A hammer hasn't changed much in hundreds of years. Neither has a saw, a screwdriver, a drill. This book asks why — and finds the answer not in stagnation, but in the quiet perfection of good design. Published to accompany the reopening of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Tools spans ten Smithsonian institutions to trace the full arc of human making, from hand axes unchanged for 1.5 million years to the technologies reshaping what's possible today.

Through lush imagery and essays that draw together scientists, designers, historians, engineers, and anthropologists, the book reveals how tools are never just objects — they are a record of how we think, what we need, and how culture and technology have always moved together. A celebration of human ingenuity that is as visually compelling as it is quietly profound.