This is the first of two posts in which we look back to the
year just gone and forward to the coming year. In this post we remember some
significant anniversaries for the University and for Dundee which occurred in
2012.
Doris Mackinnon
September saw the 100th anniversary of the
1912 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in
Dundee. This event involved several members of staff of University College,
Dundee including Patrick Geddes, Angus Fulton and Doris Mackinnon.
1912 was also
notable for one of the largest industrial disputes in Dundee’s history with
around 30,000 millworkers going on strike in the city, bringing production to a
virtual standstill. Matters were eventually settled on 15th April
and the strike was soon eclipsed by the news of the sinking of RMS Titanic. It
would later emerge that the Dundee built vessel SS Californian had been close
to Titanic (the question of how close remains doubtful) but had not responded
to her distress signals. Archive Services holds records relating to both the
1912 meeting and to the strike.
Dundee Asylum
This year also marked the 200thanniversary
of the birth of Harry Walker, the founder of an important local jute firm, the
papers of which we hold (MS 66/VI). 1812
was also the year when the foundation stone of the original Dundee Asylum was
laid. Its records (THB 7) are held has part of the NHS Tayside Archive.
Other significant anniversaries in 2012 included:
·125th anniversary of the opening of
the second Tay Rail Bridge
·115th anniversary of the founding of The Dundee Women's Hospital and Nursing Home
·65th
anniversary of the foundation of the Abertay Historical Society
·40th
anniversary of the 1972 University of Dundee North East Greenland Expedition
·25th
anniversary of the arrival of Michael Hamlin as Principal
·20th
anniversary of the appointment of Sir James Whyte Black as Chancellor and of
Stephen Fry as Rector.
A monthly newsletter from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University of Dundee.
This is the latest edition of the ARMMS and CAIS newsletter, eARMMS, that we also post here. Let us know if you would like an email copy each month.
In this edition:
Dr John Carvell
Benefiting from the Facts
Digital Art for Light Night
Scottish Art Evening Class
New Volunteers
Talks
Making History
Twitter
New accession
Bumper October for information compliance
Completion of JISC project on the costs of FoI
University Science and Medical Display
Dr John Blair
1. Dr John Carvell
Archive Services has again been visited by John Carvell, who regular readers will recall had previously come to the Archives in August, when he was the subject of an oral history interview. He graduated from the School of Medicine in 1970 and during his time as a student he was the first president of the University of Dundee Sports Union. In 1968 he was part of the University's expedition to Scoresby Land in East Greenland, serving as the medical officer and sending back a number of reports that were published by the Courier and Advertiser. These offer fascinating accounts of the expedition, ranging from the dangers of crumbling snow bridges and charging musk oxen to the beauty and solitude of the land. Dr Carvell has generously deposited copies of the reports and a map of Scoresby Land with us. Before Dr Carvell’s recent visit we had made printouts of various images taken during the expedition that showed the various team members. Dr Carvell kindly took time to identify these individuals thus enabling us to update our records.
2. Benefiting from the Facts
The latest exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery has been curated by Claire Wallace, a part-time student on the Museum and Gallery Studies postgraduate course at the University of St Andrews, who is doing her work placement with Museum Services. Claire's exhibition looks at some of the most notable benefactors to the university and its various affiliated institutions, and features paintings, sculpture, photographs and artefacts. Among the benefactors whose generosity is highlighted are Mary Ann Baxter, founder of the university; William Ogilvy Dalgleish, one of the principal funders of the medical school; Margaret Harris, whose bequest endowed the chair of physics; and James Duncan of Jordanstone, after whom the Art College is named. Two of the portraits shown in the exhibition are being displayed for the first time since having conservation treatment funded by a grant from Museums Galleries Scotland. Material from Archive Services is also included in the exhibition.-->
3. Digital Art for Light Night
The D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum was open as part of Dundee's Christmas Light Night celebrations, and as part of the event a specially commissioned digital artwork was premiered. Daniel Brown is one of the UK's leading digital artists, and was commissioned by Museum Services as part of the Art Funded RENEW project to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy Thompson. Daniel has created a computer program which grows random flower forms whose textures and patterns are drawn from specimens in the Zoology Museum. The work will next be shown in an exhibition in the Gateway Galleries in St Andrews along with other works acquired for the project so far.
