Practical Archival Skills Training: Registered Designs, 1839-1991

This one-day workshop will teach the skills and methodologies for working with historical design copyright records (or ‘registered designs’) at The National Archives.

This unique and vast collection contains the details and visual or material representations of almost 3 million designs registered for copyright protection between 1839 and 1991, covering a 152-year period. The expansive range of design types and styles that are represented in the collection offer considerable opportunities for the research of material and visual culture in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as topics within the fields of design, architectural, technology, economic, business and social history. The representations of designs themselves are depicted through a range of media, including photographs, drawings and material samples (e.g. textiles and wallpapers).

You will learn about the contents of the collection through examples of objects, materials and styles that are represented, as well as the background to the registration system that created these records and its function in protecting design copyright. You will also find out about the types of businesses and individuals that used the registration system and how design copyright was used as a commercial tool to protect original design in the manufacturing industries.

Our specialists will guide you through the cataloguing structure of the records and explain how best to search and browse the online catalogue to identify sources for your research. You will learn about different approaches for incorporating these records into your research and take away skills to navigate the archival sources on your own.

Course outline

Over the course of the day, we will introduce you to records of registered designs across the 19th and 20th centuries, covering designs for textiles, wallpapers, furniture, appliances, and a wide array of other goods and component parts. We will look at many original documents together which you will also have the opportunity to handle. At the end of each session there will be practical exercises to help embed what you have learned.

The session will also include an example of a design research journey, with ideas for expanding your own research to include other records at The National Archives, and an introduction to applying digital research methods to this collection to explore the records in new ways.

At the end of the course, you will understand the range of this visual and data-rich design collection available at The National Archives and how you can use our catalogue to search and explore the archive in more depth. You will also feel confident using online search techniques and original registers to find records in the different series.

This event is aimed at current taught postgraduate and PhD students, but other researchers are welcome. Tea and coffee at registration is provided.

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