Art and Design

To commemorate the opening of our newest exhibit, Artists’ Books and Africa, six artists will discuss how they develop and produce artist books. Panelists will address the inspiration for and recurring themes within their creations. The history of artist books in Africa will also be discussed. Curator Janet Stanley will lead a tour of the exhibit immediately following the discussion.

This post was written by

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting a book written and illustrated by female artists, The Ultimate Safari. The book is currently featured in our exhibition, Artists’ Books and Africa, which is open until September 2016 and is located in the

The Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery (AA/PG) Library is pleased to present an exhibition of some of its recently acquired artists’ books in th

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library has nearly 2,000 movable and pop-up books, that are made with a variety of paper construction types and mechanisms that control the movement of the action on the pages. One type of movable book form is a carousel book. A carousel looks like an ordinary flat two dimensional book, but when opened, it unfolds into a 360 degree circle when stood upright.

Imagine a beautiful seaside town view, of foaming waves crashing against the coast as the sun shines brightly and sailboats can be seen far in the distance. Heat shines down from a bright sun as you walk and come upon a large hedge leading to a large cast-iron gate. A bright gleaming marble structure blinds as a grandiose mansion comes into view. Not a dream but a visit back in time while walking the Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island.

This week (April 4-10, 2021) is  National Library Week  and Tuesday is set aside to celebrate National Library Workers Day. It’s a wonderful opportunity to highlight the important contributions made by all library staff.  In honor of National Library Workers Day, we caught up with a few staff members to hear what they’ve been working on over the past year.

Ready to fall into another round of digital jigsaw puzzles? We’ve put together, or rather, taken apart five new puzzles based on images in our collections.

Did you know you can honor friends and family, enable important research, and skip the mall this holiday season? Adopting an item from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is a unique way to celebrate your loved ones while providing essential funding to support our work. Whether your gift funds the preservation of volumes from hundreds of years ago, the purchase of new titles for our collection, or increased accessibility to items on our shelves, your adoption enables all that we do.

History is full of narratives and those narratives have a history.

This post was written by Katie Wagner, Senior Book Conservator, David Holbert, Digital Imaging Specialist, and Jacqueline E. Chapman, Head, Digital Library and Digitization. Learn more about the diaries of the Hewitt Sisters in a previous post by Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi.

This is the fourth part of a series sharing Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ work with linked open data and Wikidata. For background and overview of current projects, see the first several posts in the series. This post was written in collaboration with Nilda Lopez, Reference Librarian at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library, and a valued team member of the Artist Files Wikidata Pilot Project.

Curious what might life have really been like for two wealthy, unattached New York City sisters at the turn of the 20^th century? Fictional sisters Ada and Agnes from HBO’s new series, The Gilded Age, could have been inspired in part by real sisters, Sarah (1859-1930) and Eleanor (1864-1924) Hewitt. Also known as “Sallie” and “Nellie”, without them the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and its library, would not exist.

In preparation for a Chinese Object Study Workshop hosted by the National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) in late August, I selected a sutra in the Freer and Sackler Library to illustrate the evolution in printing of Chinese books.  The rolled sutra is Baoqieyin Dharani sutra (宝箧印陀罗尼经) and was printed in 975 CE, likely making it the oldest printed item in our library collections.

We’re celebrating new publications, exciting exhibitions, and the festive holiday season with another round of digital jigsaw puzzles. This collection of images highlights a few winter favorites as well as recent Smithsonian Libraries and Archives projects.

Play them right here on our blog or use the links to play full screen. Each puzzle is set to be 100 pieces but they are customizable to any skill set. Click the grid icon in the center to adjust the number of pieces.

Oliver Byrne, in the introduction to his The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid of 1847, states that “the Elements of Euclid can be acquired in less than one third the time usually employed, and the

Although our 21 physical branches remain closed during the COVID-19 outbreak, we’re still excited to celebrate National Library Week with our users near and far. While staff and researchers are certainly missing physical book collections, thousands of titles are available online thanks to the work of our Digital Library and Digitization Department.

Need a fun mental break? We’ve created six digital jigsaw puzzles through Jigsaw Explorer that feature a few favorite images from our collection. Play them right here on our blog or use the links to expand an individual puzzle. Each puzzle is set to contain about 100 pieces, but they are customizable for any skill set. Hit the question mark icon on a puzzle for more information. We’ve tested these with staff (and kid volunteers!) and hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

During this hectic time, it’s always great to be able to learn new and exciting things. From a recent social media discussion, I found out about an especially inspiring  endeavor from our Smithsonian Family.  For those not aware,