Blog posts

The Granite Panel

Posted by Jenny Brown, 10 December 2010.

Very exciting development today - the initial invitations have gone out for the first meeting of the new Granite Panel!

This panel was one of the suggestions we put to council in the report "Acknowledging Aberdeen's Granite Heritage" earlier this year. We hope to draw together professionals who are currently working with granite to advise us on our granite collections and granite-related activities, such as the City's inaugural Granite Month in May 2011. As such we've got building and monumental masons, sculptors and conservation bodies on the list so far. My personal hope is that we can begin to provide a focus for Aberdeen's passion for its granite past but also document and highlight how granite is used today, how it is cared for and how enthusiastic Aberdonians can engage with granite.

You can find the full granite report to Aberdeen City Council here: Granite Report

And you can get in touch with me with ideas and suggestions for Granite Month 2011 by emailing jenbrown@aberdeencity.gov.uk or calling 01224 337719.

Early Start

Posted by Jenny Brown, 2 December 2010.

This morning I surprised myself by actually getting in at 7.50 am. In normal circumstances I am definitely more of a 9 to 5 kind of girl.

But the next 4ish months are going to be distinctly abnormal as we prepare to move out of one of our stores. Currently housing over 20,000 individual objects, this store is also where the largest bulk of my backlog is (see last month's post). I want to get this catalogued before the move, so I have appealed for volunteers to our wonderful Friends organisation and to local university students and had a simply overwhelming response. These guys are battling in through the snow and ice to come and help take care of our industrial heritage and make it more accessible for everyone. Thanks guys!

So why the early start? Well, I'm so overwhelmed by volunteers I have to get a head start somehow!

If you want to get involved in 2011, get in touch: jenbrown@aberdeencity.gov.uk

Backlog

Posted by Jenny Brown, Friday 19 November 2010.

Today I am very happy because our wonderful Documentation Assistants have finished doing an inventory of our backlog!

What on earth am I talking about? Backlog of what? Well, pretty much every museum has a backlog of some description. Generally speaking, this is the objects and works of art in our collection which are not on our computer database. Back in the day, museums would keep paper registers or records (or not even that in some cases!), and later there were card index catalogues. But both these systems are painfully slow if, for example, you want to find out how many mangles you have. These days we want everything catalogued electronically so we can answer public enquiries much quicker, with the final aim of making our whole collection available online.

The inventory is essentially a handlist so we know exactly what we have. The next step is to try and marry up objects on the list with the old paper records where possible, before cataloguing in earnest. It's easy to think cataloguing is just the teensiest bit dull… but knowledge is power and a complete catalogue opens doors for new and exciting curatorial endeavours!

Listening to history

Posted by Jenny Brown Wednesday 20 October 2010.

As part of my research for the current nursing history exhibition, The Caring Profession, I put out an appeal to nurses past and present. I'm a curator and am therefore very comfortable with archives and artefacts but I felt it was really important to try and understand what it is like to be a nurse.

The small band of volunteers who came forward have been extraordinary. Through them, I have learnt about the highs and lows of training to be and working as a nurse and gained an understanding of how they see themselves. I sincerely hope I've managed to capture this in the exhibition.

8 of these volunteers also agreed to a recorded interview about their working lives, or an oral history interview. The Kenneth A Webster Nursing Collection (from which the exhibition is largely drawn) includes some fantastic interviews with nurses who trained near the beginning of the twentieth century, so it was great to be able to add some more recent perspectives. These recordings will now be preserved for the future and are available by appointment just like the rest of our permanent collections.

Dealing with digital audio files has been a steep learning curve for me, and the ongoing preservation of "born-digital" media is an ongoing challenge for museums and archives. But after a steep learning curve and a bit of practice, I've managed to edit some short clips from these recordings to enhance the interpretation of objects in the exhibition. Why not drop in and try out our talking telephone?

Nursing in the North East

Posted by Jenny Brown on Monday 20 September 2010.

I was lucky enough to attend a symposium this weekend on the life and work of Florence Nightingale. There has been quite a lot in the press and on television about Florence Nightingale this year as 2010 marks the 100^th anniversary of her death.

The symposium looked at several aspects of her life, and perhaps surprisingly her great contributions to nursing did not feature heavily. Rather than being disappointed by this, I was thrilled to learn more about the context of her achievements in the Crimea, her influence on the literature of the day, her personal religious faith and her important work as a statistician. Like any one of us Florence Nightingale was a complex, brilliant and sometimes flawed individual. This makes her a fascinating historical character.

I love how museums can help us see people from the past as real individuals through the artefacts they leave behind. Seeing something real and imagining who made it, or how it was used and by whom really helps to make the past immediate and personal.

So when working our new exhibition The Caring Profession I really wanted to highlight the personal stories of nurses from the North East. I was really lucky to have a great group of volunteers who either worked or trained in Aberdeen and Grampian to help me do this. Over a series of sessions they really gave me an insight into their experiences and helped to review the choices of objects and the labels. You'll even be able to hear a few of their own memories in the show.

