diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/cifar.py b/torchvision/datasets/cifar.py
index 8441c9f7814..307e8f60a06 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/cifar.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/cifar.py
@@ -4,16 +4,17 @@
 import os.path
 import numpy as np
 import sys
+
 if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
     import cPickle as pickle
 else:
     import pickle
 
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from .utils import download_url, check_integrity
 
 
-class CIFAR10(data.Dataset):
+class CIFAR10(VisionDataset):
     """`CIFAR10 <https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~kriz/cifar.html>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -54,9 +55,11 @@ class CIFAR10(data.Dataset):
     def __init__(self, root, train=True,
                  transform=None, target_transform=None,
                  download=False):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+
+        super(CIFAR10, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
+
         self.train = train  # training set or test set
 
         if download:
@@ -153,17 +156,8 @@ def download(self):
         with tarfile.open(os.path.join(self.root, self.filename), "r:gz") as tar:
             tar.extractall(path=self.root)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        tmp = 'train' if self.train is True else 'test'
-        fmt_str += '    Split: {}\n'.format(tmp)
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return "Split: {}".format("Train" if self.train is True else "Test")
 
 
 class CIFAR100(CIFAR10):
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/cityscapes.py b/torchvision/datasets/cityscapes.py
index c8466b77b27..4f84839063b 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/cityscapes.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/cityscapes.py
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
 import os
 from collections import namedtuple
 
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from PIL import Image
 
 
-class Cityscapes(data.Dataset):
+class Cityscapes(VisionDataset):
     """`Cityscapes <http://www.cityscapes-dataset.com/>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -93,12 +93,12 @@ class Cityscapes(data.Dataset):
 
     def __init__(self, root, split='train', mode='fine', target_type='instance',
                  transform=None, target_transform=None):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(Cityscapes, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.mode = 'gtFine' if mode == 'fine' else 'gtCoarse'
         self.images_dir = os.path.join(self.root, 'leftImg8bit', split)
         self.targets_dir = os.path.join(self.root, self.mode, split)
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.target_type = target_type
         self.split = split
         self.images = []
@@ -171,18 +171,9 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.images)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Split: {}\n'.format(self.split)
-        fmt_str += '    Mode: {}\n'.format(self.mode)
-        fmt_str += '    Type: {}\n'.format(self.target_type)
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        lines = ["Split: {split}", "Mode: {mode}", "Type: {target_type}"]
+        return '\n'.join(lines).format(**self.__dict__)
 
     def _load_json(self, path):
         with open(path, 'r') as file:
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/coco.py b/torchvision/datasets/coco.py
index c2e4e30c7d3..219bdfdb928 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/coco.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/coco.py
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from PIL import Image
 import os
 import os.path
 
 
-class CocoCaptions(data.Dataset):
+class CocoCaptions(VisionDataset):
     """`MS Coco Captions <http://mscoco.org/dataset/#captions-challenge2015>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -42,13 +42,14 @@ class CocoCaptions(data.Dataset):
             u'A mountain view with a plume of smoke in the background']
 
     """
+
     def __init__(self, root, annFile, transform=None, target_transform=None):
+        super(CocoCaptions, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         from pycocotools.coco import COCO
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
         self.coco = COCO(annFile)
         self.ids = list(self.coco.imgs.keys())
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
 
     def __getitem__(self, index):
         """
@@ -79,7 +80,7 @@ def __len__(self):
         return len(self.ids)
 
 
-class CocoDetection(data.Dataset):
+class CocoDetection(VisionDataset):
     """`MS Coco Detection <http://mscoco.org/dataset/#detections-challenge2016>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -92,12 +93,12 @@ class CocoDetection(data.Dataset):
     """
 
     def __init__(self, root, annFile, transform=None, target_transform=None):
+        super(CocoDetection, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         from pycocotools.coco import COCO
-        self.root = root
         self.coco = COCO(annFile)
         self.ids = list(self.coco.imgs.keys())
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
 
     def __getitem__(self, index):
         """
@@ -125,13 +126,3 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
 
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.ids)
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/fakedata.py b/torchvision/datasets/fakedata.py
index 9d3566f9a9f..dc390be6d31 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/fakedata.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/fakedata.py
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 import torch
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from .. import transforms
 
 
-class FakeData(data.Dataset):
+class FakeData(VisionDataset):
     """A fake dataset that returns randomly generated images and returns them as PIL images
 
