social history

Until April 28, 2022, the Library has trial access to the Mass Observation Project. Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its founders’ aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK.

The Mass Observation Project consists of directives (questionnaires) sent out by the Project and the responses gathered. They address topics such as the Falklands War, clothing, attitudes to the USA, reading and television habits, morality and religion, and Britain’s relations with Europe. Broad themes covered include current events, friends and family, the home, leisure, politics, society, culture and the media, work, finance and the economy and new technology.

The Environmental Design Archives at UC Berkeley presents the exhibit

Designing People

February 11 – May 19, 2015

The figures that inhabit architectural and landscape renderings are not the actual focus of the drawings. Homeowners, children, pets, shoppers, and condo-dwellers are included to convey the scale and functionality of a proposed design. They humanize and create an emotional appeal in what might otherwise appear to be sterile environments and allow the client to imagine how a space will be used. From the watercolor Victorian to the scalie hipster, this exhibit features more than a century of designers’ representations of people from the Environmental Design Archives.

Environmental Design Library
Volkmann Reading Room, Raymond Lifchez and Judith Stronach Exhibition Cases
210 Wurster Hall, University of California, Berkeley

Information, Hours, Directions: 510.642.4818
www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/hours.html

Curators: Waverly Lowell and Chris Marino, Environmental Design Archives
Exhibition Team: Cailin Trimble, Emily Vigor, Alison Ecker, Andrew Manuel, Brandon Wolinsky