To document the anniversary of September 11 and the Museum's role both in remembering tragedy and fostering peace and understanding across cultures, oral historian Liza Zapol created a multimedia piece involving interviews with visitors, a Museum lecturer, Faith Ringgold, and two of the student artists who helped create The 9/11 Peace Story Quilt, a three-panel quilt on display.

In this interview, author and curator Amelia Peck discusses the history of quilting in Gee's Bend, Alabama, and how these works of art have historically been misunderstood.

Since 1910, when the Museum's first American bed covering was acquired, curators in the American Wing have gradually amassed an admirable collection. Except for a few justly famous pieces, however, it is largely unknown. The textile collections of many museums remain under-explored for several reasons. Traditionally, art museums have not emphasized the utilitarian, primarily homemade, and often anonymous items in their collections such as quilts. Additionally, bed coverings are difficult to exhibit because of their large size. Most importantly, because the cotton and silk textiles that make up many of these works are exceedingly fragile, a museum must take its job as cultural caretaker particularly seriously; by rarely displaying our bed covers, we are prolonging their lives. Over the years an increasing number of collectors, quiltmakers, coverlet weavers, scholars, and textile enthusiasts have asked to see our quilts and coverlets. The Museum staff is not able to accommodate requests to see the entire collection of 119 bed coverings. Only by prearrangement can we show a small number of them to an occasional viewer or allow visitors to make use of the catalogued information kept for study purposes. This book provides greater access to the Museum's outstanding collection and enables all who are interested to discover the beauty and historical significance of our American quilts and coverlets.

Curator Tim Husband weighs in on suit symbols and hierarchies in early European playing cards.

Hawai'i-based poet Laurel Nakanishi explores the history of the native ‘ohi‘a lehua plant and extinct mamo bird in an original poem inspired by a traditional Hawaiian quilt.

The Old Kingdom (about 2650–2150 B.C.E.) was the first golden age of Egyptian culture, a period that determined the form and character of Egyptian art for centuries to come. From the Third through the Sixth Dynasty, not only were the pyramids built in vast construction efforts, but artists working in an array ofmediums and techniques—stone, wood, precious metals, monumental statuary, reliefs, and wall paintings—created masterpieces that still have the power to move us more than four millennia later. This splendid volume, published to accompany a landmark exhibition organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux in Paris, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, brings together 115 Old Kingdom masterworks from museum collections throughout the world. Included are sculptures executed with such an acute observation of musculature and body movement that they brought an unprecedented realism to the rendering of men, women, children, and animals. Several depictions of family groups in particular show the sensitivity with which Old Kingdom artists illuminated human relationships. Individual masterpieces include the monumental statue of Hemiunu, thought to be responsible for the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza; groups representing the Fourth Dynasty king Menkaure with a queen and various deities; and a unique alabaster statuette showing the Sixth Dynasty queen Ankh-nes-meryre II holding her son, the child king Pepi II, in her lap. In addition, there are delicate relief carvings that provide some of the earliest, most joyful artistic representations of daily life, stunning decorative-art pieces (jars, vases, jewelry, even a musical instrument), and a number of rare Old Kingdom wall paintings. The lively text by Dorothea Arnold offers an overview of the history, society, and art of the Old Kingdom and an informative discussion of each of the illustrated works. All of the pieces were newly photographed for the book by Bruce White.

Brooke Bates, development officer for Apollo Circle and Travel Program, recounts a lecture by Met Curator Dita Amory and the group's stop in Penafiel, Portugal.

Research Assistant Melissa Chumsky traces the prominence and legacy of the Renaissance guild system active across Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth century.

Easily portable, and certainly necessary, bedcovers might be some of the few decorative objects a woman had in her home.