     Args:
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ class FakeData(data.Dataset):
 
     def __init__(self, size=1000, image_size=(3, 224, 224), num_classes=10,
                  transform=None, target_transform=None, random_offset=0):
+        super(FakeData, self).__init__(None)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.size = size
         self.num_classes = num_classes
         self.image_size = image_size
@@ -54,12 +57,3 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
 
     def __len__(self):
         return self.size
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/flickr.py b/torchvision/datasets/flickr.py
index 70b0bb1e61a..9ab5e93140a 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/flickr.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/flickr.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 import glob
 import os
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 
 
 class Flickr8kParser(html_parser.HTMLParser):
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def handle_data(self, data):
                 self.annotations[img_id].append(data.strip())
 
 
-class Flickr8k(data.Dataset):
+class Flickr8k(VisionDataset):
     """`Flickr8k Entities <http://nlp.cs.illinois.edu/HockenmaierGroup/8k-pictures.html>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -61,11 +61,12 @@ class Flickr8k(data.Dataset):
         target_transform (callable, optional): A function/transform that takes in the
             target and transforms it.
     """
+
     def __init__(self, root, ann_file, transform=None, target_transform=None):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
-        self.ann_file = os.path.expanduser(ann_file)
+        super(Flickr8k, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
+        self.ann_file = os.path.expanduser(ann_file)
 
         # Read annotations and store in a dict
         parser = Flickr8kParser(self.root)
@@ -101,7 +102,7 @@ def __len__(self):
         return len(self.ids)
 
 
-class Flickr30k(data.Dataset):
+class Flickr30k(VisionDataset):
     """`Flickr30k Entities <http://web.engr.illinois.edu/~bplumme2/Flickr30kEntities/>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -112,11 +113,12 @@ class Flickr30k(data.Dataset):
         target_transform (callable, optional): A function/transform that takes in the
             target and transforms it.
     """
+
     def __init__(self, root, ann_file, transform=None, target_transform=None):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
-        self.ann_file = os.path.expanduser(ann_file)
+        super(Flickr30k, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
+        self.ann_file = os.path.expanduser(ann_file)
 
         # Read annotations and store in a dict
         self.annotations = defaultdict(list)
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/folder.py b/torchvision/datasets/folder.py
index 5b0411adbc5..eaad680f7ed 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/folder.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/folder.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 
 from PIL import Image
 
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def make_dataset(dir, class_to_idx, extensions):
     return images
 
 
-class DatasetFolder(data.Dataset):
+class DatasetFolder(VisionDataset):
     """A generic data loader where the samples are arranged in this way: ::
 
         root/class_x/xxx.ext
@@ -80,13 +80,15 @@ class DatasetFolder(data.Dataset):
     """
 
     def __init__(self, root, loader, extensions, transform=None, target_transform=None):
+        super(DatasetFolder, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         classes, class_to_idx = self._find_classes(root)
         samples = make_dataset(root, class_to_idx, extensions)
         if len(samples) == 0:
-            raise(RuntimeError("Found 0 files in subfolders of: " + root + "\n"
-                               "Supported extensions are: " + ",".join(extensions)))
+            raise (RuntimeError("Found 0 files in subfolders of: " + root + "\n"
+                                "Supported extensions are: " + ",".join(extensions)))
 
-        self.root = root
         self.loader = loader
         self.extensions = extensions
 
@@ -95,9 +97,6 @@ def __init__(self, root, loader, extensions, transform=None, target_transform=No
         self.samples = samples
         self.targets = [s[1] for s in samples]
 
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
-
     def _find_classes(self, dir):
         """
         Finds the class folders in a dataset.
@@ -140,16 +139,6 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.samples)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
-
 
 IMG_EXTENSIONS = ['.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png', '.ppm', '.bmp', '.pgm', '.tif', '.tiff', 'webp']
 
@@ -202,6 +191,7 @@ class ImageFolder(DatasetFolder):
         class_to_idx (dict): Dict with items (class_name, class_index).
         imgs (list): List of (image path, class_index) tuples
     """
+
     def __init__(self, root, transform=None, target_transform=None,
                  loader=default_loader):
         super(ImageFolder, self).__init__(root, loader, IMG_EXTENSIONS,
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/lsun.py b/torchvision/datasets/lsun.py
index 0d63a061a1f..6fba3fd49da 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/lsun.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/lsun.py
@@ -1,20 +1,21 @@
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from PIL import Image
 import os
 import os.path
 import six
 import string
 import sys
+
 if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
     import cPickle as pickle
 else:
     import pickle
 
 
-class LSUNClass(data.Dataset):
+class LSUNClass(VisionDataset):
     def __init__(self, root, transform=None, target_transform=None):
         import lmdb
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(LSUNClass, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
 
@@ -52,11 +53,8 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
     def __len__(self):
         return self.length
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        return self.__class__.__name__ + ' (' + self.root + ')'
-
 
-class LSUN(data.Dataset):
+class LSUN(VisionDataset):
     """
     `LSUN <http://lsun.cs.princeton.edu>`_ dataset.
 
