Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture

03/10/2023

Collections Manager Sian Woodward finds Kirsty Kerr's report 'Cataloguing the 'Oriental' in MoDA's Collection' a valuable resource to inspire ethical cataloguing practices across the sector.

We were delighted to host student Kirsty Kerr from Leicester University who was on a placement at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture for one day a week between April and June this year. Kirsty is part of the New Museum School Advanced Programme run by Culture& and Museum Studies at Leice...

28/09/2023

The power of naming matters. Kirsty's second post on cataloguing the 'Oriental' within MoDA's collection reflects on questions of power and representation in collections-related museum information

We were delighted to host student Kirsty Kerr from Leicester University who was on a placement at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture for one day a week between April and June this year. Kirsty is part of the New Museum School Advanced Programme run by Culture& and Museum Studies at Leice...

26/09/2023

Meet Kirsty Kerr, a Masters student on the New Museum School Advanced Programme run by Culture& School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester as she dives deep into the complexities of the term 'Oriental' and its implications within MoDA's collection. 🧐

We were delighted to host student Kirsty Kerr from Leicester University who was on a placement at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture for one day a week between April and June this year. Kirsty is part of the New Museum School Advanced Programme run by Culture& and Museum Studies at Leice...

09/06/2023

There's a lot about artificial intelligence in the news, but have you ever wondered how museums might use AI?
https://moda.mdx.ac.uk/2020/05/13/towards-a-national-collection/

Towards a National Collection is a major five-year £18.9 million project aimed at making collections in the UK’s world-renowned museums, archives, libraries and galleries more accessible and more ‘joined-up’. Funding is provided through UK Research and Innovation’s Strategic Priorities Fund...

08/06/2023

Today is and we are featuring stencils depicting the Great Wave. Turbulent water is often used as a metaphor for difficulties. The second stencil also includes floating gourds, travelling with seeds, representing triumph over adversity.

07/06/2023

It's and is the focus of today! We hold books and ephemera related to the kitchen, home appliances and cooking. This blog by Alice Naylor is a kind of ‘micro-history’ of domestic life in post war Britain and features leaflets relating to the kitchen and to home appliances. They date from 1950 to 1960 and were all from a house in Hornchurch, Essex.

We recently acquired a collection of leaflets and other ephemera related to the kitchen and home appliances. Collectively they provide a kind of ‘micro-history’ of domestic life in Britain in the 1950s and 60s. Doctoral student, Alice Naylor, tells us more…

06/06/2023

Museums try to keep up with technology, deciding which tools will allow people more engaging access to collections. MoDA hasn't tried NFTs or VR yet, but we do use APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to share collections on our website and others:

Here at MoDA, we’re always asking how more people can find and use our collections – valuable primary source material for learning, teaching and research. So when we heard about Jstor’s Open Community Collections platform, we had to find out more! Jstor has long been known as a place to find a...

02/06/2023

Our morning session of In Conversation event: Interwar Suburbia on 7th June is now fully booked so we now have an afternoon session. The session is free but booking is essential

This informal session will explore the development of the North London suburbs in the 1920s and 30s

21/05/2023

Booking is now open for our In Conversation event: Interwar Suburbia , 7th June
https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/in-conversation-interwar-suburbia-2/ as part of the London Festival of Architecture

We'll explore some of the museum’s posters, pamphlets and booklets relating to the expansion of the North London in the 1920s and 30s.

17/05/2023

Book now for our In Conversation event looking at Interwar Suburbia, as part of the London Festival of Architecture https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/in-conversation-interwar-suburbia/

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16/05/2023

Book now for a walking tour organised in collab. with Colindale Community Trust, 24th June
People and buildings of Grahame Park https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/people-and-buildings-of-grahame-park/ as part of the London Festival of Architecture

14/05/2023

Book now for our In Conversation event looking at Interwar Suburbia as part of the London Festival of Architecture https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/in-conversation-interwar-suburbia/

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12/05/2023

Book now for a walking tour organised in collaboration with Colindale Community Trust, 24th June

People and buildings of Grahame Park https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/people-and-buildings-of-grahame-park/ as part of the London Festival of Architecture

24/03/2023

We're marking the signs of spring with a lovely carousel of spring-inspired textile designs by the Silver Studio. Can you spot your favourite spring flower?

Head over to our website http://ow.ly/g9qQ50NoJbK to see more of the beautiful Silver Studio designs, find out about the history of the Silver Studio here http://ow.ly/jIMX50NoJbJ, or find out about booking a visit to see them in the paint-and-paper here http://ow.ly/Iimv50NoJbL!

