Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, United States, rethinks how we look at functional objects. Instead of a standard timeline, this multi-year presentation organizes pieces by the specific design challenges they solve, creating a dialogue between the historical and the contemporary.

The display spans a wide range of disciplines, including furniture, textiles, graphic design, and product design alongside digital and architectural projects. By selecting just 125 works from a total collection of more than 215,000, the exhibition highlights essential shifts in materials, typography, and everyday utility across various centuries.

What makes this presentation distinctive is its accessible approach to a vast institutional archive. By removing the constraints of chronology, the curators allow visitors to see how a digital project might share the same DNA as a centuries-old textile, offering a clearer understanding of the evolution of the design process itself.

A rewarding and approachable stop for visitors seeking a way into a vast collection, focusing on how materials and utility evolve over time.

This is a long-term, multi-year presentation located within the Cooper Hewitt’s permanent home in Manhattan.