Unveiling Design Across Time: Cooper Hewitt Reimagines the Smithsonian’s National Design Collection

NEW YORK — In an ambitious move that redefines how cultural institutions interact with their holdings, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has officially unveiled its permanent collection galleries with a landmark multi-year presentation entitled Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection. Occupying the sprawling first floor of the museum’s historic Carnegie Mansion, the exhibition brings together 125 carefully curated works that bridge millennia, crossing geography, materials, and culture.

By pulling significant pieces from long-term storage, showcasing recent acquisitions for the first time, and juxtaposing them with canonical touchstones of American and global design history, the museum aims to present a radical proposition: that design is not an elite luxury or a passive backdrop, but an omnipresent civic force in which every human being is an active, expert participant.

Main Facts: The Scope and Scale of Design Across Time

At its core, Design Across Time serves as a vibrant physical manifestation of Cooper Hewitt’s immense institutional repository. Founded in 1897, the national collection has grown to encompass more than 215,000 objects spanning six continents and thirty centuries. This vast domain includes product design, architecture, graphic arts, fashion, textiles, wallcoverings, and cutting-edge digital and interaction design.

The current exhibition curates a tightly edited selection of 125 works, yet its conceptual reach is massive. Rather than organizing objects chronologically—a traditional museum framework that can silo history into distinct, disconnected eras—the exhibition breaks free of time-based barriers. Instead, it is organized into six distinct thematic clusters that mirror the varied approaches utilized by designers during the creative process.

Key highlights within the galleries demonstrate this staggering temporal and geographic breadth:

• Ancient Artistry: An Egyptian lotus-shaped cup crafted from colored faience (ceramic frit) circa 1100 BCE, standing as an enduring testament to early functional elegance.
• Intricate Craftsmanship: A Japanese Noh theater costume from around 1800 made of silk metallic brocade, alongside late 18th-century ink-and-wash chalice designs by Italian architect and draftsman Giuseppe Barberi (1746–1809).
• Modern Transformations: Groundbreaking mid-century works such as Greta von Nessen’s 1951 "Anywhere" lamp—manufactured by Nessen Studios in aluminum, steel, and Bakelite—and the striking 1970 Videosphere Model 3240 portable television by the Victor Company of Japan.
• Contemporary Visions: Recent additions to the collection, including Toots Zynsky’s 2023 Aurifero II vessel fashioned from fused and thermo-formed glass threads, David Jonathan Ross’s 2011–2016 digital typeface Bungee, and Stephen Burks’s 2017 Roping Stool, constructed from rope and textile industry waste.

The physical installation itself is an architectural triumph. Conceived by the design firm JA Projects with graphic design by Pacific, the exhibition departs from conventional gallery layouts. An introductory concentration of objects anchored in the central gallery flows naturally outward, intercepted by two dramatic axis vitrines that cut across the sequence of first-floor rooms. The environment utilizes a rich textural palette of traditional and contemporary materials, heavily accented by a graphic system of timeless object silhouettes that prompt visitors to look closer at form, function, and intent.

Chronology: From Foundation to the Carnegie Mansion Debut

To fully understand the weight of Design Across Time, one must look back at the historical trajectory of both the institution and the exhibition’s development:

• 1897: The museum is founded by the Hewitt sisters—Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah—granddaughters of industrialist Peter Cooper, who established Cooper Union. Their vision was to create a place dedicated to the study and appreciation of decorative arts and design.
• 1931–1960s: Major foundational contributions solidify the collection’s depth, including historical textiles like the c. 1800 Japanese Noh theater costume gifted by Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt, and early archaeological acquisitions like the Egyptian lotus-shaped cup purchased in 1960.
• 1994: Cooper Hewitt relocates its operations into the historic Carnegie Mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, providing a grand, domestic-scaled backdrop for national design treasures.
• 2010s–2024: The museum undergoes major physical transformations and embraces digital and interaction design. Acquisitions expand rapidly into contemporary typography (such as David Jonathan Ross’s Bungee typeface, collected in cooperation with the designer in 2024) and sustainable material innovations.
• Mid-2026: Preparations culminate in the rollout of Design Across Time. Curatorial teams coordinate preservation, conservation, and registrar efforts to bring long-stored masterworks back into the light.
• July – October 2026: The museum launches an extensive public programming schedule alongside the exhibition. This includes the Summer Design Series in July, curator-guided tours in August, September, and October, hands-on family workshops exploring pattern-making and adaptable wall storage, and gallery-sketching sessions.

