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Uses and audiences for the Heritage of Contemporary Science
Report on a workshop of the Universeum Working Group for the Preservation of Recent Heritage of Science in the University, at the University of Glasgow. Universeum’s Working Group for the Preservation of RHS is concerned with the study, conservation and interpretation of the heritage of science, technology and medicine produced...Wittje, Roland ; Alberti, S J M M
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Conference paper (published)
TIM, PAT and ISAAC: synthetic speech on display at the National Museum of Scotland
In its communications gallery, staff at National Museums Scotland were keen to include a fundamental of human communication – speech. This paper will outline a display of speech mediated by machines, from the experiments first speaking clock to the now omnipresent synthetic voices of devices of satnavs and smoke alarms....Taubman, Alison
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Lecture
Post-Palissian Ceramics: moving beyond the master
French lead-glazed moulded ceramics are present in many museum collections today but their dating and attribution is often uncertain. This talk will use the collections of the British Museum and National Museums Scotland as its starting point, to summarise past scholarship and to look to the future for these objects....Blakey, Claire ; King, Rachel
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Lecture
Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton and Hamilton Palace: the awe inspiring demonstration of exalted status of the premier peer of Scotland and some final additions from the Beckford bequest
This year’s Beckford Lecture ‘Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton and Hamilton Palace: the awe inspiring demonstration of exalted status of the premier peer of Scotland and some final additions from the Beckford bequest’ will be given by Dr Godfrey Evans. Dr Evans is Principal Curator of Decorative Arts, National Museums...Evans, Godfrey
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Lecture
The Renaissance Reimagined: Minton, Majolica and Maiolica
From about 1850 the Renaissance Revival inspired the design of both architecture and the decorative arts in Britain, prompting Minton & Co. to bring the arts of the period to the Staffordshire potteries. The lecture will focus on a subgroup of revivalist ware inspired by Italian Renaissance maiolica through the...Blakey, Claire
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Roman silver transformed: Hacksilber, its nature, uses and effects
Of the various forms of precious metal in the Roman world, Hacksilber is perhaps the least glamorous. These cut and crushed fragments of silver have received much less attention than intact plate or coinage. Yet they can cast fresh light on the ways in which precious metal was used in...Hunter, Fraser
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Lecture
Tools of Knowledge: Exploring the Scientific Instrument Trade with Digital Tools
The second edition of the Neuchâtel Seminar in History of Science and Technology – entitled Scientific Objects: Then and Now – aims to reflect on scientific objects and the problems raised by their study by working on two aspects in particular. On the one hand, the seminar will host retrospective...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Re-examining the Rubers Law hoard
In 1863 a hoard of bronze vessels and other items was found on the slopes of the hillfort of Rubers Law, near Hawick. Although it crops up in the literature, it has received only cursory attention. In the course of preparing it for display in the revamped Trimontium Trust museum...Hunter, Fraser
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Lecture
Beyond Treasure: new findings from fieldwork on Scotland’s prehistoric hoards
Hoards evoke stories and generate questions: Why do people collect things, both now and in the past? How do ordinary things become treasured objects? And why do we find these discoveries so fascinating? Hoards help us imagine particular events – the moment of burial, the moment of discovery – but...Freeman, Emily ; Knight, Matthew
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Collecting 21st-Century Science, Technology and Medicine in Scotland
On 6 June 2017 a group of museum professionals with shared interests in contemporary collecting science, technology and medicine assembled at the National Museum of Scotland to share best practice and lessons learned in this area. After presentations from some of those involved in Scottish collections, different perspectives were provided...Robertson, Haileigh ; Goggins, Sophie ; Alberti, S J M M
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Presentation
From recreation to inspiration: Glenmorangie craft commissons at National Museums Scotland 2008-2020
Organic items rarely survive and the evidence for these lost objects is often secondary from metal fittings or artistic depictions. To understand how these objects would have been experienced and the skills used to make them, the Glenmorangie Research Project has commissioned artists to recreate Early Medieval artefacts that rarely...Maldonado, Adrián
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Conference paper (unpublished)
The ethics of collecting COVID-19
The health crisis of the years 2020 and 2021 will remain deeply engraved in everyone's memory. In France, the world of museums has been strongly impacted in its activities, its cultural programming and the reception by its audiences. However, direct employment in public sector museums has certainly been less affected...Goggins, Sophie
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Materialising Mary: challenging objects
ShBemss was established in 2020 as an opportunity for early modernists to share their research online during the challenging conditions of that year. This is an international seminar series, drawing speakers and participants from across the UK, Europe, North America, Australasia – and the network continues to grow! The series...Groundwater, Anna
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Lecture
