Korting Rare books – Dyk, Stephen H. Van

The museum’s library and archive, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries contains 55,000 volumes, including 5,000 rare books pertaining to ornament, architecture and decorative arts. In Rare Books, Stephen Van Dyk examines how illustrated decorative arts and design books have served variously as inspiration to designers, tools to document design, a means of instruction, and as works of art in themselves.