4. Scottish Art Evening Class
Curator Matthew Jarron recently organised a successful evening class for Continuing Education on Scottish Art of the 20th Century, arranged in collaboration with the Scottish Society for Art History and co-tutored by Lesley Lindsay. The six-week course, which was fully booked, featured guest talks and visits to local collections, as well as a tour of some of the university's own art collections.
5. New Volunteers
Several new volunteers started working with Archive Services in November joining our long-term volunteers Jaqui and Rosanna. Our volunteers do exceptional work for us on a variety of projects. Currently volunteers are helping catalogue the McLean water records, the records of Dundee Art Society, the papers of Professor Charles McKean and of Dr Mary Young and the Lord Roberts / Royal Dundee Institute for the Blind archives as well as helping us with indexing the University Court Minutes, the admission registers of Dundee Royal Infirmary and Canongate books.
6. Talks
Caroline has given a couple of talks on the archives to local groups recently. Over fifty members of the Perth Probus Club turned out on a cold morning to hear about the archive collections and were particularly interested in the material we hold on the world wars. Caroline also spoke to the Dundee and Rattray Civic Trust focusing on the jute related collections that the archives hold. Several members of the audience had either worked in jute factories or knew people who had been associated with the industry in Dundee or India so there was some lively discussion following the talk.
7. Making History
How can history be 'made'? If history is made then who makes it? In a recent lecture to history students Caroline discussed these questions and the role of archives and archivists in creating history, memories and identities. The students discussed the 'truth' of the historical record and the impact that archivists might have when deciding what to keep and how to catalogue and promote their collections. These issues are also addressed in a module that is currently being developed by CAIS on Public History, and which will be available from May 2013.
8. Twitter
The @UoD_Archives Twitter account now has over 340 followers which represents an increase of more than 125% during 2012. The @CAIS_Archives account continues to prove popular with over 680 users following it, while @UoD_Museums has an incredible 1732 followers. Our Twitter accounts allow our users to obtain instant news, facts and information about our activities and collections.
9. New accession
We recently obtained a copy of the rare 1841 book The State of St David's Parish; with remarks on the Moral and Physical Statistics of Dundee by the Reverend George Lewis. The Reverend Lewis was a leading champion of social reform in Dundee and a prolific writer of pamphlets and tracts. This volume is particularly fascinating in that it provides detailed qualitative and quantitative information on Dundee in the Victorian period, especially the industrial district around the Hawkhill. The book has been added to the Kinnear Local Book Collection (Kloc), which already includes some of Lewis’ other works.
10. Bumper October for information compliance
Alan has started compiling the statistics he needs to produce the annual report on information compliance in the University. October was a bumper month with 32 requests for information received on a variety of subjects. This indicates a remarkable increase in the use of the legislation and individuals' awareness of their rights, especially when we remember that the University received 78 requests in total in 2005 (the first year of FoI).
11. Completion of JISC project on the costs of FoI
The data collection for phase 2 of the JISC project to establish the cost of FoI compliance in UK universities was recently completed. The University of Dundee, along with several other universities, tracked the amount of time spent answering particular requests and provided this data to JISC. The hope is that the project will result in an exchange of good practice and a more representative understanding of the costs of complying with information legislation.
12. University Science and Medical Display
During the Dundee Science Fest, Archive Services had two 'open days' where visitors were given a tour of the archive storage areas and shown a variety of records relating to science and the University. Jennifer and Michael have now used these records to create a small display outside the Searchroom. One of the display boards highlights the work of Johannes Petrus Kuenen, Edward Waymouth Reid, Robert P. Cook and Margaret Fairlie. The second board looks at different Professors and the University buildings associated with them. The items in the display case focus on hospitals and in particular, aspects of 'occupational therapy' at Murray Royal Asylum and Sunnyside Royal Hospital.
