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2023
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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2023
Journal article
We need to encourage a plurality of voices in collections-based research
Stories have too narrow a perspective, says John Giblin and Phoenix ArcherGiblin, John ; Archer, Phoenix
Exchange, African, Caribbean and South Asian diaspora heritage communities, Museology, Colonial Histories and Legacies, and Collections Research
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2023
Research report
Exchange: Community-led Collections Research Recommendations for more equitable participation
The Exchange project funded museum partners around the UK to undertake community-led collections-based research and creative outputs. All Exchange projects used participatory research methodologies, working with African, Caribbean, and South Asian diaspora heritage community members to explore experiences of empire, migration, and life in Britain. The first stage of Exchange... -
2023
Book chapter
The Matter of Slavery at National Museums Scotland
In the ‘Industry and Empire’ gallery of the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh sits a gleaming cup of white porcelain, resting on its saucer. Text rendered in black lettering around the body of the cup reads: ‘and so it was that those long sea/journeys became yonder awa awa’....Laurenson, Sarah
Colonial Histories and Legacies, Slavery, Scotland, and Industry and Empire
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2023
Blog post
Period products for a 21st century Scotland
Tampons, pads, and menstrual cups are everyday objects used by many though rarely considered noteworthy. But what can a group of period products say about the social and environmental concerns of Scotland today? Georgia Vullinghs, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary History, discusses some recent acquisitions relating to the campaign...Vullinghs, Georgia
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2022
Blog post
An Edinburgh institution: Jenners in our collections and archives
With the approach of Christmas and festive shopping reaching a frenzy, this is the perfect time to revisit the history of an Edinburgh icon – Jenners department store. At National Museums Scotland we hold the Jenners Archive along with several objects from Jenners that have entered the museum’s collection. Join...Holder, Julie
Fashion, British, Retail history, Womenswear, Shopping history, Department stores, 20th century, Jenners, Edinburgh, Women's, Christmas, 21st century, 19th century, and Department store
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Lecture
Community-led collecting and the Exchange project
The £250,000 pilot project, entitled Exchange: Community-Led Collections Research, will see funding distributed to galleries, libraries, archives and museums to work with South Asian, African and Caribbean diaspora organisations to answer research questions identified by these community groups. The year-long project will see National Museums Scotland and the National Maritime Museum, London, working as a hub;...Diver, Iona
Scotland, Scotland's material heritage, Colonial legacies, Community-led , Colonial histories, Collecting, Material heritage, and The Exchange project
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Bodies of power, bodies of chaos: Occupational stereotyping of disability in Middle Kingdom Egypt
This conference brings together an international team of scholars in a collaborative effort to investigate historical bodies in relations of comparisons and negotiations, to engage in dialogue beyond disciplinary boundaries. Participants were asked to explore how four specific concepts – historical bodies, relations, comparisons and negotiations – can be useful...Maitland , Margaret
Middle Kingdom Egypt, Egypt, Disability , Egyptology, Body, and Stereotyping
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2022
Blog post
Air Personnel of Colour: Recovering their experiences in Scottish wartime aviation
A new project looks to recover and reconstruct the presence of personnel of colour within the RAF in Scotland during the two world wars. PhD researcher Isobel Westbury will explore the diversity of people connected to flying in Scotland during this period and talks us through the aims, and her...Westbury, Isobel
Wartime Experience , War , World War Two, Aircraft , World War One , Black History Month , Research , and Colonial Histories And Legacies
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2022
Newspaper article
We’re revisiting our stories of Empire in museums and galleries - Dr John Giblin and Dr Yahya Barry
Across the UK, galleries, museums, libraries and archives hold collections which tell many millions of stories. Some of these are better known than others, while some are yet to be properly explored.Giblin, John ; Barry, Yahya
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2022
Blog post
The Jenners Archive: your ultimate guide to unrationed chic
The Second World War was a time of clothes rationing. We hold the Jenners Archive in the museum’s library which documents the clothes that were available. Library Assistant Linden Williamson delves into the archive to guide us through the fashion trends of the day through the eyes of a housewife... -
2022
Blog post
Exchange: Exploring experiences of empire, migration and life in Britain
Over the last year, the ‘Exchange: Community-Led Collections Research’ project has helped galleries, libraries, archives and museums to work with South Asian, African and Caribbean diaspora organisations to answer research questions identified by these community groups. National Museums Scotland and Royal Museums Greenwich, London, worked as a hub to gather...Barry, Yahya
Scotland's Material Heritage, Exchange , Black History Month , Colonial Histories And Legacies , and Partnerships
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Lecture
Dressing the cultural imaginary: whose ‘gypsy’?
