Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Nestled in the Museum mile of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum is part of Smithsonian Institution. It is the only museum of the country representing contemporary and historical design sourced through nearly 240 years of creativity and design aesthetic.

Founded in 1896, the museum collection has more than 210000 objects ranging from the ancient Egyptian textiles and ceramics to digital code and 3D printed contemporary objects. The highlights of this design museum are lace collection, objects from the Fontainebleau Palace, two fountains donated by Gorge Heam, matchbooks, Soviet Union porcelain and paper designed by Tibor Kalman. Besides, you can explore a plethora of sculpture, architecture, painted architecture, woodwork, decorative arts, costume, pottery, metalwork and musical instruments. The largest paperwork collection in the world by Frederic Church, a painter of Hudson River School is displayed here. One of the first steel chairs created by Peter Cooper and the chair used during the visit to Cooper Union by Abraham Lincoln are also notable.