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Journal article
Textiles in a Viking Age hoard: Identifying ephemeral traces of textiles in metal corrosion products
This paper presents a novel method and terminology to identify and describe textiles from ephemeral traces in metal corrosion products. Since the 1980s, mineralised textiles (positive and negative casts in Janaway’s terminology) have been an important source of archaeological evidence. A major issue now is the identification of textiles in...Davis, Mary ; Harris, Susanna
Textile , Mineralisation, Silver, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Microscopy, Copper corrosion, Viking age, and Anglo-Saxon
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Journal article
The Cold War in European museums – filling the ‘empty battlefield’
Recent historical research has analysed the Cold War as an ‘imaginary war’, an interpretation that poses specific challenges for displaying the conflict in museums. In contrast to well-established representations of the First and Second World Wars in exhibitions, we find that the nature of the Cold War in Europe and...Alberti, Samuel J M M ; Nehring, Holger
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Journal article
Rethinking the Dark Age: the multiple voices of early medieval Britain
What do you picture when you think of the Dark Age. The common perception the phrase conjures is simple living and hardship. However, the sheer number of inscribed objects from this period paint another picture. Through new research methods, we are uncovering the multiple voices of early medieval Britain and...Maldonado, Adrián
literacy, Archaeology, Vikings, Symbols, Research Project, St Ninian's Isle Treasure, Glenmorangie, and Picts
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Journal article
Not so hidden messages
The written word is a powerful and persuasive tool that can inspire and revolt in equal measure. Equally, jewellery has the power to spread messages and has been used for generations to declare an individual’s position of allegiance or defiance. By incorporating a message, slogan or symbol, a jewel becomes...Rothwell, Sarah
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Journal article
History in the balance: a newly-discovered Anglo-Saxon runic inscription from Croy, Highland
A recent reassessment of the National Museums Scotland’s Viking-age collections revealed a new runic inscription from a previously overlooked scrap of copper alloy. The Croy Hoard is a mixed collection of objects deposited in the late 9th century AD, not far from what is now Inverness Airport. The Hoard was...Maldonado, Adrián
Old English rune, Viking-age collections, Anglo-Saxon runes, Early Medieval Scotland, Runic inscription, The Croy Hoard, and Bronze balance beam
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Journal article
"Shall I gie them more wind?" James Richardson VC and his pipes
The short life of James Cleland Richardson VC is both poignant and pertinent to the broader narrative of the Scottish diaspora at war. It encapsulates the experience of a young, newly-arrived Scottish emigrant to Canada who so very soon after his arrival volunteered to defend his recently left homeland and...Forsyth, David S
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Journal article
Newly-discovered pilgrim souvenirs fit for a saintly queen
Lydia Prosser and Robert Webley take a look at the implications of the exciting discovery of a pair of medieval Scottish pilgrim badges. How did these items find their way to Cambridgeshire and what can this tell us about the use of such badges in the Middle Ages?Prosser, Lydia ; Webley, Robert
cult, metal detecting, Medieval Scotland, Fordham, Cambridgeshire, pilgrim badges, Portable Antiquities Scheme, and Saint Margaret of Scotland
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Journal article
Framing colonial war loot: The ‘captured’ spolia opima of Kunwar Singh
This article investigates the provenance of four artefacts associated with the military commander Kunwar Singh (1777–1858), who fought a guerrilla campaign against the British during the Indian Uprising of 1857–8. By analysing how these objects were documented and inscribed, it can be shown that, through the invocation of what is... -
Magazine article
'Mary, Queen of Scots' In: Herstory - women who changed the world
To mark Women's History Month, female curators at National Museums Scotland have each selected an inspiration woman represented in the collection. From entomologist to artist to queen, their legacy lives on.Groundwater, Anna
Women's History Month, The Mary, Queen of Scots Casket, tomb, Monarchy, and Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587)
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Magazine article
'Phoebe Anna Traquair' In: Herstory - women who changed the world
To mark Women's History Month, female curators at National Museums Scotland have each selected an inspiration woman represented in the collection. From entomologist to artist to queen, their legacy lives on.Blakey, Claire
Scottish Arts and Crafts movement, Women's History Month, and Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936)