Making sense of silver: the hacking of the Traprain Treasure
RSE Project: Narratives of Roman Scotland in the Digital Age. Organisers: Manuel Fernández-Götz, Chiara Bonacchi and Rebecca JonesHunter, Fraser
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Poster (unpublished)
Battling Booklice
Jackson, Joseph ; Jeanne , Robinson ; Whiffin , Ashleigh L
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Expert investigators: Uncovering unacknowledged Egyptian contributions to archaeology in 19th century archives
Narratives about early Egyptology have typically been framed in terms of the heroic efforts of adventurous collectors and brilliant scholars, few of whom acknowledged the debt owed to the Egyptians upon whose local knowledge and labour they relied. However, the innovative Scottish archaeologist Alexander Henry Rhind (1833–1863), in summarizing the...Maitland, Margaret
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Egyptian-Nubian Cultural Connections: Reconsidering the Qurna Burial Group at National Museums Scotland
Maitland, Margaret
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Objects of Power: Australian Aboriginal breastplates and Scottish pastoralists
Clark, Ali
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Lecture
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard
Buried at the beginning of the 10th century in Dumfries and Galloway, the Hoard lay undisturbed for a thousand years before being discovered by a metal detectorist and excavated by an archaeologist in September 2014. Four years of painstaking conservation and research has restored these rare and unique treasures to...Goldberg, Martin ; Maldonado, Adrián
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Lecture
The Galloway Hoard
Goldberg, D Martin
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Lecture
The Galloway Hoard
Goldberg, Martin
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Lecture
Bones, teeth and gum: How museums can contribute to improving animal welfare
How museums can contribute to improving animal welfareKitchener, Andrew C
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Lecture
An introduction to the marine invertebrate wet collections at National Museums Scotland
Natural History Wet collectionsWare, Fiona
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Poster (unpublished)
CryoArks – The UK’s first zoological biobank
National Museums Scotland and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are partners in a UK-wide collaboration to create the UK’s first comprehensive zoological Biobank network for research and conservation.Kitchener, Andrew C ; Murray-Dickson , Gill
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Poster (unpublished)
The wet collections of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902-1904
Ware, Fiona
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Conference paper (unpublished)
The Galloway Hoard: entangled identities in the material culture of a unique Viking-age assemblage
Goldberg, D Martin
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Collecting and displaying Japanese culture in 19th-century Scotland
Disciplinary boundaries are inevitable within a complex academic system and as those boundaries shift with time, the problem of speaking across them only increases. The scholars today who study the Japanese collections held by British museums are primarily art historians or archaeologists, but the context in which these collections were...Buckland, Rosina
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Lecture
Alexander Henry Rhind and Archaeology
A look at how Rhind’s work in Scotland informed his pioneering work in Egypt, advocacy for the protection of antiquities in both Scotland and Egypt, and his role in devising the original displays of British, Scottish, and Egyptian artefacts at the National Museum of AntiquitiesMaitland, Margaret
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Keeping natural history collections healthy: preventing deterioration in store and on display
Ogilvie, Ticca M A
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Conference paper (unpublished)
National Museums Scotland, Digital Collecting in Museums, 2020
A multi-disciplinary group of museum and heritage professionals with shared interests in collecting born-digital material met at the National Museum of Scotland on 11 March 2020 to discuss best practice and opportunities. The symposium included a range of papers outlining different approaches to collecting and interpreting digital entities, with definite...Alberti, Samuel J M M ; Angus, Sonny ; Laurenson, Sarah ; Osborn, Molly ; Volkmer, Laura M B
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Lecture
The Storrar Coverlet: a double weave tradition in Scotland and Scandinavia
Coverlet in red and yellow wool, woven in a double weave with a geometric design of birds, a chequered band and the date 1729 at each end. Formerly in the possession of the Storrar family of Nether Urquhart, Fife: probably made in Sweden.Wyld, Helen
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Conference paper (unpublished)
From Edo to Edinburgh: Curating Japan at National Museums Scotland
The conference will explore cultural connections between the visual and material cultures of Scotland and Japan. It will bring together academics, independent researchers, curators, archivists and artists to share new research in the area, as well as to exchange ideas, and engage in lively discussions related to the shared art...Boyd, Louise
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Lecture
Exploring the climate crisis through collections and programming at National Museums Scotland
Climate change has a profound impact on communities of the North and their way of life. As Russia assumes the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021-2023, we open a conversation about the Arctic as a unique eco system and focus on the sustainable development of the region and what...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Conservation of the Galloway Hoard. The richest collection of rare and unique Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland.
