You can shop till you drop — or you can drop a few dollars that make a difference. In these stormy times, museums and libraries need all the support they can get, so beef up their bottom lines by buying into their inspired designs and quirky craftsmanship for $75 and less. Let your fingers do the walking online, or make holiday shopping an excuse to catch up with the exhibits you’ve missed. And why not treat yourself to a membership? It has its privileges — like 20 percent off most of the merch here!
Forgo the schmear — just order the Jewish Museum store’s plastic bagel ($7.95), a yummy-looking yo-yo that should fit perfectly under your menorah — and just in time for the last night of Hanukkah! Makes a nice ecumenical stocking stuffer, too; shop.thejewishmuseum.org.
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Weegee’s favorite lens on the city was his trusty Speed Graphic. Now, it’s a pillow ($65): Printed on canvas, the very picture of hard-nose news-catching is made in Brooklyn exclusively for the International Center of Photography; shopping.icp.org/store.
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As pretty as a peacock but infinitely more useful is the Metropolitan Museum’s velvet jewelry roll ($30), inspired by prints by French artist Maurice Pillard Verneuil; store.metmuseum.org.
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Leave it to MoMA to elevate the most humble housewares into art: Witness its versatile vessels for flowers, like Stephan Jaklitsch’s many-cylindered, interlocking, puzzle-inspired terrain vase ($48); momastore.org.
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The New York Public Library’s shop, just off the Fifth Avenue entrance, has a slew of great gifts for every age group — especially the younger set — like the Uncle Goose ABC blocks ($45), chunky cubes featuring letters and animals. Here they come in eight languages — all of them handmade in America. Now that’s a switch: Even the Chinese blocks come from the USA! shop.nypl.org.
Zandy Mangold
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Bring out the animal in your loved one with one of the more beautiful umbrellas around, each of its eight pale-blue panels patterned with a different beast — a Delacroix tiger, Audubon’s gray rabbits — drawn from the Morgan Library & Museum; $75, the morgan.org/shop.
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Nothing says timeless like an extinct marine invertebrate — also known as ammonite. You’ll find plenty under glass at the American Museum of Natural History, but you can actually buy some, too, via an Egyptian-inspired ring and bangle ($70 each) set in a gold-toned, hypoallergenic alloy called Alchemia; shop.amnh.org.
AMNH / D. Finin
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We toast the Brooklyn Museum for its tilting wine decanter by Swedish designer Roger Persson. Made from hand-blown glass, it has a rounded bottom and silicone base ($50); the six matching glasses will set you back $32; brooklyn-museum.org.
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Bright lamps, big city: Andreas Feininger’s moody, black-and-white images of our town for the New-York Historical Society’s World War II show inspired this Brooklyn Bridge light. Compact, with a vinyl shade and brushed-nickel base, it’s made in the USA and takes a 60-watt bulb. Would you rather turn on Times Square or the Sheep Meadow? The lamp comes with those photos, too; $59.95, nyhistorystore.com.