23/03/2023

Great to see that Jessica Kelly's new book, No More Giants, is now out, published by Manchester University Press Jessica's research focused on the magazine The Architectural Review, held at MoDA
http://ow.ly/Qnaa50Nl1Ib

Whether you're a writer, a student, a researcher, or a design enthusiast, our domestic design, magazine, textile and wallpaper collections offer endless opportunities for exploration and creativity. Take a look at our website if you think we might have something of interest, and get in touch!

Design History Society Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) Middlesex University

17/03/2023

We're looking forward to this new book by Tom Fort, due out in May! Tom was one of the first visitors in our Study Room after lockdown, so it's great to see the end result

Tom Fort made his name as a writer with his bestselling travel narrative The A303: Highway to the Sun. He now focuses on matters closer to home by celebrati...

21/12/2022

Seasonal greetings from all of us at MoDA. We are now closed and will reopen on 4th January. We look forward to your enquiries and remember that anyone who wants to look at our collection can book an appointment for next year at https://moda.mdx.ac.uk/appointments/

20/12/2022

Take a look at our recent e-newsletter, which details our holiday closure, new year appointments and recent news.
https://preview.mailerlite.com/w8y9t5k5q8. If you would like to join our mailing list to receive our e-newsletters, click here https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/i2k2a8

14/12/2022

An early Christmas present - for the first time, anyone can view these beautiful 19th-century images of Japanese flowers from the comfort of their own home.

MoDA holds three albums of images by Japanese photographer Kazumasa Ogawa (1860-1929), and we have digitized two of them, following extensive conservation work Lilies of Japan and Chrysanthemums of Japan       Digitizing the albums makes these fragile publications available to be viewed by studen...

07/12/2022

For we are sharing 'Carafe' wallpaper designed by June Lyon and produced by John Line & Sons in 1956. The wallpaper is featured in the Shire Publications Wallpaper book by Zoe Hendon. You can purchase the book from our online shop http://ow.ly/CXVy50LON8L. Postage is free and any orders before will receive a complimentary fridge magnet with the same design.

05/12/2022

This 1921 notgeld shows the 'funny person', also known as Hans Wurst leading the Schipperhöge parade, a traditional festival that still occurs in Lauenburg in January. Find out more about this and other notgeld here 👉 http://bit.ly/3OMSKFz

1 Mark Lauenburg an der Elbe notgeld Date 1921 Code CH/5/4/2/5/64 Level Item More details This notgeld is from Lauenburg an der Elbe and has the value of 1 Mark. It shows a joker performing some tricks in his colourful dress. A group of children is watching him. The inscription in German reads: 'die...

04/12/2022

Language appears in many different forms and types within our collection. 'Sir Gibbie' written by the Scottish author George MacDonald is notable for its use of Doric dialogue (a mid-North or Northeast Scottish dialect) http://bit.ly/3F8m5Hw

02/12/2022

Essential reading for social occasions and parties, 'Manners and Rules of Good Society' by a Member of the Aristocracy, 1890 covers important etiquette for dinner parties and public balls. Read an extract here 👉 http://bit.ly/3VC8WM6

01/12/2022

Peel back the layers of time with us through the wallpaper sandwich, which came to MoDA in 2003. The fragments were donated to MoDA by a company who were renovating the dormitories at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge in 2001. The twelve fragments represent over two hundred years of history and range from the top layer of white 1980s woodchip paper to a late eighteenth century block printed, handmade paper.

In 2018 our Curator explored the role of wallpaper in crafting identity. Find out more on our website: http://bit.ly/3iaWsN5

One piece of 12-layered paper, and 12 individual layers of wallpaper dating from c.1780-1980 salvaged from a wall in Peterhouse College, Cambridge in 2001

30/11/2022

This fine beard adorns the face of the father of the Silver Studio, Arthur Silver (1853-1896).

The Silver Studio Designated collection forms the heart of MoDA, and you can find out more about it on our website http://bit.ly/3F4hbKz

29/11/2022

Ever fancied travelling in time? ! This is a timeline visualisation of our collections created for a research project -
find out all about it here 👉 http://bit.ly/3VdPsOl

28/11/2022

For the first theme of week, here is a map showing the location of new 'garden flats' built in in 1938 from a promotional leaflet. http://bit.ly/3u6wOvN

Discover how you can explore our collections 👉 http://bit.ly/3iiLCou

27/11/2022

MoDA's Petal Power publication explores the hand-drawn and painted textile designs produced by women designers at the Silver Studio in inter-war England. It also maps out the printed floral trends of the time. http://ow.ly/bnpb50LNFGf

27/11/2022

Featuring 'Fifitestyle' for . This publication draws on MoDA's collections of wallpapers, textiles and magazines to show the choices available to consumers decorating their homes in the 1950s. Also in the Style Guide series . Buy here http://ow.ly/2IeZ50LNeqr

27/11/2022

Today on take a look at our online shop http://ow.ly/OctA50LNe5v. We sell a range of publications drawn from our collections. Various topics are covered:

What's available in the online shop?

