The electronic museum of graphic design history at Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract

Much of the original and printed material which constitutes the history of graphic design is in danger of being lost. The efforts of libraries and museums to preserve this material can be enhanced by the use of interactive videodisc to record, and to facilitate access to and exploitation of, the contents of graphic design archives. At the Rochester Institute of Technology, a project which aims to create an ‘electronic museum’ alongside an extensive archive of graphic design has achieved the production of a prototype videodisc and of accompanying software. While the Rochester Archive is focussed on American graphic design of the 1930s to 1950s, an international network of graphic design collections, and of electronic databases, is envisaged.