Emily Taylor and Benjamin Wild discuss the collector Charles W. Stewart.Tayor, Emily ; Wild, Benjamin Linley
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Confronting colonial histories and legacies in Egyptian and Sudanese collections at National Museums Scotland
Maitland, Margaret
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Conference paper (unpublished)
The Body Beautiful: Addressing Cultural Diversity in Museum Fashion Collections
Collecting as a practice and the collections that result from this practice are crucial for museums. Collecting and collections embody power on many different levels – providing insights and basic knowledge, illustrating specific practices of our work to the widest audiences, and forming a basis for contextualizing our world. How...Ripley, Georgina
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2022
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... -
2022
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
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2022
Journal article
‘Is Radioactive Iodine Present Equally in the Cream on Milk as in the Milk Itself?’: Lonely Sources and the Gendered history of Cold War Britain
This article argues that one way to foreground and privilege women's perspectives on the Cold War is by re-interpreting their historical experiences of food and drink. The article develops this argument by analysing one letter, from an unknown woman to the BBC, in the context of nuclear health concerns in...Douthwaite, Jessica
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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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Lecture
Social control in Ancient Egypt
This short talk will explore how culture, interactions, and physical experiences shaped how ancient Egyptians saw themselves and their place in society.Maitland, Margaret
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2022
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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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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2022
Blog post
On the edge: COP 15 and disappearing species
With COP 15 taking place in China this month, Principal Curator of Vertebrates Andrew Kitchener explores the case of the ivory-billed woodpecker. Thought to be extinct, but with potential sightings still reported, this bird is just one of many species we’re at risk of losing forever.Kitchener, Andrew C
Conservation , Birds , Natural Sciences , Audubon , and Natural World
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2022
Blog post
Cups saucers and women's right to vote
How might our design choices inform our values? A recent addition to our collections allows us to explore a group of radical ceramics for Women’s History Month. Claire Blakey, Curator Modern Decorative Arts, talks us through a tea set made to champion women’s suffrage.Blakey, Claire
Suffragette , Women , Ceramics, and WSPU
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2022
Lecture
The making of the Typewriter Revolution: a new exhibition on typewriters at the National Museum of Scotland.
The Typewriter Revolution exhibition, which opened at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh in July 2021, examines the social and technological impact of typewriters from the mid-nineteenth century to their continued use and popularity in the twenty-first century. James Inglis, whose PhD research has made up a large part of...Inglis, James
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2022
Journal article
Jewellery and Covid-19
Over the last 18 months the pandemic has affected many areas of life, with society witnessing huge changes globally, and museums acquiring artefacts and works of art, design and crat that reflected and responded to the impact of covid-19. In my own organisation, the approach has focused on a range...Rothwell, Sarah
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2022
Journal article
Collecting Covid
Rothwell, Sarah
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2021
Blog post
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: repurposing plastic waste
Where does our plastic go? Dr Ali Clark considers how artworks by Oceanic artists made from recycled plastics present local solutions to a global problem.Clark, Ali
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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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2021
Journal article
Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes
Hansen’s disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins and past dissemination patterns are still widely unknown. Applying ancient DNA approaches to its major causative... -
2021
Newspaper article
Climate change: The answers to our greener future might just lie in the past
Climate change information is everywhere: billionaires write books about it, and social media is aflame. A bewildering array of data and opinions assault us from all sides, but as a science curator, my favourite place to learn about our environment is in museums.Alberti, Samuel J M M
Edinburgh, Scotland, and Climate Change
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2021
Blog post
Artistic expressions of today: Communication
Over the last year, we have acquired several artefacts that discuss how the impact of the pandemic and wider socio-political subjects have inspired the creation of some remarkable works of art, craft and design that reflect these times. Sarah Rothwell, Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, continues our mini-series...Rothwell, Sarah
Contemporary Art , COVID-19, Contemporary Collecting, and Ceramics
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2021
Blog post
Artistic expressions of today: Sustainability and consumption
