Special Collections and Archives

Special Collections

The Thomas A. Bradley Rare Book Room
The Bradley Room houses more than 6,500 rare volumes featuring early sample and trade catalogs, illustrated natural histories and travel guides, first editions of design inventories and manuals, as well as major 18th and 19th century works on gardens, furniture, architecture, fountains, textiles, and pattern. Included also in the Bradley Room are rare collections of home management and etiquette manuals, 19th century European and American children’s books, turn-of-the-century French fashion illustrated books and periodicals, and fine bindings.

World's Fair Collection. Over 1,000 volumes extending from the 1844 Beaux-Arts et Industrie Exposition in Paris to the present; rich in material from the London 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition and the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.

Pop-Up Book Collection. Approximately 600 titles include instructional and entertainment books with foldout, pop-up and revolving construction for both children and adults.

Kubler Collection. Contains 60,000 images collected from 19th century European and American books and periodicals.

Archives

The Library maintains more than thirty archive collections housed at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. These resources consist of rare and unique photographs, correspondence, patents, planning reports, clippings, drawings, recordings and videotapes, samples, biographical information, diaries, and other related research material primarily on 20th century American designers and design firms. Included are innovative and renowned designers in the following areas:

• Window display and design marketing:
  
  
  
  • Thérèse Bonney Collection
    
  • Michael Cipriano
    
  • Design Research, Inc.
    
  • Gene Moore
    
  • John Nicholson
  
  
• For graphics, packaging, posters, advertisements, typography and signage, see:
  
  
  
  • Lester Beall
    
  • Commercial Decal
    
  • Donald Deskey
    
  • Henry Dreyfuss
    
  • Dan Friedman
    
  • Hanna Lore Hombordy
    
  • E. McKnight Kauffer
    
  • M & Co.
    
  • William Metzig
    
  • Saul Nesbitt
    
  • Paul Rand
    
  • Ladislav Sutnar
  
  
• For industrial design -lighting & furniture, see:
  
  
  
  • Alfons Bach
    
  • Thérèse Bonney Collection
    
  • E.F. Caldwell Lighting Co.
    
  • Donald Deskey
    
  • Henry Dreyfuss
    
  • George Nathan Horwitt
    
  • Raymond Loewy
    
  • Tommi Parzinger
    
  • Gilbert Rohde
    
  • Ladislav Sutnar
    
  • Don Wallance
    
  • Armand G. Winfield
  
  
• For architecture and interior design:
  
  
  
  • Alfons Bach
    
  • Thérèse Bonney Collection
    
  • Donald Deskey
    
  • Henry Dreyfuss
    
  • Albert Hadley
    
  • Tommi Parzinger
  
  
• Other applied arts –porcelain –textiles –costumes-wallpaper:
  
  
  
  • Thérèse Bonney Collection
    
  • Trude Guermonprez
    
  • Simon Lissim
    
  • Marimekko
    
  • Nanette Scheeline

The Library also oversees the Afro-American Design Archive and the Latino-Hispanic Design Archive. The Afro-American Design Archive contains exhibition catalogs and announcements, photographs, biographies, brochures, clippings, and related research material on more than 100 contemporary Black designers and craftsmen working in the United States. The Latino-Hispanic Design Archive contains more than 150 files on similar material for contemporary Latino and Hispanic designers working in the United States and the Caribbean.

A listing of artists from the Afro-American and the Latino-Hispanic Design Archives can be viewed at the Art & Artists Files in the Smithsonian Libraries' Collections.