13. Dr John Blair
Kenneth recently finished listed and numbering the papers of Dr John Blair (UR-SF 65). Dr Blair studied medicine in Dundee in the 1940s and 1950s and has had a long association with both the University of Dundee and the University of St Andrews in a variety of capacities. As well as serving for many years as a widely respected consultant at Perth Royal Infirmary, Dr Blair is internationally well known as an expert in the history of medicine. He also had a long association with the Royal Army Medical Corps. His fascinating records include material relating to his career, personal life and his many interests, notably golf.
We'd like to take this chance to wish all our of our users, students, tutors, colleagues and friends a very Happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.
ARMMS: E-ARMMS newsletter 18 (University of Dundee)
October 2012
A monthly newsletter from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University of Dundee.
This is the latest edition of the ARMMS and CAIS newsletter, eARMMS, that we also post here. Let us know if you would like an email copy each month.
This month CAIS was delighted to welcome our new Programme Administrator, Daria Wall, who has joined the CAIS team in place of Angela. Daria is an experienced administrator, and was previously with the School of Humanities, where she was Postgraduate Officer.
On Saturday 22nd Archive Services held two well attended tours as part of Dundee’s Doors Open Day 2012 events. Keren showed the visitors round our repositories, while Kenneth gave a short talk on the archives before introducing the visitors to some highlights from the University Archives. We were also able to advise visitors on the availability of sources that would help their own research. We were very grateful that everyone who attended took the trouble to say how much they enjoyed the event, and we look forward to participating in Doors Open Day again in 2013. Remember that the University Archives are open to all every day but Thursday and you can also explore our collections on our online catalogue at www.dundee.ac.uk/archives
Archive Services is delighted to have received copies of a rare student newspaper that was produced by the residents of Airlie Hall and that offers a unique insight into student life in a hall of residence during the 1960s. The Airlie Morning Post was written, printed and distributed by the students themselves during the 1967-68 session. One of the founder members, Alan Craxford, was able to make copies of the originals recently and apart from sending them to Archive Services has also made the pages available on the web, along with reminiscences about the newspaper: http://www.craxford-family.co.uk/themetartan/tartantamp.php.
The University of Dundee's Culture and Arts Forum (CAF) held its 8th Annual Culture Day on 3rdOctober. The theme of this year’s event was "Health, Well-being and the Arts" and a range of talks was given by staff from across the University. Matthew, who also chaired the event, opened proceedings with a talk on the art collections of Dundee Dentists. Kenneth represented Archive Services and gave a paper on early female medical students at the University of Dundee. Other participants included Brian Hoyle (English), talking about Carry On and Doctor films and Billy Kenefick and Derek Patrick (History) on Image and Reality and the Scottish Soldier. Matthew is Convener of CAF and Caroline is Secretary to the group.
On 26th September Kenneth visited the Monfieth Local History Society to give a talk on the Archives. Kenneth’s talk gave a flavour of our holdings and he then took questions from the audience who were keen to find out more. Several of the society's members are hoping to visit the archives in the future to pursue leads in their own research. On 24th October Kenneth also gave a talk at the School of Medicine’s International Student Welcome Evening to c.60 staff and students on the History of the Medical School in Dundee. Both staff and students were very interested to find out about some of their illustrious predecessors such as Margaret Fairlie, Scotland’s first female professor, and our late Chancellor, Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir James Black.
Museum Services organised various events as part of this year's Science Festival. On Tues 6 November at 6pm, the Tayside Medical History Museum at Ninewells hosted a special event entitled Think Global, Act Local: Dundee's International Role in Improving Child Health. In two stimulating and inspiring talks, Stephen Greene (Professor of Child and Adolescent Health) and Dr Anil Mehta (Reader in Molecular Medicine) focused on Diabetes and Cystic Fibrosis, showing how local expertise is leading international collaborative initiatives to transform the modern management of these important conditions. See http://www.dundeesciencefestival.org/event.full.php?id=118 for details. On Mon 12 and Tues 13 November, award-winning comedian and Radio 4 star Helen Keen returned to the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum for a third year with a new show, The World of Tomorrow. With her usual esoteric mix of stand-up comedy, science fiction and shadow puppetry, Helen transported you into the exciting, inventive and tin-foily world of The Future (by at least an hour).