23/11/2022

Another calendar to share, this time from the Australian company Hello Sunday. 12 Silver Studio designs are featured, including this textile design of tiger lilies and orchids. You can buy here http://ow.ly/PSqy50LM27O Note that this is available in various formats and holidays are AUS/NZ.

The Silver Studio was one of the most influential textile design studios from 1880 to 1950 and most of this collection is now housed at the Museum of Design and Architecture in London (MoDA). This calendar contains 12 of it's most perennially favourite images Unique double hung format with full page...

22/11/2022

Featured as is a Katagami from MoDA's collections. Katagami are Japanese stencils and these were mainly used for printing onto fabric, particularly kimono. This one features chrysanthemums, often associated with autumn and is also in the 2023 Calendar by Flame Tree Publishing. You can purchase one here Buy here http://ow.ly/svQ950LJwMw

09/11/2022

What does it mean to talk about 'queering home'? This episode of our with Matt Cook Birkbeck, University of London and Andrew Gordon-Murray Western Sydney University considers how ***r homes have contested or conformed to traditional definitions.

In this episode, MoDA's Curator Ana Baeza Ruiz talks to historians Matt Cook from Birkbeck, University of London, and Andrew Gordon-Murray from Western Sydney University in Australia about queering the idea of home,

07/11/2022

This episode of our tops the charts for most downloads in the past year! Huge thanks to Dr. Aimi Hamraie -
assistant professor of Medicine, Health and Society at
Vanderbilt University, and host of Contra* a podcast on
disability design justice - and Ellen Clifford - a disabled
activist with Disabled People Against Cuts in the U.K., for great discussion of how design makes assumptions about who uses a space & about what bodies can do.

Domestic design rests on assumptions about who lives and uses that space, about what our bodies can do, how our bodies think, move and feel. Ana Baeza Ruiz is joined by Aimi Hamraie, assistant professor of Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University, and Ellen Clifford, disabled activist a...

07/10/2022

Join us for an evening of wallpaper history with a talk from conservator Dr Phillippa Mapes and a tour of the house from one of our resident guides.

21/07/2022

Head over to Twitter https://twitter.com/HouseHistoryHr at 7pm this evening. Jill Stewart and MoDA's Zoe Hendon discuss house histories in Hendon Middlesex University

25/05/2022

We're going to RHS Chelsea Flower Show for today as the natural world is a great inspiration for wallpaper designs, with many using the idea of bringing the outside into homes. Perhaps the most well-known examples of this are the Arts and Crafts designs of William Morris. One of the gold-medal-winning Show Gardens at this year's brings this idea full circle, with a garden based on two of William Morris's designs - 'Trellis' and 'Willow Bough' brought to life by Ruth Willmott Associates sponsored by William Morris & Co
Take a look at those designs here and those of Morris's contemporary Arthur Silver of The Silver Studio. Are there particular garden favourites that you think would make good wallpaper designs - a favourite flower or shapely plant leaf?

18/05/2022

Today's post showcases an Association of Independent Museums funded conservation project focused on original Art Nouveau stencilled wallcoverings on paper, grasspaper and textile from our Silver Studio Collection. These stencilled materials were made in the 1890s. They were made by the designers who worked for the Silver Studio who were informed by stencilling techniques from Japan.

This conservation work followed on from a major Arts Council England research project called Katagami In Practice that we conducted between 2016 and 2018 looking at our collection of Japanese Katagmai stencils. We believe the stencilled materials within this conservation project were made in response to those original Japanese examples. They demonstrate the Silver Studio’s engagement with Japanese influences in their development of British Art Nouveau.

https://moda.mdx.ac.uk/2019/09/16/stencil-conservation-completed/

Fifty six important stencilled textiles, grasspapers and wallcoverings from MoDA’s Silver Studio Collection are now available to students and researchers, following the completion of a major conservation project. We are grateful for the support of the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) who m...

28/04/2022

Only 12 new English Heritage blue plaques are unveiled each year, and this month saw one unveiled on the designer Enid Marx’s former home at 39 Thornhill Square where she lived with her life partner Margaret Lambeth. She created patterns, book covers, stamps, illustrations and more, and was a contemporary of and ,

To find out more about our Enid Marx collection visit https://moda.mdx.ac.uk/stories/enid-marx/ and watch the video as Lotte Beatrix explores why Enid Marx deserves a higher profile and the recognition that the blue plaque will hopefully help to bring.


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Enid Marx (1902-1998) made an amazing body of work, and had an unusually long career as a commercial designer. Lotte Beatrix Crawford talked to Jane Audas about Marx's life and work. [Video]