than kerosene and oil lamps, candles, and torches, or other instruments previously powered by liquid...
July 24: Design in D.C.
Plans are taking shape for the July 24th public programs in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 10th annual National Design Awards. These events will take place from 10 to 11 a.m. at museums around the Mall. First Lady Michelle Obama will host the White House ceremony for the winners and finalists later in the day. Each...
National Design Triennial
Cooper-Hewitt invites you to submit ideas for our fourth Triennial exhibition, opening in 2010. We are looking for designers, firms, and projects from around the world that answer the question “Why design now?” Why is design an essential tool for solving some of today’s most urgent problems? What draws creative thinkers, makers, and problem solvers...