The hoard was found in 2014 and an exhibition is now on tour in Scotland after extensive research and conservation work. It was a true conservation challenge having a variety of material (glass, rock crystal and other minerals, minerally preserved organics) in addition to the precious metals. The lecture will...Goldberg, Martin ; Davis, Mary
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Lecture
Hidden treasure of National Museums Scotland revealed: A silk rug with Tree of Life by Kashani master weaver Mohtasham
This fine silk rug features a large flowering tree. Likely never used, the multiple colours of the rug’s dazzling array of blossoms are magnificently preserved. The weaver of this exquisite piece, Hajj Molla Mohtasham, ran one of the most successful carpet manufactures in 19th-century Kashan. Mohtasham rugs are highly prized...Voigt, Friederike
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Lecture
Climate change: a time travel adventure
Join climate campaigner and author Alice Bell in a trip through time to the decisions, inventions and accidents which created the warming world we’re living in today – and how it could have ended up quite differently. Beginning with the discovery of CO2 in Edinburgh, travel through the pioneering age...Bell, Alice ; Higgitt, Rebekah
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Complex identities and the Galloway Hoard
It is ten years since the Silverdale Hoard, one of the largest Viking-age hoards ever found in England, was discovered in a field in Lancashire. To celebrate its display at the JORVIK Viking Centre throughout 2022, the Richard Hall Symposium this year focuses on hoards: their concealment, their rediscovery, and...Goldberg, D Martin
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Lecture
The Galloway Hoard
Goldberg, D Martin
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Lecture
Ancient African Queens: New perspectives on Black history
Join our panel as they discuss how reassessing 19th and 20th century colonial attitudes can bring new perspectives to fascinating aspects of ancient Egyptian culture and its place in African history.Maitland, Margaret ; Ashby, Solange
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Lecture
Ice Age Fauna of Scotland and the Loch Ryan Mammoths
Scotland is renowned today for its rich and varied wildlife but have you ever wondered what lived here in the past? Andrew Kitchener, Principle Curator of Vertebrates at National Museum of Scotland, presents a talk about creatures that lived in Scotland during the Ice Ages. The talk will include a...Kitchener, Andrew
Stranraer, mammoth, Ice age, and Rhins of Galloway
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Lecture
The Fossil Insects of Scotland
Fossil insects are rare in Scotland, though those that are found are significant and are from four periods: Specimens from the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert of Aberdeenshire are the oldest in the world; a few species are known from the Upper Carboniferous Coal Measures of Ayrshire and Fife; as yet...Ross, Andrew J
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Lecture
Insights into the Dan Klein Collection
The British Museums Object Conservator Stefka Bargazova and National Museums Scotland Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design Sarah Rothwell join us to discuss the Dan Klein Conservation Project, a wonderful collaborative project that they initiated in 2017 that brought conservators, curators, and practitioners together to share their knowledge to...Bargazova, Stefka ; Rothwell, Sarah
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Presentation
Guest Curator at Craft Scotland Conference 2022 - The Power of Glass Symposium at the National Museum of Scotland
Sarah Rothwell is the Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, in the Department of Global Arts, Cultures and Design at National Museums Scotland (NMS). Where she is responsible for the British, European and other 'Western' glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery and industrial design circa 1945-present collections. Her research focuses on...Rothwell, Sarah
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Presentation
Directing Museums with Diverse Bio-Cultural Collections
Museums with diverse natural and cultural collections face special challenges – from how to organize seemingly disconnected collections thematically to staff with vastly different scientific or cultural expertise. Speakers from museums with diverse collections report from their institutions on successful or failed conceptual strategies, with an eye to practical solutions....Tindal, Brenda ; Roldán-Alzate, Oscar ; Breward, Chris
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Presentation
Extending the archive of life: Contemporary collecting in Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland
What objects will tell the stories of 21st-century Scotland? What themes, events, and ideas represent Scotland today? How do we ‘future proof’ our contemporary collecting? National Museums Scotland is hosting a one-day symposium on contemporary collecting. It will explore how we build representative collections for the future, covering Scotland’s present...Kitchener, Andrew C
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Abstract
Application of DESI–MS for dye analysis of historical textiles
One key issue in the dye analysis field is the need to sample culturally significant objects. This issue is amplified when working with more fragile objects, such as historical textiles, where sampling is often impossible without threatening the structural integrity of the object. To circumvent the impact of dye analysis,...Sandström, Edith ; Vettorazzo, Chiara ; Mackay, C Logan ; Troalen, Lore G ; Alison N, Hulme
