Women’s History Month

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Image of an interior, with a full-length figure of a nude woman in the foreground, seen from the back. Figure's arms are raised. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
An Intaglio Interior
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Judith (Judy) Seigel (1930-2017) received a certificate in Art from Cooper Union in 1954 and received a MFA degree in Photography from the Pratt Institute in 1980.  Based in New York City, Seigel was as an illustrator...
Image shows a bandbox bottom, with lid removed, covered in wallpaper with printed scene of a woman driving a chariot pulled by a single horse. Scene is enframed in a foliate scroll medallion. Please scroll down for a further description of this image.
Building a Better Box
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Blogging today about an early women designer and craftsperson, Hannah Davis. Hannah is known for creating some of the most finely constructed bandboxes in the business. She entered the field in 1818 at the age of 34....
Woven in off-white with the dyed image of a face in grey/pink. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Warp Face
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Trude Guermonprez began experimenting with what she called “textile graphics” around 1970; she described this evolution in her work as moving toward: “More [of] an awareness of our ties with the universe…I sense a quieting of passions...
Cast bronze side chair composed of flat disk seat on four straight cylindrical legs; back composed of cast bronze painter’s palette decorated with spirals; "crest rail" consisting of a horizontal rod, a headless figure below the rod, to left of palette, and six different sized heads sitting on the rod; three cast bronze heads situated between the seat and back, supporting the back, with a fourth head to the right. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
The Artist’s Chair
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. The Oka chair, by Michele Oka Doner, is both a utilitarian furnishing and a highly detailed sculptural piece. The chair’s seat is a flat textured disk which rests on straight, unadorned legs. The back, where all the...
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), Entomologist and Botanical Illustrator
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647-1717) was a remarkable naturalist, famous for her expertise in entomology and the art and details of her scientific illustrations.  From a young age, Merian was taught how to draw and enthusiastically explored...
This image features an Axonometric view of living room/bedroom with studio bed and built-in cabinet in upper corner; a square table with retractable shelves and two arm chairs on either side of table; horizontal strip lighting hangs high on wall above cabinet and bed; and glass shelves for plants hang right of the bed; black and white rectangular carpet/linoleum beneath table and chairs. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Room of One’s Own
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Today’s blog post was written by Caitlin Condell and originally published September 30, 2015. German-born Margarethe (Grete) Fröhlich was a young artist when she moved to Frankfurt, Germany in 1929.  In the early 1920s Frankfurt had experienced a...
Image is a wallpaper with a non-directional pattern of stars, shooting stars, crescent moons and the planet Saturn, printed in navy blue and white on a light blue ground. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Looking At a Star
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Long before the space race and the potential of space travel, humans have always been fascinated with the stars as tools for better understanding our world and our place in it. Naturally, artists and designers also take...
Poster depicts exterior (possibly a walled garden) with trees; "Midday," a yellow painted steel sculpture by Anthony Caro from 1960 on the left; on the right, a woman dressed in black holding a bag, she has a purple square on her body and a semi-circle covers her head (like an umbrella). Text in black, at center: Speak your own language / The Womens Graphic Center offers / two workshops with Frances Butler. / Sequential Design: The story in / folded turned or spaced pages. / Sundays, March 16 & 23, 1980 / 9-12 & 1-3 Fee: $30.00 / Experimental Color Printing. / Letterpress, collotype & stencil. / March 17-21, 9-12, 1-3. Fee: $60. / Women’s Graphic Center / at the Woman’s Building / 1727 N. Spring Street / Los Angeles, / CA 90012.
Speak your own Language
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. “Images and words that reflect the authentic and varied life experiences of women are seldom valued or visible in public, printed communications, undermining our connection to the dominant culture. Lacking the graphic skills valued by that culture...
Oversized poster for AIGA calling for entries for contest. Poster folds into 16 sections. Computerized photo reproduction of whirlpool (in black and white) and fish (in color) in middle. Imprinted below fish: "Communication Graphics 1993" (in black). Red, yellow and black dots assembled to form human figure at left center with head overlapping image of whirlpool. Square cut out in center of head with digital image of brain. Five other digital images of brain in various perspectives superimposed over figure with accompanying labels. Flow chart at left center: "brain/ reading/ unity/ language/ reasoning/ and/ mathematics" (in black). Imprinted, near top center, in text boxes: "neomammalian/ 200 million years old/ cerebral cortex:/ problem-solving, memorizing, creating/ paleomammalian/ 300 million years old/ limbic:/ emotional feelings guiding behavior/ reptilian/ 500 million years old/ self-preservation, hunting, homing, mating, establishing territory,/ and fighting". Photo reproduction (in black and white) of man and inversed image of same photo above. Two images connected by X's (in green and red lines). Along right edge: "AIGA/ Commun-/ication/ Graphics/ 1993" (in yellow), interspersed with names of various designers (in vertical orientation).
Mind and Body
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Cooper Hewitt is dedicating select Object of the Day entries to the work of women designers in our collection. “I believe that all designers come to a task with a unique way of ordering that is particular to their past experiences, and perhaps even their genetic structure,” says maverick...