Smithsonian Institution Archives

Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution

Record Unit 267
Cooper-Hewitt Museum,
Records,
1881, 1895-1976

By Richard V. Szary

Introduction

Historical Note

Descriptive Entry

Series Descriptions

  Series 1. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1881, 1897, 1907-1973.

  Series 2. MUSEUM FILE, CIRCA 1895-1971.

  Series 3. CENTRAL MUSEUM FILES, 1968-1976, WITH MATERIALS FROM 1915.

  Series 4. SMITHSONIAN FILE, 1968-1972, WITH RECORDS FROM 1951.

  Series 5. STAFF CORRESPONDENCE, 1971-1975.

  Series 6. ANNUAL REPORTS, FY1916-FY1968.

  Series 7. PERSONNEL RECORDS, CIRCA 1933-1971.

  Series 8. FUND-RAISING, CIRCA 1963-1973.

  Series 9. COOPER UNION CENTENNIAL, 1957-1960.


INTRODUCTION

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.


HISTORICAL NOTE

The Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design was established in 1896 as the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Its parent organization, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, was founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper as a free school for the working classes of New York City. In his original plans for Cooper Union, Peter Cooper made provisions for a museum, but these plans were not immediately carried out.

In 1895, Peter Cooper's granddaughters, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, and Amy Hewitt Green, asked the trustees of the Cooper Union for room in which to install a Museum for Arts of Decoration, modeled after the Musee des Arts Decoratifs of Paris. The purpose of the museum was to provide the art students of Cooper Union, students of design, and working designers with study collections of the decorative arts. The trustees assigned the fourth floor of the Cooper Union's Foundation Building to the sisters, and the Museum was opened to the public in 1897.

Until the death of Sarah Cooper Hewitt, the management of the Museum was essentially in the hands of the Hewitt sisters as directors. Following Sarah's death in 1930, the trustees of the Cooper Union appointed a board of four directors, with Constance P. Hare as chairman, to administer the Museum. When Edwin S. Burdell became director of the Cooper Union in 1938, the Museum was made part of his administrative responsibility, the Board of Directors was abolished, and an Advisory Council on the Museum, responsible for matters relating to the Museum's collections, was set up. Curators and custodians of the Museum included Mary A. Peoli, 1898-1904; Mary S. M. Gibson, 1904-1945; and Calvin S. Hathaway, 1946-1963 (curator, 1946-1951, and director, 1951-1963).

In 1963, the Cooper Union began consideration of plans to discontinue the Museum because of the financial demands of the other divisions of the Union and the absence of a close relationship between the programs of the Museum and the Art School. The announcement of the plans led to a considerable public outcry, and a Committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum, headed by Henry F. duPont, was established. Negotiations among the Committee, the Cooper Union, and the Smithsonian Institution led to the Museum's transfer to the Smithsonian on July 1, 1968. The Museum was renamed the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design and in 1969 acquired its present name. In 1970, the Museum moved into its present home, the Carnegie Mansion, which was renovated and reopened to the public in 1976. Heads of the Museum since 1963 have been H. Christian Rohlfing, acting administrator, 1963-1968; Richard P. Wunder, director 1968-1969; and Lisa Taylor, director, 1969- .


DESCRIPTIVE ENTRY

These records document the administration of the Museum from its establishment until its reopening in 1976 in the Carnegie Mansion. Although there is some material concerning the activities of Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Sarah Cooper Hewitt, the majority of the records deal with the management of the Museum following Sarah Cooper Hewitt's death in 1930. Records of Mary S. M. Gibson, curator, 1904-1945; Calvin S. Hathaway, curator, 1946-1951, and director, 1951-1963; H. Christian Rohlfing, acting administrator, 1963-1968; Richard P. Wunder, director, 1968-1969; and Lisa Taylor, director, 1969- , are included.

The records include correspondence, memoranda, reports, publications, notes, photographs, and forms concerning the administrative operation of the Museum, including financial, personnel, buildings and equipment, and fund-raising activities; the acquisition, care, and use of the Museum's collections; exhibits, programs, and activities sponsored by the Museum; research activities of the staff and outside researchers; and Museum publications. Correspondents include staff of the parent organizations, the Cooper Union and the Smithsonian Institution; museums; art historians; donors; contributors; and the general public. A small amount of material documents the activities and history of the Cooper and Hewitt families, and of the Cooper Union.


SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES 1.
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1881, 1897, 1907-1973.

This series includes incoming and outgoing correspondence with the museums, donors, contributors, art historians, organizations, periodicals, universities, Cooper Union, the general public, and others concerning the Museum's collections, activities, policies and procedures, loans for exhibition, research, gifts to the Museum, publications, and visits to the Museum. Museum staff represented in this series include Mary S. M. Gibson, Calvin S. Hathaway, Rudolf Berliner, E. Maurice Bloch, Christian Rohlfing, Elizabeth Haynes, Edward L. Kallop, Milton Sonday, Janet Thorpe, Richard P. Wunder, and Alice Baldwin Beer. Also included is correspondence of Directors and Advisory Council members, Susan Dwight Bliss, Elizabeth C. Booker (Mrs. Statford McClean), Marian Hague, Constance P. Hare, Henry Oothout Milliken, Eleanor Sachs, and Edith Wetmore, as well as scattered correspondence of Eleanor G. and Sarah C. Hewitt.

The majority of the files concern Museum activities up to 1968.

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Cooper Union

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Exhibitions.

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Museums Council of New York City.

National Home Fashions League.

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SERIES 2.
MUSEUM FILE, CIRCA 1895-1971.

This series contains memoranda, lists, statistics, reports, clippings, notes, photographs, and correspondence mainly concerning the administrative operations of the Museum. Topics covered include fund-raising, budgets, equipment, supplies, space, staff, procedures, attendance, policies, the library, and public relations. Most of the materials are internal documents of the Museum and Cooper Union.

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SERIES 3.
CENTRAL MUSEUM FILES, 1968-1976, WITH MATERIALS FROM 1915.

This series contains memoranda, correspondence, proposals, reports, notes, contracts, and lists concerning operation of the Museum, mainly under the Smithsonian, museum activities, renovation of the Carnegie Mansion, fund-raising, financial operations, exhibitions, and the history of the Museum.

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