museum collections, historical textiles, dye analysis, and mass spectrometry
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Presentation
Preparing to Borrow
Brownlee, Yvonne
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Abstract
Artefacts and Advocacy
Technical artefacts have many meanings over the course of their use-life and museum after life. By engaging with audiences thoughtfully and openly, science museums can use their objects' dynamic biographies to address global challenges we face today. Not least of these is human-induced rapid climate change. Take the trusty tractor...Alberti, S J M M
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Presentation
The Art of Tapestry: In Conversation
Join Helen Wyld for the launch of her book The Art of Tapestry in conversation with Dovecot Studios Director Celia Joicey Tapestry expert Helen Wyld presents the first accessible publication on the history of tapestry in over two decades. Helen offers a fresh perspective on the history of tapestry across...Wyld, Helen
Craft, English tapestry, Tapestry design, Method, Weaving, English, National Trust, Material culture, Tapestry history, Production, European tapestry, and Tapestry
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Presentation
Leading Change
Key figures in the sector discuss what type of leadership is needed in times of crisis such as this and what leadership might look like going forward. Our speakers share their experiences of the past two years as they reflect on the challenges that their organisations have faced during the...Breward, Christopher ; Heal, Sharon ; Bell, Leonie ; Lowe, Miranda ; Oke, Arike
Challenges, Leadership, Cost of living crisis, Pandemic, Museum, Climate crisis, Anti-racism, and Decolonisation
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Lecture
Inspiring People: Addressing the challenges of our Age – the work of National Museums Scotland
Chris Breward is the Director of National Museums Scotland. He was trained at the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art, London and has previously worked as Director of Collection and Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, Head of Research at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and...Breward, Christopher
Challenges, Leadership, Museology, Inspiring, Museum, Scottish museum collections, Identity, and Scotland
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Presentation
Radars in Scotland – History and Developments
History of Radar and Its Relevance in Today’s MarketBrown, Ian
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Where are all the ‘Elites’? Hallstatt C metalwork from Britain and connections with the Continent
It is well-established that, in contrast to many parts of the Continent, Britain lacks clear evidence of ostentatious funerary practices so, as a result, evidence of elites during the Hallstatt C period is largely circumstantial. Many bronze and a few iron objects of the Llyn Fawr metalwork assemblage remain some...Knight, Matthew ; O'Connor, Brendan
Halstatt C, hoards, metalwork, bronze swords, socketed axeheads, Llyn Fawr , Early Iron Age, rapezoidal razors, and chapes
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Lecture
The gunflint industry in Brandon and beyond: no flash in the pan
Breckland in the east of England has long been synonymous with man's use of knapped (carefully broken and shaped) flint. In the stone age, millions of axe heads and arrowheads were produced from the large flint mine pits at Grime's Graves, near what is now the Breckland town of Brandon....Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
axe heads, arrowheads, gunflints, Grime's Graves, flint mine, and flintknapper
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Lecture
Destruction and Deposition at Duddingston Loch
Dr Matthew Knight is a Senior Curator of Prehistory at the National Museums Scotland, responsible for the Scottish Chalcolithic and Bronze Age collections. Matthew completed his BSc and MA at the University of Exeter between 2009 and 2014, during which he explored links between Bronze Age metalworking evidence, settlement activities...Knight, Matthew
Research, swords, spearheads, Archaeology, and Bronze Age
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Abstract
The long, strange journey of Viking-Age ringed pins
Ringed pins are the calling card of the Viking Age in Britain and Ireland: small, low-value metal cloak fasteners, found in dressed burials, and frequently encountered as stray finds. They have a complex trajectory, beginning as Irish dress items in the pre-Viking period. From the middle of the ninth century,...Maldonado, Adrián
Ireland, Scandinavia, burials, diaspora, Iceland, Newfoundland, Britain, Viking Age , Dublin, Ringed pins, and Irish Sea trading settlements
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Abstract
Exploring literal and conceptual fragmentation through medieval material culture
This paper will explore meaning-rich fragmentation in a medieval context and suggest that relevant theoretical frameworks may be enriched by thinking about different kinds of deconstruction. The breaking and remaking of Christian reliquaries provide one opportunity – viewing things like the Monymusk reliquary not as one object but as many...Blackwell, Alice
Monymusk reliquary , fragmentation, Christian reliquaries, Archaeology, and deconstruction
