Scranalogue

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Women’s Voices from the Scottish Borders

November 16, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Remembering domestic servants, shorthand typists, cinema pianists and suffragettes: new soundbites from the Ian Landles Oral History Archive

We’re releasing some more soundbites from the Ian Landles Oral History Archive this week. This time we’re showcasing the stories of women from the Scottish Borders.

You’ll hear from Mrs Oliver (b.1901) about her experiences as a pianist working in cinemas in Hawick – ‘The Piv’ and ‘The Wee Thee’ – providing the soundtrack for silent movies. Mrs Oliver also worked as a shorthand typist and she talks about this in a second soundbite. We learn how she perfected her shorthand by sitting in the back of church during services and noting down the sermons.

Other women talk about their memories of the suffrage movement in the years leading up to the First World War. Mrs Stewart (b.1881) remembers suffragettes coming to Hawick and Mrs Thomson tells us how the activists gained a reputation amongst the locals: ‘they come to burn hooses doon’.

A number of women in the Borders worked in service in the early 20th century at the many country houses and estates across the region. Catherine McLeish (b.1902) and Meg Wilson (b.1893) share their experiences.

Follow us on Twitter and watch our Twitterfeed from tomorrow to catch these soundbites.

The Ian Landles Archive is a series of interviews and sound recordings collected by local historian Ian Landles between the 1960s and 2010. The collection, originally started in order to preserve the memories of local men who had fought in World War One, also contains testimonies from local women and material on The Hawick Common Riding, poetry, music, the railways, farming life and mill life. The original full interviews are held on audio cassette tape by Scottish Borders Council Archive Services at the Heritage Hub in Hawick. To listen to all interviews from the Ian Landles Archive currently held on Scran click here.

Images © Aberdeen City Council, Hulton Getty, Dalmellington & District Conservation Trust | Licensor Scran

Robert Louis Stevenson

November 12, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

02050089Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the most famous Scottish writers of the 19th century, perhaps his best known works being Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and The Body Snatcher.

Early Years

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born on November 13 1850 in Edinburgh to parents Thomas Stevenson and Margaret Balfour. The Stevenson family were already well known as Thomas and his father, Robert Stevenson, were both famous lighthouse designers and engineers. From them, Robert Louis inherited his adventurous nature that would stimulate his imagination and spark his interest in literature. As a child Robert was severely ill due to a weakness in his lungs which he inherited from his mother. His health improved with age and after a troublesome time at Edinburgh Academy he entered Edinburgh University at the age of seventeen. Lacking the necessary approach for engineering, he instead pursued law and was called to the bar at twenty-five. This was a reserve plan to fall back on should his true passion – literature – fail.

The Traveller

rcahms1a_00998241A man who saw great romance and art in all aspects of life, Stevenson decided to travel. This was most likely in search of better health but also for adventure. As a writer, he craved stimulation for his imagination and he created notes of all he saw. His travels took him to Grez-Doiceau, Belgium and France where he visited Nemours and Paris often. A canoe trip in 1878 inspired his travelogue An Inland Voyage and later Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. He also wrote a number of articles and essays to generate income. Two years before this, he had met Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, an American divorcee, in France and fallen in love. A few months later she returned home and fell ill. When the news reached him, Stevenson, against the advice of his friends, departed for San Francisco. The journey from New York to California almost killed him. However, it inspired his works An Amateur Immigrant and Across the Plains. He eventually arrived in San Francisco with scarcely any money at all. By the end of winter 1879 his health declined once more. Fanny nursed him back to health.

Master of Literature

In May 1880 he and Fanny married. They would spend the next seven years seeking a suitable environment for his ever declining health. Having suffered so terribly in winter during his life, they would reside in Scotland and England during the warmer months, and spend winters in France . His greatest works were created in this period: Treasure Island, The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Kidnapped. He also published two volumes of poetry: A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. Stevenson’s father died in 1887. In June 1888 Stevenson chartered the yacht Casco and he and his family sailed around various locations. This period also saw the production of further work including: The Master of Ballantrae, The Bottle Imp and The South Seas.

The Latter Years

In 1890 Stevenson and his family mo06375482ved to the Samoan island of Upolu where he would live out his final years. He named his estate Vailima, meaning “Five Rivers”. His literary work and reputation was influential and the locals would consult him for advice. They named him the Tusitala – the Teller of Tales. His interaction with the locals led him to observe that European rule was less than benevolent and he published the highly critical A Footnote on History. Given his literary power, his work caused two officials to be recalled. As well as supporting the natives and building his estate, Stevenson published further works such as David Balfour and Ebb Tide. He also wrote the Vailima Letters in this period. With his health waning, Stevenson became depressed and concerned that his creativity was being exhausted. His spirit refused to succumb and he began his masterpiece, the Weir of Hermiston. He apparently remarked: “It’s so good that it frightens me.” He would not complete it. On December 3 1894, after working on his book, Stevenson collapsed in the company of his wife. He was 44 when he died as a result of a cerebral haemorrhage. The natives surrounded his body and carried their Tusitala upon their shoulders to a cliff top where he was buried.