Supporting Data: Institutional Backbone and Funding

Mounting an exhibition of this magnitude requires deep cross-departmental collaboration and substantial financial backing. Design Across Time was organized by an elite curatorial team featuring Matilda McQuaid, Acting Curatorial Director; Susan Brown, Acting Head of Textiles; Emily Orr, Acting Head of Product Design and Decorative Arts; and Julie Pastor, Curatorial Assistant. Their efforts were supported comprehensively by the museum’s conservation, registrar, exhibitions, and director’s offices.

Financially, the exhibition is backed by major philanthropic gifts. Major support was provided by Jon and Shigemi Iwata, as well as Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer. Additional generous funding came from:

• Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee
• The Lily Auchincloss Foundation
• The Terra Foundation for American Art
• The Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation
• Irene Au and Bradley Horowitz
• Chris and Irma Fralic

Notably, the project also received critical funding from the Smithsonian’s "Our Shared Future: 250" initiative. This nationwide program, driven by private philanthropy, was established to commemorate the United States’ upcoming 250th anniversary while charting a forward-looking vision for the Smithsonian Institution’s impact over the next quarter-millennium.

Official Responses and Curatorial Philosophy

The underlying philosophy guiding Design Across Time is anchored in accessibility and inclusivity. Museum leadership stresses that design is not something imposed upon the public by an exclusive class of creators; rather, it is a shared civic language.

"The exhibition is rooted in the idea that design is everywhere, that it serves a civic purpose, and that from small objects to larger systems, everyone is an expert user and active participant of the built environment," the museum stated in its foundational release.

This ethos extends directly into how visitors experience the physical space. Recognizing that modern museums must cater to diverse audiences, Cooper Hewitt has integrated robust accessibility measures into the exhibition’s framework. Comprehensive image descriptions are available via the exhibition’s accessibility webpage and within in-person Large Print Label booklets. Furthermore, in-gallery digital interactives are fully compatible with screen reader capabilities, ensuring that visitors with visual impairments can independently engage with the narrative.

Visitors looking to deepen their engagement can also leverage technology outside the physical galleries. The museum has integrated a dedicated Bloomberg Connects digital guide, allowing users worldwide to access expert insights into the design process online or via mobile devices.

Implications: Redefining the National Collection for a New Era

The opening of Design Across Time marks a critical pivot point for Cooper Hewitt. By moving away from chronological confinement, the museum demonstrates how historical archives can speak directly to contemporary anxieties and innovations.

Placing ancient artifacts like an 1100 BCE Egyptian cup side-by-side with 21st-century works like Stephen Burks’s industrial-waste Roping Stool or Susannah Churchill Drake’s New Urban Ground climate proposal creates a powerful dialogue. It forces viewers to recognize that human problem-solving, material experimentation, and aesthetic expression are continuous threads stretching across human history.

Furthermore, the multi-year lifespan of the installation—which will feature scheduled rotations of objects—ensures that the exhibition will remain a living, breathing entity rather than a static display. As items cycle in and out of storage, the narrative will continually shift, offering repeat visitors new entry points into the Smithsonian’s 215,000-object treasure trove.

Through Design Across Time, Cooper Hewitt successfully reasserts its mandate: proving that design is the lens through which we understand our past, navigate our present, and construct our collective future.