500 images from the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA) have recently been launched online on the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) website at: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/MODA.php
This unique collection includes well-known graphic designs, typography and book design, advertisements and posters, wallpapers, textiles, fashion, and interior design.
MoDA’s collections engage with design histories including the furnishing of ‘ordinary’ homes of the early and mid-twentieth century, the design process of commercial wallpaper and textiles for the home and inter-war suburbia. The collections are also concerned with broader themes encompassing visual and material culture.
The museum developed from a number of collections acquired by Middlesex University between the late 1960s and the 1990s.
VADS has also developed custom built web stats for the museum collection, allowing MoDA to track visitors from theme and collection pages to individual items and gain a better understanding of how people are using the online collection.
VADS has been hosted online for over 16 years by the University for the Creative Arts (UCA). It provides online access to a growing collection of visual images contributed by universities, libraries, museums and archives from across the UK, which can be used freely for education.
To explore all the VADS collections, totaling over 140,000 images, visit: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections
To view more of MoDA’s collections online visit: http://www.moda.mdx.ac.uk/home
To view items from the museum’s collection in person please contact: modastudyrm@mdx.ac.uk
MoDA’s collaboration with VADS was made possible with the support of Jisc, the not-for-profit organization for higher, further education and skills. It was one of the projects selected to take part in Jisc’s Spotlight on the Digital resource discovery training programme pilot.
Amy Robinson, VADS