Imagery © Scottish National Portrait Gallery, RCAHMS, Dundee Central Library –  Licensor Scran

Meet the Scr-ancestors

October 29, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Have you ever come face-to-face with a photograph of a family member on Scran? Perhaps a parent, a grandparent, a great-great aunty, a long lost distant cousin…?

perth schoolWe know some of you have. At a Scran event last year we met a lady who identified one of the children featured in this photograph of Northern District School in Perth 1952 as her cousin!

We’ve also met: a student who found a photograph of her father, a former football player, featured in our Scotsman collections; a librarian who found a photograph of her fisherman great-grandfather pictured in his native north-east; a lady who found a photograph of herself in the school netball team back in the 1960s.

If you’ve found any of your ancestors – or even yourself – on Scran, we’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to share your family story on Scranalogue, please comment below or get in touch with us directly at scran@scran.ac.uk.

Remember to identify the Scran image that you have a family connection with.  You can do this by telling us its URL  (its weblink) or by its USI number (that’s the small number that appears under each thumbnail image in search results and begins 000- and ends -C). Don’t forget to explain your connection to the image – just a few sentences will do. We’d also love to know your name and where you come from, but you can remain anonymous if you wish.

Images: © Perth Museum & Art Gallery. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

More Creativity at Killermont

October 8, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

jackies2_01530390There was a frantic afternoon of printmaking with P6 yesterday, who worked really hard. Today we are going to consider the detail & visual clues within the work of Scottish artist, Willie Rodger. In particular this example, “Day Out, Ferrara”, from 1998. The class have a selection of questions to investigate and will use Scran to become art detectives, using their visual literacy skills to discover what’s going on in the picture.

Our printed figures & silhouetted people, the Bearsden commuters, have been drying on the rack overnight. Next, we will incorporate them into our collaged frieze alongside local landmarks & architecture. We are looking forward to seeing the outcome.

© Willie Rodger via Bridgeman Art Library. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.

Morningside Memories

October 7, 2015 by User deactivated | 2 Comments

A little while ago, we said to ourselves “Wouldn’t it be nice to get Scran off the computer screen and into the real world?”, and thanks to our friends at Morningside Library in Edinburgh, we’ve done just that.

Poster for Scran exhibitionThe staff at the library kindly allowed us to use their Charles Smith Room, located upstairs at the branch and usually filled by exhibitions by local artists. In it, we’ve hung 19 prints of Scran images of the local area from the archives of the National Museums of Scotland, The Scotsman and RCAHMS. These date from 1915 to 1979, and depict a bygone age when trams were still drawn by horses, kindly lollipop men helped children across busy junctions and Morningside Station was still a regular stop on the Edinburgh Suburban line. We worked with Bruntsfield Primary school and the Open Door Centre to choose some of the images, as well as the library staff themselves. The exhibition is free, and finishes on October 30th 2015.

All library card holders in Edinburgh can access Scran for free, 24/7, as can residents of 24 out of 32 local authorities in Scotland, and we hope to repeat this at other branch libraries throughout the country, with local residents and schools helping to choose their favourite local images. If you’re a school, library or community centre and you’re interested in hosting a similar exhibition showcasing your local area, then contact us.

Image: ©The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

 

Creativity at Killermont

October 6, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

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Scran is spending the next two days working with P6 in Killermont Primary School. Word on the street is, they’re a creative bunch – so we’ve devised a printing project. We’ll start by looking closely at the work of local Dunbartonshire, artist Willie Rodger.

As well as finding out about print-making, 00040842P6 will think about their local landscape too and the Victorian commuters who shaped the streets of Bearsden. The collections from East Dunbartonshire Leisure & Culture Trust on Scran will add that extra layer of context for our learning. We’re going to get our hands dirty & by the end, have made a really cool collage.01850326

Images © Willie Rodger via Bridgeman Art Library, Robert Grieves Archive & RCAHMS. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

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Great Scots

October 2, 2015 by User deactivated | 1 Comment

Our hard-working colleagues in the Scots Language department of Education Scotland have just unveiled their new “hub”, offering links to Scots language resources, guides to how to use Scots within the English language and literacy curriculum, and a history of the Scots language among other goodies. You can find the hub here. The team also run the Scots language “Blether” on Glow, and you can see this at http://bit.ly/scotsblether

Mairi Robinson, editor of the Concise Scots Dictionary, Edinburgh, 1985The Scran image shown here, incidentally, is of Mairi Robinson. Under Mairi’s editorship the Scottish National Dictionary and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue were updated and combined to form the Concise Scots Dictionary. It was first published in 1985 by Aberdeen University Press. In 1987, a revised edition of 820 pages was published. The dictionary contains words used from the twelfth century to the present, with meanings, pronunciations and origins included.

