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Blog post
QR codes in museums – worth the effort?
If you’ve visited the National Museum of Scotland in the last year, you probably saw a QR code in one of our exhibitions. There’s a good chance you even used one! Did you get your phone out and scan it? Or walk on by? Adam Coulson looks into changes in...Coulson, Adam
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Blog post
Unwrapping stories revisiting the costume at Paxton House
Nestled on the bank of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, Paxton House is an eighteenth-century home and museum with exceptional collections. The Chippendale and Trotter furniture is recognised as being of international importance, and the building itself is Grade A listed. But what else lies hidden in storage?Tayor, Emily ; Murrell, Fiona Salvesen
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Blog post
Snow hunter collecting Scotland's vanishing ice
What can patches of snow across Scotland tell us about the global environmental challenge? We recently acquired objects from Scotland’s ‘Snow hunter’ Iain Cameron relating to his vital work recording these patches. In this blog, Curator Sarah Laurenson introduces us to those objects before Iain offers an evocative insight into...Laurenson, Sarah ; Cameron, Iain
Scottish History, Contemporary Collecting, and Climate Change
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Blog post
Joan Faithfull’s Mull pottery
What does it mean for an object to be ‘of’ a place? Joan Fathfull’s pottery in Tormore, Mull, became a fixture for visitors to the Inner Hebrides in the mid-20th century. Ailsa Hutton, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary History, discusses the recent gifting of Joan’s works by her sons,...Hutton, Ailsa
Scottish History, Contemporary Collecting , Mull , and Pottery
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Blog post
Take to the Skye: New pterosaur discovery
A recent spectacular find on the Isle of Skye shines new light on pterosaurs of the Jurassic period. Our Keeper of Natural Sciences Nick Fraser tells us more about this discovery, Skye’s fossil riches and the people bringing them to light, both in the past and today.Fraser, Nicholas C
Fossils , Palaeontology , Skye, and Dinosaurs
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Blog post
The Iqbalnama: celebrating the life of Sardar Iqbal Singh
The Iqbalnama is a series of six paintings depicting the life of Sardar Iqbal Singh, a Sikh man from Lahore, India, who moved to Scotland and fostered cross-cultural connections. We mark one year since he passed away with a reflection on his achievements by Elizabeth Guest, as well as a...Guest, Elizabeth
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Blog post
Connecting collections through the congruence engine
Like all museums, what we have on display at any one time barely scratches the surface of the 12 million objects in our collection. We try to make these collections more accessible to as many people as possible. So we’re excited to be part of a newly launched partnership of...Taubman, Alison
Digital , Technology , Congruence Engine , Energy , Textiles, Science And Technology , and Communications
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Blog post
Park Life
Carys Wilkins, assistant curator in Modern & Contemporary Design at the National Museums Scotland, explores how the pandemic has influenced furniture design, in particular the park bench & in turn the museum’s acquisitions programme.Wilkins, Carys
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Blog post
Breaking the Ice: When Hugh MacDiarmid met Yevgeny Yevtushenko
In October 1962, the world stood on the edge of an abyss as the United States and the Soviet Union prepared for nuclear war over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Five months earlier, the charismatic Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko broke the political pack ice of the Cold War...Gledhill, Jim
Russia , Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Hugh MacDiarmid , Poets , Poetry , Cold War , and USSR
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Blog post
Embroidered crucifixion
Thanks to a generous donation from benefactor Leslie Durst, we have acquired an exquisite seventeenth-century embroidery with a surprising history of secret Catholic devotion. This small panel embodies entwined stories of religious faith, skilled workmanship, and the mythology of a doomed Queen. Senior Curator of Historic Textiles Helen Wyld reveals...Wyld, Helen
Embroidery , Global Arts Cultures And Design , New Acquisitions , and Textiles