Your Holiday Gift Guide to New York City Museum Shops, Plus Promo Codes 2014
Find the perfect gift for your favorite foodie, fashion plate, lover of art, or New Yorker in exile from the great gift ideas served up by New York City’s museum shops. (And see our guide to the shops themselves here.)
New York City Museum Shops and Stores Discount or Promo Codes
• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (online-only during renovations): Take advantage of the shop’s holiday discount, 20% off when you use code #HOL14 at checkout.
• The Met Store, 1000 Fifth Ave.: Buy one watch and get a second one for 50% off when you shop the Met Watch Collection. Buy one 2015 calendar and get another one for 25% off. Holiday cards are buy one, get one 50% off. See more special offers here.
• The New Museum Store, 235 Bowery: Thoughtlectuals enjoy 10% off with promo code TG10 (code does not apply to membership/gift card orders and selected limited editions), valid until December 31st, 2014.
For the Bibliophile
1. American Museum of Natural History Shop
Masterworks of scientific illustration are a hidden treasure in the AMNH’s collections. Forty rare ocean images make up Opulent Oceans, the new third volume of the museum’s Natural Histories series. Ready-to-frame prints are included. $50.
2. MoMA Store
Disguised as a hardcover when closed, this battery-powered LED light opens up to provide just the right illumination for a favorite text. Lumio Book Lamp. $190.
What library feels complete without a set of Assyrian Palace Guard Bookends? These cast resin sculptures of “divine guardians” are miniature versions of the famous Met Museum originals. $125.
For the Art Lover
Master timepieces: Met art watches feature iconic motifs on the face and bands. Shown here, Van Gogh Irises Watch. $60.
The bird on this sweet little hand mirror was adapted from the Vase à Oreilles, produced by Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory around 1759 and purchased by Henry Clay Frick. $5.95.
Louise Bourgeois’s 2002 fabric scrapbook Ode à l’oubli inspires the motifs of this collection of four dishwasher-safe porcelain plates. Pictured, Red Dots Plate. $55.
For the New Yorker in Exile
1. Shop at the Museum of the City of New York
New York care package: Zabar’s loads up a tote with black & white cookies, babka, rugelach, bagels, Fox’s U-Bet, and more. Just add the Sunday Times on Saturday night and they’ll be all set. $109.
3. The Tenement Museum Gift Shop
Keep New York in mind with this map-adorned retro zip-topped travel pouch, sized just right for beauty essentials and an iPad Mini. $24.99.
For the Foodie
It’s hard to get more local than this: real Manhattan honey. Produced on the roof of the Whitney, this is the last of the uptown harvest—future jars will taste of the Meatpacking. The lovely label is by artist Kiki Smith. $19.
2. The Store at the Museum of Arts and Design
Meals will be that much more inspired when they’re sliced and diced on these Danish-modern-style cutting boards, crafted from solid wood. Available in walnut in red, orange, or lime-green trim. Small, $42, large $68.
3. The Shop at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Class up your morning joe with this Mansion Mug, marrying Cooper Hewitt’s elaborate 19th century home with a crisp, all-emoticon graphic portrait. $15.
For the Fashion Plate
Your loved ones will look forward to the rain when they have this New Museum umbrella to protect them. The signature mesh “exoskeleton” of the museum’s home provides a stylish pattern for a surface of repurposed bottles. $38.
Brass and sterling work together on these elegant “Imperial Hotel” earrings, by the architecture-inspired jeweler Pico. $100.
Celebrating Grand Central’s centennial, this smart T reflects the night sky as seen on the ceiling of everyone’s favorite terminal. 100% cotton. $22.
For the Little Ones
For Future Engineers
Cultivate the future urban planner in your life with a hand-painted set of Blockitecture. Wooden blocks nest in a variety of combinations, ready to evolve as quickly as New York City. $25.
2. New-York Historical Society Museum & Library Store
Add the latest addition to the New York skyline to someone’s collection. Easy to follow instructions help this laser-etched Metal Marvel One World Trade Center Replica rise considerably quicker than its downtown inspiration. $7.95.
3. American Folk Art Museum Shop
In the rustic spirit of folk art, no two of these Voice Recorders are alike. Little hands can experiment with speed and pitch as they work up half-minute recordings. $54.
For Vintage Kids
There’s no reason a dollhouse can’t reflect impeccable taste. Help a little friend kit out a miniature world of mid-century modern design with the nesting boxes of the MoMA Modern Play House. $19.99.
2. The Shop at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Colorforms went from accidental discovery in a Manhattan apartment to the Toy Hall of Fame. This reissue of the Original Colorforms Set is a throwback classic, complete with 350 vinyl decals. $35.
3. American Folk Art Museum Shop
No bleeps, blurps or video screens needed here. These Classic ABC Blocks provide learning the old-fashioned, tactile way, with 28 cubes made of quality Michigan basswood. $36.
For Aspiring Artists
Little photographers can take extra pride in their shots because they’ll be building this camera themselves. The Bigshot DIY Digital Camera Kit produces a versatile device, with capacity for regular, panoramic or 3D snaps. $125.
Rising art stars can carve out space at the coffee shop and scene-sketch all day long with this art-on-the-go set. The Do Art Travel Easel comes packed with chalkboard, white board, pastels, markers, chalk, colored pencils and a drawing pad. $34.95.
3. American Folk Art Museum Shop
Take inspiration from artist Jenny Holzer’s LED installations with this Free Form Magnatab. The littlest of hands can manipulate the stylus and bead board to let imaginative shapes take form. $24.
For Wee New Yorkers
1. Shop at the Museum of the City of New York
Bring the skyline to life with this 4D New York Cityscape Puzzle, which nestles together 120 NYC building icons. The fourth “D”? That would be time, as the structures span from 1812 to One World Trade. $45.
2. The Store at the Museum of Arts and Design
No New York skyline is complete without water towers. Recycled cardboard in this Brooklyn Water Tower Model Kit comes together quickly to make a worthy miniature of this Gotham icon. $22.95.
3. Children’s Museum of Manhattan Store
Convey a life lesson about the virtues of patience as you wait for this G train to roll on through. It’s part of a set of MTA-licensed wooden subway cars that will have the house ringing with calls of “step in, stand clear.” $11.
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