I wrote an essay for The Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Sharing The Met's "From the Vaults" series and a very special Eames film: Metropolitan Overview.

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Last fall, I gushed over The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s From the Vaults series by sharing my three favorite historic films from the museum’s collection.

From the Vaults—in The Met’s own words—allows you to:

“Take a trip in time with selections from the Museum’s extensive moving-image archive, which comprises over 1,500 films, both made and collected by the Museum, from the 1920s onward. This includes rarely seen artist profiles and documentaries, process films about art-making techniques, behind-the-scenes footage of the Museum circa 1928, and a surprising history of cats at The Met.”

I had the intense honor to write an essay for the most current From the Vaults installment.

The essay accompanies a historic Eames Office film from 1975 titled Metropolitan Overview. When The Met’s staff approached us in hopes of digitizing and potentially restoring this film, I jumped at the opportunity to help make this a reality. As the film focuses on a potential redesign of several of the Museum’s halls and galleries, the launch of this From the Vaults overlaps perfectly with the reopening of the newly renovated Rockefeller Wing.

Metropolitan Overview title frame, 1975, © Eames Office, LLC. All rights reserved. Digitized beautifully thanks to the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Eames Office in 2025.

With much excitement, below is Metropolitan Overview. Plus, an impassioned story that connects the dots between the œuvre of Charles and Ray Eames and this absolutely monumental institution of art.

Happy viewing and reading!

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You can watch the entire collection of The Met’s From the Vaults here OR on their YouTube channel. As always, please support the Museum, if you can!

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Kelsey Rose

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*cover image: A plethora of frames from the Eames Office film Metropolitan Overview, © Eames Office, LLC. All rights reserved.

From earlier:

Three Pots of Inspiration: The Met's Vaults, visual ephemera, and Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy!