HIST 7633 - Decorative Arts: Find Museum & Digital Collections

Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design, and is the steward of one of the most diverse and comprehensive design collections in existence—more than 215,000 design objects spanning 30 centuries. From ancient textiles and works on paper to icons of modern design and cutting-edge technologies.

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles.

The collections of the Arts Décoratifs (museums and library) are among the largest in France, with more than one million of pieces from the various fields of decorative and applied arts. Many new donations, purchases and bequests are added to the collections each year.

Consisting of more than 2,000 objects related to the American Arts and Crafts movement, the collection represents the full range of decorative and fine arts produced by individual artists, craftsmen, and companies of the period c.1890-1930.

Renowned for its masterpieces of painting and sculpture, the National Gallery of Art also possesses exceptional examples of decorative art.

Spanning five centuries, the V&A Museum's collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of dress and design in the world.

This rare object has a richer description than most, but good example of what is possible from Museum Digital Collections

Winterthur Museum is filled with historic and decorative objects collected and arranged according to the aesthetic principles of its visionary, Henry Francis du Pont. A passionate collector throughout his life, he transformed his family home into a showplace for objects made and used for centuries, then opened it as a museum to share America’s diverse stories with the public. The collection of more than 90,000 objects includes items ranging from the streamlined, functional furniture produced by the Shakers to opulent masterworks of 18th-century craftsmanship.