I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped put the exhibition together. I hope the exhibition does them justice and that you will join us to discover more about our local nurses and celebrate their work.

The Caring Profession

Victorian Pharmacy Episode 4

Posted by Jenny Brown Friday 20 August 2010.

Victorian Pharmacy has now ended on the BBC, bringing to an end what has been a fascinating show. The photograph taken of the presenters is especially apt for our own Victorian pharmacy, Davidson & Kay.

In 1894, Davidson celebrated his "jubilee". He had begun as a chemist before Queen Victoria had risen to the throne and 60 years later he was still a partner in Davidson and Kay, though not an active one. As part of the jubilee year, photographs of the premises were taken including this one of the west end store (now a bank!).

Victorian Pharmacy Episode 3

Posted by Jenny Brown on Tuesday 10 August 2010.

Episode 3 of the BBC's Victorian Pharmacy has definitely been the best so far! It really captured the sense of excitement and experimentation that for me really encapsulates the Victorian era.

I love how the show is demonstrating how science can be really simple. The example of the custard powder is great - how many of you knew what is made of? I certainly didn't! Maybe I'll have a go at making my own. Watching them extract chemicals and make new compounds in the lab also brings back memories of school science lessons…except that again it all seems so much more exciting in the Victorian era than it did at school! For the Victorians the opportunity to experiment was largely unsupervised and unregulated. I suspect on the whole the advance of legislation has been largely favourable to public safety, however!

BBC Victorian Pharmacy Series Episode Three

Finally, Briony Hudson, Keeper of the Museum Collections at the Royal Pharmaceutical Museum of Great Britain was the star of the show. The museum is also wonderful and with a whole host of fascinating information online, the website is well worth a visit:

The Museum of Great Britain

Victorian Pharmacy Episode 2

Posted by Jenny Brown on Thursday 29 July 2010.

For me, the second episode of Victorian Pharmacy was all about knowledge and trust.

In this episode, we learn that the General Medical Council revealed the ingredients of some "Secret Remedies" so that people would know what was in them and not simply place their trust in dubious sellers; Nick has to impress the horseman with his veterinary cure to gain his trust and to do so would have to demonstrate his knowledge of horses. Even the hard graft of the apprentice's life can be seen as a way of gaining his boss's trust so that he will continue to pass on his knowledge.

Knowledge and trust tie in with the idea of marketing which the series has highlighted frequently. As everyone knows, word of mouth is actually the best form of marketing or advertising you can get. People trust people - are you more likely to try a new hair dye or face cream from an advert or if someone recommends it?

Here in Aberdeen, Davidson & Kay used personal recommendations to help advertise of products. The collection includes a number of letters written to Davidson & Kay from cattle owners all ordering and/or recommending "Davidson's Red Water Cure". This evil sounding mixture of linseed oil, turpentine, tar perfumed with lavender and died red with rad anchusae would probably have been applied externally and was claimed to cure "Red Water", more commonly known today as Babesiosis.

"Red Water" was so known because of blood in the urine and could be a serious threat to the livelihood of a cattle owner.

Davidson & Kay edited and used the letters from customers in their advertisements for the product, claiming the testimonials were "unsolicited" and trying to gain the trust of new customers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, you can find out more by searching the George Shepherd Pharmaceutical Collection online or getting in touch. I'll be doing a talk about Davidson & Kay at Aberdeen Maritime Museum on 7th August 2010 - call 01224 337714 for more details and to book your place.

Don't forget to watch the episode:

BBC Victorian Pharmacy Series Episode Two

 

Victorian Pharmacy

Posted by Jenny Brown on Monday 19 July 2010.

This week saw the start of the BBC's Victorian Pharmacy series, which is taking a look at 19th century medicine and the role of the pharmacist. I've been really looking forward to watching this series, as they are trying out some old remedies and cures on willing volunteers!

Here in Aberdeen we have the George Shepherd Pharmaceutical Collection, containing the entire contents of Davidson & Kay "Chemists to the Queen". This traditional chemist's shop from Alford Place is fondly remembered by many Aberdonians. The collection is truly astonishing and has several unique items which make is not only a local treasure but a nationally significant collection. The prescription registers record nearly a century of recipes whilst the numbered purple carboys are the only known example of their kind (and on display later this year at the Gallery).

The first episode of the series talks about how the promotion or marketing of products was important to the success of the business. Davidson & Kay were masters at this. They secured royal patronage early on and followed up by gaining royal appointment to Queen Victoria in the later 19th century. Clearly keen on targeting the wealthy and affluent citizens of Aberdeen, they followed their clientele into the West End of Aberdeen with new premises at Babbie Law's corner (now the corner of Union Street and Holburn Street).

I really enjoyed the programme and would definitely recommend it (not least because it includes a mention of my home town and the Malvern Water Cure), so here is the link:

BBC Victorian Pharmacy Series Episode One

For more on the George Shepherd Pharmaceutical Collection, search our Collections or get in touch jenbrown@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

 

Stash in the attic

Posted by Jenny Brown Friday 18 June 2010.

