Charles Hasler (1908-1992), was a designer and typographer, who played a significant role in many high-profile exhibitions, displays, and poster campaigns in Britain from the mid-1930s during his work at the Ministry of Information. Hasler was a senior designer and chairman of the Typographic Panel for the Festival of Britain of 1951. Hasler was interested in the newly-emerging field of packaging and branding and in the role of typographical design. His collection reflects his keen interest in all kinds of printed material and includes postcards, playbills, sheet music, packaging and posters dating from the nineteenth century onwards.
In February 2024, the University of Reading, Special Collections received a Records at Risk grant. The grant supported the transition of the Charles Hasler archive from the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture at Middlesex University (M0DA) to the University of Reading, Special Collections. The collection was at risk as Middlesex University had taken the decision to close MoDA.
The grant was significant in 2 main ways. Firstly, all acquisitions have to be approved by the University of Reading, Collections Governance Committee. The Committee were pleased that the Records at Risk grant had been granted and that a Project Archivist could be funded, 0.6FTE for 6 weeks, to complete the collections management tasks required to ensure that the collection could be accessible at Special Collections after the transfer from Middlesex University. This meant that the acquisition of the Charles Hasler would not be a cost to the University of Reading. Middlesex University funded the transportation of the collection to Reading and the Records at Risk funded the initial collections management tasks required.
Secondly, we were able to compete the initial Collections Management tasks for the collection including :
– The metadata was transferred from MoDA’s system CollectionsIndex+, System Simulation (SSL) database and imported to Axiell collections at University of Reading, Special Collections.
– The digital assets were imported into the Special Collections Digital Asset Management System.
– 18 Records Management boxes of uncatalogued material were appraised. Books or archives have been retained as part of the collection.
– Uncatalogued items have been catalogued.
– A collection description of the Charles Hasler archive has been published on our A-Z list of collections on the University of Reading, Special Collections website
This work could not have been prioritised without the funding from the National Archives Records at Risk grant.