@@ -72,13 +70,13 @@ class LSUN(data.Dataset):
 
     def __init__(self, root, classes='train',
                  transform=None, target_transform=None):
+        super(LSUN, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         categories = ['bedroom', 'bridge', 'church_outdoor', 'classroom',
                       'conference_room', 'dining_room', 'kitchen',
                       'living_room', 'restaurant', 'tower']
         dset_opts = ['train', 'val', 'test']
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
 
         if type(classes) == str and classes in dset_opts:
             if classes == 'test':
@@ -91,15 +89,15 @@ def __init__(self, root, classes='train',
                 c_short.pop(len(c_short) - 1)
                 c_short = '_'.join(c_short)
                 if c_short not in categories:
-                    raise(ValueError('Unknown LSUN class: ' + c_short + '.'
-                                     'Options are: ' + str(categories)))
+                    raise (ValueError('Unknown LSUN class: ' + c_short + '.'
+                                      'Options are: ' + str(categories)))
                 c_short = c.split('_')
                 c_short = c_short.pop(len(c_short) - 1)
                 if c_short not in dset_opts:
-                    raise(ValueError('Unknown postfix: ' + c_short + '.'
-                                     'Options are: ' + str(dset_opts)))
+                    raise (ValueError('Unknown postfix: ' + c_short + '.'
+                                      'Options are: ' + str(dset_opts)))
         else:
-            raise(ValueError('Unknown option for classes'))
+            raise (ValueError('Unknown option for classes'))
         self.classes = classes
 
         # for each class, create an LSUNClassDataset
@@ -145,13 +143,5 @@ def __getitem__(self, index):
     def __len__(self):
         return self.length
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        fmt_str += '    Classes: {}\n'.format(self.classes)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return "Classes: {classes}".format(**self.__dict__)
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/mnist.py b/torchvision/datasets/mnist.py
index 1ae37db6f6d..50c99eeea68 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/mnist.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/mnist.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 import warnings
-import torch.utils.data as data
 from PIL import Image
 import os
 import os.path
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 from .utils import download_url, makedir_exist_ok
 
 
-class MNIST(data.Dataset):
+class MNIST(VisionDataset):
     """`MNIST <http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def test_data(self):
         return self.data
 
     def __init__(self, root, train=True, transform=None, target_transform=None, download=False):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(MNIST, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.train = train  # training set or test set
@@ -115,8 +115,10 @@ def class_to_idx(self):
         return {_class: i for i, _class in enumerate(self.classes)}
 
     def _check_exists(self):
-        return os.path.exists(os.path.join(self.processed_folder, self.training_file)) and \
-            os.path.exists(os.path.join(self.processed_folder, self.test_file))
+        return (os.path.exists(os.path.join(self.processed_folder,
+                                            self.training_file)) and
+                os.path.exists(os.path.join(self.processed_folder,
+                                            self.test_file)))
 
     @staticmethod
     def extract_gzip(gzip_path, remove_finished=False):
@@ -161,17 +163,8 @@ def download(self):
 
         print('Done!')
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        tmp = 'train' if self.train is True else 'test'
-        fmt_str += '    Split: {}\n'.format(tmp)
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return "Split: {}".format("Train" if self.train is True else "Test")
 
 
 class FashionMNIST(MNIST):
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/omniglot.py b/torchvision/datasets/omniglot.py
index 6fff770b165..98a76f18c49 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/omniglot.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/omniglot.py
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
 from PIL import Image
 from os.path import join
 import os
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from .utils import download_url, check_integrity, list_dir, list_files
 
 
-class Omniglot(data.Dataset):
+class Omniglot(VisionDataset):
     """`Omniglot <https://github.com/brendenlake/omniglot>`_ Dataset.
     Args:
         root (string): Root directory of dataset where directory
@@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ class Omniglot(data.Dataset):
     def __init__(self, root, background=True,
                  transform=None, target_transform=None,
                  download=False):
-        self.root = join(os.path.expanduser(root), self.folder)
-        self.background = background
+        super(Omniglot, self).__init__(join(os.path.expanduser(root), self.folder))
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
+        self.background = background
 
         if download:
             self.download()
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/phototour.py b/torchvision/datasets/phototour.py
index 5752278ec13..1d02cbeaf0c 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/phototour.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/phototour.py
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@
 from PIL import Image
 
 import torch
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 
 from .utils import download_url
 
 
-class PhotoTour(data.Dataset):
+class PhotoTour(VisionDataset):
     """`Learning Local Image Descriptors Data <http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/patches/default.htm>`_ Dataset.
 