Image: ©National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.

Let There Be Light!

September 24, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Scran celebrates National Poetry Day 2015 with a series of movie montages celebrating this year’s theme of light – tying in with the UNESCO Year of Light – and offering inspiration from the archives.

It’s National Poetry Day on Wednesday 8th October. This annual event celebrates poetry in all its forms across the country. This year the theme is light, marking the United Nations International Year of Light 2015.

To celebrate and provide inspiration for your own creative works, Scran has delved deep into its digital collections and found a range of material which explores light in interesting ways. Three two-minute movie montages have been created so far, using still images, moving images and sounds from www.scran.ac.uk. These are now available to view on the site.

Light and Dark layers rural landscapes, urban landscapes and seascapes with imagery of Scottish skies showing the changing light at different times of day. Human experiences are evoked through film and oral testimony and include torchlit processions and memories of wartime blackouts. Poetry and song add atmosphere to the piece.

Light and Dark

Man Made Light explores ways in which light is generated through a range of human activities, including domestic lighting, lighting for safety at sea and on the roads and light and heat generated through industrial processes. There are Oral testimonies from former factory workers and archive footage is juxtaposed with contemporary colour film.

In Light and Shadows, grainy black and white stills of early 20th century cityscapes are set against the wide open spaces of the Highlands. Human figures and forms in nature cast interesting shadows in their surroundings. Poetry readings echo themes of darkness and light.

There’s a fourth and final movie to come – watch this space for more information.

Watch all the Inspiration from the Archives movies on Scran

Try these other websites to find more resources to support teaching and learning for National Poetry Day 2015: Scottish Poetry Library | Education Scotland

Image taken from Sun being obscured by black clouds © Edinburgh Film Workshop Trust / Comataidh Craolaidh Gaidhlig (sync rights CoG): Copyright owner: Computerised Time-lapse Library. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

To Infinity and Beyond

September 18, 2015 by User deactivated | 0 comments

Scran had a great time meeting the educators at Jupiter Artland on Wednesday, and we hope to work with them in the future on projects with schools and colleges.

An outdoor sculpture park hosting site-specific works by internationally-renowned artists including Cornelia Parker, Andy Goldsworthy, Marc Quinn and Antony Gormley, Jupiter Artland is set in the grounds of Bonnington House just on the western outskirts of Edinburgh, owned since 1999 by Robert and Nicky Wilson. Their ambition to open a sculpture park rather like Ian Hamilton Finlay‘s “Little Sparta” was realised in 2010, and each year since then, new artists have been invited to create sculptures that are inspire by, and relate to, the gardens and grounds of Bonnington House. There are now 24 permanent outdoor sculptures on display, and covered gallery spaces in the courtyard host temporary exhibitions each year.

We currently host images of many of the artworks at Jupiter Artland on Scran, ideal for study pre- or post-visit, and there is a possibility we may host more images in the future. In the meantime, the grounds of Jupiter Artland are open until the end of September 2015, and will reopen next May with new artworks.

Images of artworks at Jupiter Artland by Anish Kapoor, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Cornelia Parker © Andrew James  Licensor www.scran.ac.uk

kapoor

finlay

parker

Cypriot Lace

September 17, 2015 by Scran | 0 comments

You may have read our blog post last week Empowering Communities in Cyprus? Well look what we found at the back of the Scran linen cupboard! It’s a piece of Cypriot lace in the form of a table mat, from around 1935. This beautiful sample forms part of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) collections shared via Scran.

The Needlework Development Scheme was set up in 1934 to encourage greater interest in embroidery and to raise the standard of design. Financed anonymously by J & P Coats, the intention was also to form a collection of British and foreign embroideries to which colleges of art and other institutions could have access. The aim was never to have a representative collection but rather to collect items purely on the quality of their design. A series of four embroidery experts were employed to oversee the collection and their international outlook is clearly represented in the collection.

In 1961 the Scheme was disbanded and its collection of over 3500 pieces of historic and contemporary needlework was dispersed to various museums and art colleges in Britain. The Royal Scottish Museum acquired 213 pieces and an exhibition was held in 1965 to show this magnificent gift.

Image © National Museums Scotland. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.

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