Occasionally in this job you get a phone call that starts with "I've been having a clear out…" or "I thought you might be interested in this…". It's great to get a call like that from the public. Even although the item isn't always rare or beautiful, each offered donation is important because it means the person on the other of the line cares about the history of their city.
Occasionally though you get offered something exceptional. For me this month it was being lent the Chain of Office for the Aberdeen Granite Association.
We were extremely lucky to receive the final volumes of the minutes of the Association last year, along with some exceptionally rare photographs of Garden and company's yard on King Street. So I could hardly believe my luck when the Chain of Office also came to light.
The Aberdeen Granite Association was founded in 1887. Its purpose was to defend the collective interests of the city's granite merchants in much the same way that, later, the masons' union was to defend the interests of granite workers.
The gold plate chain of office was presented in 1948 by the retiring President Mr James Rust in memory of his father, who was also an Association President from 1922 to 1925. The names of President up to the 1970s are also recorded on the chain, after which there were fewer remaining members.
In the event, the Association was unable to fend off external competition and stop the decline of Aberdeen's granite trade. In December of 1983 the Granite Association was disbanded and the minutes discuss the fate of the chain but never reveal what happened to it…until now.
The Chain of Office is on loan until 20 June 2010 and is on display in the 1885: Industrial Aberdeen exhibition at Aberdeen Maritime Museum. Afterwards we hope to acquire it permanently for the collections, so watch this space.

New additions

Posted by Jenny Brown Thursday 27 May 2010

This month has seen us collect some very exciting new additions to the collections. Dating from 1933, these plaster figures were first displayed at the popular Rendezvous Café on the corner of Forest Avenue and Union Grove. The Café was run by the Guilionottis family of Italian descent and quite famous for their ice cream. Not only are they exquisite examples of kitsch, they are also a fabulous part of Aberdeen's history which many people will remember.

Luckily it was a bright sunny day the day we picked the figures up but the trip was not without its heart stopping moments. The figures are quite robust in themselves but are currently attached to a much flimsier base of card and papier mache. At some point in the past this had caused them to bang their heads together, leaving a dent. The paint surface is also quite loose with small bits still coming away. How could we pack it so it would be safe on the journey back to store? The solution was to pack the figures gently in a box mainly around the base and avoiding anything touching the figures.

The journey was fraught - every little bump and pot hole left from winter left me worried the figures would be damaged in transit! Thankfully when we arrived at store, the figures seemed safe and sound. Work will now start to identify what kind and level of conservation should take place. The priority is to get the figures on display for everyone to enjoy as soon as possible, but first we need to send off samples of the paint so we can identify and stabilise it to prevent any further loss to these precious objects.

Visitors' Book

Posted by Jenny Brown Wednesday 21 April 2010

I love reading visitor's books. I like to make a point of reading them whenever I visit shows and exhibitions at other museums, but especially for our own exhibitions. Though the space is always small, I love it when someone crams in loads of comments, or draws a smiley face and it is always intriguing trying to read comments in foreign languages!

The Visitors' Book for 1885: Industrial Aberdeen is already filling up after only 2 weeks. There are lots of positive comments about the show and the museum generally and also a couple of questions and suggestions too, which are actually very helpful in helping us as curators for improving exhibitions for visitors.

A few people have asked for more information and more objects, but not left any contact details so I will try to explain in this blog. Hopefully the visitors in question may read this! A couple of people wanted material relating to other engineering firms - Barry Henry & Cook and Abernethy's. Both of these are important local firms, and both have interesting histories. I tried to represent as many firms as I could, but our collections from these two firms are largely archival and given the numbers of photographs, plans and indentures already on the wall we just ran out of room. I will bear it in mind though and try to do a talk later this year. In the meantime, everyone is welcome to request and make an appointment to see these items.

One entry in the book is almost pleading to know more about granite! Given the recent interest in granite heritage raised by the sale of Rubislaw Quarry, I did increase the number of granite items on display but freely admit there wasn't much on granite buildings. I am doing additional research on our granite heritage at the moment, and hope to be able to present this to you all soon. The top tip has to be - if you want an answer to a question, please ask a member of staff or leave your details!

New beginnings

Posted by Jenny Brown Tuesday 20 April 2010

Putting up an exhibition sometimes feels like an ending, even though it's only the beginning for everyone else. Our exhibition programme is set 2 to 3 years in advance at times, particularly if it is a blockbuster exhibition like last summer's Ron Mueck show at the Art Gallery. But humbler shows take almost as much work.

I started planning 1885: Industrial Aberdeen over a year ago, well aware that 2010 would be a big year for Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums. I was intrigued by the early days of Aberdeen Art Gallery, which like many Victorian institutions, was very much a "one stop shop" when it opened 125 years ago. I've tried to bring together as many of the early exhibits from the Industrial Museum, identifying them from descriptions in early catalogues and archive records.

Now that the show is coming together, it's great to see so many of these treasures in one place. It's the end of a long research process for me but a new exhibition for the public. I wonder if visitors will look at these artefacts in the same way as their Victorian ancestors?

For more information on the show click the link;
1885: Industrial Aberdeen