 
@@ -65,14 +65,14 @@ class PhotoTour(data.Dataset):
     matches_files = 'm50_100000_100000_0.txt'
 
     def __init__(self, root, name, train=True, transform=None, download=False):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(PhotoTour, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
         self.name = name
         self.data_dir = os.path.join(self.root, name)
         self.data_down = os.path.join(self.root, '{}.zip'.format(name))
         self.data_file = os.path.join(self.root, '{}.pt'.format(name))
 
         self.train = train
-        self.transform = transform
         self.mean = self.mean[name]
         self.std = self.std[name]
 
@@ -151,20 +151,14 @@ def download(self):
         with open(self.data_file, 'wb') as f:
             torch.save(dataset, f)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        tmp = 'train' if self.train is True else 'test'
-        fmt_str += '    Split: {}\n'.format(tmp)
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return "Split: {}".format("Train" if self.train is True else "Test")
 
 
 def read_image_file(data_dir, image_ext, n):
     """Return a Tensor containing the patches
     """
+
     def PIL2array(_img):
         """Convert PIL image type to numpy 2D array
         """
@@ -211,5 +205,6 @@ def read_matches_files(data_dir, matches_file):
     with open(os.path.join(data_dir, matches_file), 'r') as f:
         for line in f:
             line_split = line.split()
-            matches.append([int(line_split[0]), int(line_split[3]), int(line_split[1] == line_split[4])])
+            matches.append([int(line_split[0]), int(line_split[3]),
+                            int(line_split[1] == line_split[4])])
     return torch.LongTensor(matches)
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/sbu.py b/torchvision/datasets/sbu.py
index e1dde981830..01c06940789 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/sbu.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/sbu.py
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 from .utils import download_url, check_integrity
 
 import os
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 
 
-class SBU(data.Dataset):
+class SBU(VisionDataset):
     """`SBU Captioned Photo <http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~vicente/sbucaptions/>`_ Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -24,8 +24,9 @@ class SBU(data.Dataset):
     filename = "SBUCaptionedPhotoDataset.tar.gz"
     md5_checksum = '9aec147b3488753cf758b4d493422285'
 
-    def __init__(self, root, transform=None, target_transform=None, download=True):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+    def __init__(self, root, transform=None, target_transform=None,
+                 download=True):
+        super(SBU, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
 
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/semeion.py b/torchvision/datasets/semeion.py
index ce1136de9f8..207533964cb 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/semeion.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/semeion.py
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@
 import os
 import os.path
 import numpy as np
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from .utils import download_url, check_integrity
 
 
-class SEMEION(data.Dataset):
+class SEMEION(VisionDataset):
     """`SEMEION <http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/semeion+handwritten+digit>`_ Dataset.
     Args:
         root (string): Root directory of dataset where directory
@@ -24,8 +24,9 @@ class SEMEION(data.Dataset):
     filename = "semeion.data"
     md5_checksum = 'cb545d371d2ce14ec121470795a77432'
 
-    def __init__(self, root, transform=None, target_transform=None, download=True):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+    def __init__(self, root, transform=None, target_transform=None,
+                 download=True):
+        super(SEMEION, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
 
@@ -84,13 +85,3 @@ def download(self):
 
         root = self.root
         download_url(self.url, root, self.filename, self.md5_checksum)
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/stl10.py b/torchvision/datasets/stl10.py
index 0590ab8b21f..b5b303407a2 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/stl10.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/stl10.py
@@ -129,13 +129,5 @@ def __loadfile(self, data_file, labels_file=None):
 
         return images, labels
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Split: {}\n'.format(self.split)
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return "Split: {split}".format(**self.__dict__)
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/svhn.py b/torchvision/datasets/svhn.py
index 6c1fb0a3adf..972125d74fb 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/svhn.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/svhn.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
 from PIL import Image
 import os
 import os.path
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 from .utils import download_url, check_integrity
 
 
-class SVHN(data.Dataset):
+class SVHN(VisionDataset):
     """`SVHN <http://ufldl.stanford.edu/housenumbers/>`_ Dataset.
     Note: The SVHN dataset assigns the label `10` to the digit `0`. However, in this Dataset,
     we assign the label `0` to the digit `0` to be compatible with PyTorch loss functions which
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class SVHN(data.Dataset):
 
     def __init__(self, root, split='train',
                  transform=None, target_transform=None, download=False):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(SVHN, self).__init__(root)
         self.transform = transform
         self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.split = split  # training set or test set or extra set
@@ -116,13 +116,5 @@ def download(self):
         md5 = self.split_list[self.split][2]
         download_url(self.url, self.root, self.filename, md5)
 
