Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Office of the Director.

The first Directors of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum for the Arts of Decoration, as it was originally known, were Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, Sarah Cooper-Hewitt, and Amy Hewitt Green, granddaughters of Peter Cooper. On Sarah Cooper-Hewitt's death in 1930, control passed to a Board of Directors chaired by Constance P. Hare. In 1938 Edwin S. Burdell, Director of the Cooper Union, took over direction of the Museum. This arrangement seems to have lasted for some time. Calvin S. Hathaway was appointed Director in 1951 and served until 1963. He was succeeded by Acting Administrator, H. Christian Rohlfing, 1963-1968. Richard P. Wunder was Director, 1968-1969, followed by Lisa Taylor, 1969-1987, Dianne H. Pilgrim, 1988-2000, and Paul Warwick Thompson, 2000- .

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Agency History. Record 221220