Archive of technology, entertainment and everyday life
The National Museum of Decorative Arts archive preserves plans, photographs, watercolours and business records that make it possible to approach design as a process, not just as a finished object. A careful reading of these holdings also reveals which aspects of material history remain undocumented in the available evidence.
Open storyConserving decorative arts is not simply a matter of repairing objects. Documentation, accessible storage and preventive care are part of the everyday work of protecting both their physical integrity and the information they convey.
Open storyThe history of Spain’s National Museum of Decorative Arts traces a change in perspective: from promoting industrial and craft products to studying objects in their contexts of production, consumption and meaning. Its archives and institutional accounts also show which parts of that story can be established—and which require further documentation.
Open storyPreserving decorative arts is not limited to repairing objects. Documentation, safe access and organised storage also help protect both their physical condition and the information they convey.
Open storyThe collections and institutional history of the National Museum of Decorative Arts allow decoration to be examined as a matter of production, education, consumption and design, rather than merely a repertoire of exceptional objects.
Open storyConserving decorative heritage is not only about protecting objects. It requires documenting materials, changes, provenance, use and relationships with other holdings so that a piece remains interpretable.
Open storyRecipe books, tins, labels and food-industry documents can be read as cultural heritage when they are preserved alongside their contexts of use. Drawing on the work of Museo da Conserva and sources on museums and food, this article examines what these materials can reveal, what cannot be claimed from them, and why nostalgia should be an entry point rather than a conclusion.
Open storyA journey through the changing focus of Spain’s National Museum of Decorative Arts: from its early support for industrial products and technical education to a later reading centred on objects, their uses, and their contexts of production and consumption.
Open storyA reading guide to preventive conservation and documentation in the decorative arts: why preserving an object means protecting not only its material but also its history, condition and relationship to a collection.
Open storyThe collections, archives and historical texts of the National Museum of Decorative Arts make it possible to read decoration not merely as ornament, but as the result of production, craft, consumption, design and display.
Open storyThe Museo Cerralbo recovery project shows that restoring a house museum is not merely a matter of repairing objects: it also means interpreting spaces, uses and historical ways of displaying a collection. This analysis separates documented facts from the questions that remain open.
Open storyBetween 1944 and 2009, several documented interventions affected room decoration and other spaces at Madrid’s National Museum of Romanticism. This feature examines what can be stated about those phases and why historic decoration must be read through the building, display, and documentation together.
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