The events programme for the exhibition Human Race: Inside the History of Sports Medicine continues. Lectures included a talk on Dundee's orthopaedic pioneer Prof Ian Smillie by Bill Hadden on 31 October and on the ground-breaking experimental physiologist, John Scott Haldane, by Peter Taylor on 9 November. The exhibition has been created by the Scotland & Medicine Partnership and is funded by the Olympics Legacy Trust as an official part of the Cultural Olympiad. It is showed across two venues - the Lamb Gallery and the Institute of Sport & Exercise - until 10 November. See http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/medical/humanrace/ for details.
A number of students recently completed single modules or short courses. They included students studying an aspect of professional practice for their professional development. Others were continuing to gather credits for their degrees. As well as masters degrees CAIS also offers short non-accredited courses in family and local history. Our 'Beyond the Internet' short online courses, which began on 17 September, have now ended and 35 certificates of completion have been sent to those who took part. A selection of CAIS courses are available three times a year. Further details are on our web site at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/CAIS
For some months now, Jennifer has been cataloguing the Carnoustie Golf Club records (MS 329). These include records of the club itself as well as research notes made by Bill Coupar whilst he was writing a book on the impact Carnoustie golfers had on the world. Coupar died before he was able to complete the book but the masses of research notes he compiled along with photographs, correspondence and original artefacts such as club tickets are now fully listed and numbered and can now be made available for the public to use. The last job Jennifer has to do is to input the collection list onto CALM so that readers can search the descriptions online and see what is available.
Caroline has been involved in a Scottish Council on Archives project to develop an online portal for Scotland’s archive catalogues. The aim is to provide a site where item level descriptions of archives will link to details of the creators of the archives and to the repositories that hold them. Funding is being sought to build in educational and interactive resources to the site. More details on the Scottish Council on Archives activities is available at http://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/
CAIS is currently developing a series of online resources called 'The Recordkeeper's Bookshelf' in a project funded by the International Council on Archives. Covering the core recordkeeping functions and issues such as appraisal, electronic records and description, the series will provide an introduction to debates and literature relating to the topics. Caroline is currently writing the module on appraisal. Other topics include the life cycle and continuum and preservation and disaster management..
The School of Humanities postgraduate students visited the archives for an induction recently. We discussed the different reasons for keeping archives, their cultural and evidential role and the decisions that archivists have to take when deciding what records to keep. The students were given several archival items and asked to discuss their provenance, the impact their content, context and structure on their role as evidence and their informational content.
Alan attended a recent event in Perth held by the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner on changes to the way that Publication Schemes are implemented in Scottish public authorities. A Publication Scheme is a resource that is required by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 which explains what information a public body normally places into the public domain in areas such as institutional governance and financial management. A generic model scheme has been developed to replace the original publication schemes for the whole Scottish public sector with the aim of promoting consistency in the information routinely published by public bodies. The Secretaries' Group of Universities Scotland has approved the adoption of the Commissioner's new generic model and Alan is a member of a small sub-group of the Scottish HE Information Practitioners Group which is developing the framework for its implementation in Scottish universities (based on his contribution to the development of the previous sectoral scheme and the University of Dundee's leading role in a consultation response on Publication Schemes on behalf of the sector in 2010).
On 1st November Pat and Caroline accompanied CAIS students on a visit to PRONI’s impressive new building at the developing waterfront of Belfast. The visit started with short presentations by Stephen Scarth, Head of Public Services on PRONI’s marketing strategy, Graham Jackson on access and Iain Fleming on digital preservation. It was interesting to hear of the role of the Public Record office in preserving and managing access to records relating to the Troubles. Glynn Kelso gave us a guided tour of the building which included a visit to the conservation studio where Rose Kelly explained the role of conservators at PRONI and the visit ended in the large purpose built stores managed by Alan Robertson.
Pat, Caroline and Alan pay tribute to our colleague and friend, Marion Hoy, former Archivist at Records and Information Professionals Australasia, who passed away recently after a long illness in Newcastle, New South Wales. She was a good friend and an unfailingly cheerful colleague at International Council on Archives Section on Archival Education meetings, of which she was Secretary. We will miss her and we send our condolences to her husband and children.