-    def __repr__(self):
-        fmt_str = 'Dataset ' + self.__class__.__name__ + '\n'
-        fmt_str += '    Number of datapoints: {}\n'.format(self.__len__())
-        fmt_str += '    Split: {}\n'.format(self.split)
-        fmt_str += '    Root Location: {}\n'.format(self.root)
-        tmp = '    Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}\n'.format(tmp, self.transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        tmp = '    Target Transforms (if any): '
-        fmt_str += '{0}{1}'.format(tmp, self.target_transform.__repr__().replace('\n', '\n' + ' ' * len(tmp)))
-        return fmt_str
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return "Split: {split}".format(**self.__dict__)
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/vision.py b/torchvision/datasets/vision.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..168388aadde
--- /dev/null
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/vision.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import os
+import torch
+import torch.utils.data as data
+
+
+class VisionDataset(data.Dataset):
+    _repr_indent = 4
+
+    def __init__(self, root):
+        if isinstance(root, torch._six.string_classes):
+            root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        self.root = root
+
+    def __getitem__(self, index):
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        head = "Dataset " + self.__class__.__name__
+        body = ["Number of datapoints: {}".format(self.__len__())]
+        if self.root is not None:
+            body.append("Root location: {}".format(self.root))
+        body += self.extra_repr().splitlines()
+        if hasattr(self, 'transform') and self.transform is not None:
+            body += self._format_transform_repr(self.transform,
+                                                "Transforms: ")
+        if hasattr(self, 'target_transform') and self.target_transform is not None:
+            body += self._format_transform_repr(self.target_transform,
+                                                "Target transforms: ")
+        lines = [head] + [" " * self._repr_indent + line for line in body]
+        return '\n'.join(lines)
+
+    def _format_transform_repr(self, transform, head):
+        lines = transform.__repr__().splitlines()
+        return (["{}{}".format(head, lines[0])] +
+                ["{}{}".format(" " * len(head), line) for line in lines[1:]])
+
+    def extra_repr(self):
+        return ""
diff --git a/torchvision/datasets/voc.py b/torchvision/datasets/voc.py
index 1ec44b3c9ff..96b96b459d4 100644
--- a/torchvision/datasets/voc.py
+++ b/torchvision/datasets/voc.py
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 import sys
 import tarfile
 import collections
-import torch.utils.data as data
+from .vision import VisionDataset
+
 if sys.version_info[0] == 2:
     import xml.etree.cElementTree as ET
 else:
@@ -51,7 +52,7 @@
 }
 
 
-class VOCSegmentation(data.Dataset):
+class VOCSegmentation(VisionDataset):
     """`Pascal VOC <http://host.robots.ox.ac.uk/pascal/VOC/>`_ Segmentation Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -74,13 +75,13 @@ def __init__(self,
                  download=False,
                  transform=None,
                  target_transform=None):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(VOCSegmentation, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.year = year
         self.url = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['url']
         self.filename = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['filename']
         self.md5 = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['md5']
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.image_set = image_set
         base_dir = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['base_dir']
         voc_root = os.path.join(self.root, base_dir)
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ def __len__(self):
         return len(self.images)
 
 
-class VOCDetection(data.Dataset):
+class VOCDetection(VisionDataset):
     """`Pascal VOC <http://host.robots.ox.ac.uk/pascal/VOC/>`_ Detection Dataset.
 
     Args:
@@ -157,13 +158,13 @@ def __init__(self,
                  download=False,
                  transform=None,
                  target_transform=None):
-        self.root = os.path.expanduser(root)
+        super(VOCDetection, self).__init__(root)
+        self.transform = transform
+        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.year = year
         self.url = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['url']
         self.filename = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['filename']
         self.md5 = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['md5']
-        self.transform = transform
-        self.target_transform = target_transform
         self.image_set = image_set
 
         base_dir = DATASET_YEAR_DICT[year]['base_dir']
@@ -228,8 +229,8 @@ def parse_voc_xml(self, node):
                     def_dic[ind].append(v)
             voc_dict = {
                 node.tag:
-                {ind: v[0] if len(v) == 1 else v
-                 for ind, v in def_dic.items()}
+                    {ind: v[0] if len(v) == 1 else v
+                     for ind, v in def_dic.items()}
             }
         if node.text:
             text = node.text.strip()