From the Pastoe archive, this photograph by Ed van der Elsken was part of a campaign by the company meant to get the public used to modern furniture.
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Previously unseen artefacts from the careers of 19 renowned Dutch designers and organisations are being preserved for posterity thanks to the Design Archives Working Group. Sketches, correspondence and photographs once owned by the likes of industrial designer Friso Kramer and fashion illustrator Constance Wibaut have been placed with heritage institutions and will be made accessible to the public.
Archival material from Kramer, Wibaut, Galerie Binnen and Galerie Ra now resides at the
Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD). Documents from the graphic agency Total Design have found a home at
Stadsarchief Amsterdam. And the collections of jewellery designers Onno Boekhoudt and Chris Steenbergen are in the custody of
Cultuur Onder Dak Apeldoorn (CODA).
The other 12 archives will be housed at the
Stichting Nederlands Archief Grafisch Ontwerpers (NAGO), the
Graphic Design Museum, the
Rotterdam Municipal Archives, the
Historisch Museum Rotterdam, the
Utrecht Archives, the
Audax Textielmuseum and
Regionaal Archief Tilburg.
The Design Archives Working Group began seeking homes for historic design documents in 2007 with financial support from the Mondriaan Foundation. The group is an initiative of Premsela. Its other members are the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the RKD.
The 19 recently placed archives have been added to the
Centraal Register van Vormgevingsarchieven (CRVa), a database run by the RKD that lists more than 1,700 Dutch designers and organisations. It includes basic data, such as location and dates, on the archives of 300 important designers and organisations and further details of 40. The RKD aims to add details of 400 more by 2010.
The CRVa organisation also dispenses information on the care and placement of archives.