Over the last year, we have acquired several artefacts that discuss how the impact of the pandemic and wider socio-political subjects have inspired the creation of some remarkable works of art, craft and design that reflect these times. Sarah Rothwell, Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, concludes our mini-series...Rothwell, Sara
Jewellery , Sustainability, Contemporary Collecting, Contemporary Jewellery, and Climate
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2021
Blog post
Artistic expressions of today: Climate change
Over the last year, we have acquired several artefacts that discuss how the impact of the pandemic and wider socio-political subjects have inspired the creation of some remarkable works of art, craft and design that reflect these times. Sarah Rothwell, Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design, kicks off our...Rothwell, Sarah
Art & Design, Climate , Contemporary Collecting , COVID-19, and Climate Change
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2021
Lecture
National Museums Scotland Roundtable: “Images of the Buddha: Collecting Histories and the Displays of Buddhist Material in Public Museums”
Research into the nature and the building of public and private collections has been an area of study for scholars and museum professionals for several decades. More recently, the collecting of objects from non-European and indigenous cultures in the context of national imperial histories has come to the front of...Martin, Emma ; Voigt, Friederike ; De Raat, Marjolein ; Cheung, Karwin
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2021
Blog post
LGBTQIA+ hidden histories
LGBTQIA+ stories have often been left out of mainstream history and we are keen to make them more visible. Our new trail highlights unexplored stories from across our collections. Laura Bennison, our Community Engagement Officer, explores how our LGBTQIA+ Hidden Histories Trail came to be and how it was developed.Bennison, Laura
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2020
Blog post
Collecting the present
Contemporary collecting has been a hot topic for many museums for several years now. Curators have adopted several different approaches to ensuring their institutions are responsive and capturing the important issues of the time so that present and future visitors are better able to understand and learn from the experience...Breward, Chris
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2020
Journal article
Collecting COVID-19 at National Museums Scotland
This opinion piece discusses National Museums Scotland’s first responses to collecting COVID-19. Drawing on perspectives from social history, biomedical science and military history, this short paper contextualizes COVID-related collecting within the contexts of the organization’s programme of contemporary collecting and the nation’s ongoing socio-political journey.Laurenson, Sarah ; Robertson, Calum ; Goggins, Sophie
Scotland, Contemporary collecting, social history, military history, and medical history
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2020
Journal article
Tongland works in Galloway and the women engineers
In 1916, a factory was established by William Beardmore and Thomas Pullinger at Tongland in south-west Scotland that was for much of the time that it was in operation staffed by women. Initially manufacturing aero engines, the women were being trained for a career in engineering, not simply as war...Innes, Louise
Women engineers, Pullinger, aero engines, Tongland, Galloway cars, and factory
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2020
Audio
The Declaration of Arbroath
2020 marks the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, one of Scotland's most important historical artefacts. To mark the anniversary we spoke to two experts to understand more about how it was created, and why it still resonates today. In this podcast we are joined by National Museums Scotland's...Wylie, Alice ; Blackwell, Alice ; Broun, Dauvit
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2009
Book
Robert Burns and the Hellish Legion
Folk tales and beliefs are as important a part of cultural history as novels or organised religion. Robert Burns and the Hellish Legion explores some aspects of life in the world in which Burns lived and wrote, the supernatural beliefs which people held, and how they fitted into their everyday...Burnett, John
Folk literature, Scotland, Robert Burns , Folklore, superstition, and 18th Century
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2010
Journal article
Edward Forbes (1815-1854) and the exhibition of natural order in Edinburgh
The roles, affordances and social agency of natural history museums are discussed in relation to the writings of Edward Forbes. These signal a motivation, in the mid-nineteenth-century, to naturalize the established social order through the systematic arrangement and display of natural history specimens. The perceived importance of the embodied messages...Swinney, Geoffrey N
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2018
Journal article
Embroidered stories
Helen Wyld introduces an extraordinary collection of Scottish needlework which records lives that would otherwise have been forgotten.Wyld, Helen
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2018
Journal article
People and planes: technical versus social narratives in aviation museums
Redevelopment of two Second World War hangars at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian provided an opportunity to re-interpret the museum collections. This short account of the project looks at the integrated incorporation of oral history recordings. In particular, it looks at the new approach taken to the...Brown, Ian
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2018
Journal article
The Rezillo's Fender Precision bass guitar, 1970s
From the days of the dancehalls to the emergence of pop in an explosion of colour in the 60s, through the 70s and New Wave, Rip It Up will feature global stars and independent local heroes from pop's early days right up to today’s outstanding newcomers. Artists and bands to...Allen, Stephen