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Lecture
The Traprain Treasure – latest research on a remarkable Roman silver hoard
The Roman Treasure from Traprain Law Excavated on Traprain Law in May 1919, this was one of the most spectacular discoveries of Roman silver ever made in Europe – and the biggest hoard found to date of ‘hacksilver’: 23kg, battered, crushed and chopped-up silver vessels. An international team of scholars...Hunter, Fraser
Late Roman Hoard, Traprain Law, East Lothian, hacksilver, elite tableware, and Silver Treasure
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Lecture
Highland Style: Fashioning Highland Dress, c.1745-1845
he period c.1745-1845 was a revolutionary chapter in the history of Highland dress. With the advent of the European Romantic movement, this once regional costume was revived and reinvented to reflect the changing times and preoccupations of its wearers. Associated with the warrior culture of Gaelic society, by the close...Waine, Rosie
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Lecture
Re-framing Mary: audience-focused collecting and display
During the life of the RSE project, and following the acquisition of the Mary Queen of Scots casket, National Museums Scotland re-framed the narrative it tells of Mary in the Chambers Street museum. This talk explores the museum’s role in mediating narratives of Mary’s life and impact, to argue that...Groundwater, Anna
casket, material culture, Mary, Queen of Scots, and museum collecting, interpretation and display
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Lecture
'The Viking-age Reuse of Insular Metalwork From Northern Britain'
The looting of Christian shrines and reliquaries in the Viking Age is so well-documented that it has been reduced to a cartoonish vision of pillaging heathens. A close look at the evidence for such ‘looting’ tells a different story – or rather a number of different stories. A recent reassessment... -
Conference paper (unpublished)
A new approach to volunteer lead digitisation
As part of an AHRC funded research project we are aiming to bridge the gap between in person and online volunteering. Working with a group of Bradford volunteers we are creating an experimental method for giving ownership over to those volunteers in deciding what parts of a collections get catalogued...Belknap, Geof ; Blickhan, Sam
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Lecture
Scotland and the Cold War
For three decades, Scotland was on the frontline in a potential Third World War with the Soviet Union. From the 1960s the west of Scotland was home to Britain’s nuclear deterrent and a key strategic American submarine base. In this talk, Dr Jim Gledhill will examine the Cold War from...Gledhill, Jim
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Presentation
Respect! Caribbean life in Edinburgh – How a community project has changed our museum practice
In 2021 and 2022 Museums & Galleries Edinburgh worked with Edinburgh Caribbean Association (ECA) to develop the exhibition Respect! Caribbean Life in Edinburgh. ECA used the collections of the Museum of Childhood to explore Caribbean culture and childhoods, living in Scotland and Caribbean contributions to British society. The project was...Stevens, Lynn
Museology, Exchange, Caribbean diaspora heritage communities, Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, Colonial Histories And Legacies, and Edinburgh Caribbean Association
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Opening up the Archive: An Approach to Volunteer-led Citizen Science in the Museum and Online
Through Communities and Crowds we aim to address two key challenges: how to open up the museum’s collection to citizen research; and how to make those objects that resonate most strongly with the everyday lives and experiences of our diverse communities easier to search for and discover.Belknap, Geoffrey ; Fitzpatrick, Alex
volunteers, discoverability, diverse communities, museum collections, and citizen research
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Concrete Cairns: Bunker Museums and Cold War Memory on Britain’s Peripheries
This paper will examine two Cold War bunkers in Scotland that have been converted into museums. Both buildings’ ‘cold’ lives and afterlives are integral to the curated stories within and the museums’ multiple meanings contested by communities previously kept out by barbed wire fences.Gledhill, Jim
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Abstract
Presenting a complex hoard deposit – the Galloway Hoard
The Galloway Hoard is the focus of an ongoing research project at National Museums Scotland examining a complex Viking-age deposit composed of multiple parcels, with organic preservation and a variety of materials (gold, silver, copper-alloy, glass, rock crystal, minerals, leather, wood, wool, silk, linen, and animal gut). There may be...Goldberg, Martin
Viking-age hoards, Galloway Hoard , rock crystal, minerals, wool, research project, wood, animal gut, silk, linen, gold, copper-alloy, leather, silver, and glass
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Lecture
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard
The Galloway Hoard contains an unusual variety of materials and artefact types beyond the silver bullion so often found in Viking-age hoards. The find included heirlooms, ecclesiastical items (one of which names a previously unknown Northumbrian bishop), and the rare preservation of organic materials wrapping parcels and distinct groups. A...Goldberg, Martin
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