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Journal article
Twenty-first century sofa: conserving an eighteenth century object for modern museum display
This article describes the upholstery conservation treatment of a mid-eighteenth century sofa made for Spencer House, one of London's finest private houses. The sofa is now in the collection of National Museums Scotland. Details are given about the object's history, the approach taken to the complex treatment options, and the...McClean, Lynn ; Porter, Heather ; Jackson, Stephen
collaboration, conservation, sofa, Ethafoam™, upholstery, and digital
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Magazine article
The Seafield Collection: A unique collection of arms and armour in Scotland
Within the imposing setting of Fort George in the Scottish Highlands, an impressive collection of weaponry and equipment is displayed in the eighteenth century Grand Magazine (figure 1). All the objects on display relate to the short-lived service of units raised in the 1790s by the landowner, politician, and hereditary...Robertson, Calum
Clan Grant, Castle Grant, arms and armour, Scotland, digitisation, and Seafield Collection
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Journal article
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard is a three-year UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project (2021- 2024) which aims to challenge current understanding of the process of hoarding through an interdisciplinary study of one of the best-preserved hoards found in Britain to date.Harris, Susanna ; Goldberg, Martin
textiles, leather, golf, Galloway Hoard, organic and inorganic artefacts, and silver
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Journal article
Fit for a Queen: The Material and Visual Culture of Maria Clementina Sobieska, Jacobite Queen in Exile
Tracing its manifestation across three phases in her biography — marriage, separation and funeral — this article considers the image of Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–35). Examining the objects and portraits which surrounded Clementina’s life and death offers a new historiography for the Jacobite queen in exile. It reinstates her place...Vullinghs, Georgia
queenship, Jacobites, Stuarts, royal image, and material culture
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Journal article
Scottish heart brooches a re-evaluation of the luckenbooth
This article presents a study of Scottish heart brooches, primarily from the 18th century, using the collections of the National Museums Scotland, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, the Highland Folk Museum and those reported to the Treasure Trove Unit. By researching over 350 heart brooches it has been possible to...McGill, Lyndsay
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Journal article
An exhibition like no other
IN AUTUMN 1961, THE DOORS OF GOLDSMITHS’ HALL opened for an exhibition like no other. This, according to the late Graham Hughes, Art Director of the Goldsmiths’ Company and curator of the show, was to be ‘an art exhibition of a high order, intended to raise the standing of jewellery...Rothwell, Sarah
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Newspaper article
Shedding new light on some of Scotland's greatest Roman silver treasures - Dr Fraser Hunter
One of the greatest treasures on display in the National Museum of Scotland is the late Roman silver hoard from Traprain Law in East Lothian, which fills three cases in the Early People gallery. Found in excavations in 1919, it’s been on display pretty much constantly since 1920. Now, more...Hunter, Fraser
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Journal article
William Littler in West Pans; His Marriage to Jane Booth
The hamlet of West Pans, 1 1/4miles east-north-east of Musselburgh on the south side of the Firth of Forth, included a rocky foreshore on which stood the saltpans from which the name is derived. However, it is not just salt production there from at least the 12th century, but the...Haggarty, George R ; Gaskell, Tony
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Journal article
Nouveaux départs ? Écrire l’histoire de l’art par ses déplacements
Depuis une dizaine d’années, on observe un glissement dans l’historiographie française des institutions culturelles et dans les études sur la vie sociale et culturelle des œuvres. Dans le cadre d’une histoire classique des collections, qui perçoit l’artefact surtout à travers la formation des collections privées et publiques, des logiques de... -
Journal article
Matriarchal Journeys: Identity and Generational Exchange in the Travels of Lady Grisell Baillie and Margaret Calderwood of Polton, <i>c.</i> 1730–1757
In 1731 Lady Grisell Baillie began a tour through Europe to Naples with her husband, two daughters, son-in-law and eldest granddaughter. Prompted by an order abroad for her son-in-law’s health, the journey to and from Naples took in cultural sites and offered unique opportunities for shopping. In 1756 Margaret Calderwood...Taylor, Emily
Scotland, women, dress, learning, shopping, and 18th century