The Cooper Hewitt National Design Library Endowment was created in 2006 with the proceeds of a Libraries’ fundraising event. The event featured a preview of the Art and Antique Dealers League of America’s Connoisseur’s Fair at the Gramercy Armory in New York City. The event attendees enjoyed items from the library’s collection of decorative arts materials, ranging from 16th-century architecture manuals to pop-up books from the 1930s. The Libraries’ traveling exhibition, “Picturing Words, was on display throughout the Fair.
The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Library is a branch of the Smithsonian Libraries and contains more than 80,000 volumes, including books, periodicals, catalogs, and trade literature dating from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries.
The collection includes American and European design and decorative arts with concentrations in architecture, graphic design, interior design, ornamental patterns, furniture, wall coverings, textiles, metalwork, glass, ceramics, and jewelry. The library’s special collections include early editions on design process; sample books and works on materials; and resources on material culture.
The endowment supports acquisitions for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Library.
