Woodfarm pupils look at objects from the Maxton collection

At the end of February, Mr. McDonald’s Higher History class from Woodfarm High School visited the Heritage Centre in two groups to look at our Maxton collection.  The pupils had learned about Red Clydeside as part of their study of the impact of the Great War on Scottish politics, so we thought it would be interesting for them to see some objects that had belonged to one of the most famous politicians of that era.

We began by looking at the archive as a whole – the kinds of things it contains, how we look after it and how to handle the objects correctly.  There was an opportunity to play a bit of a speech that Maxton recorded around 1925, a copy of which we recently received from the Bishopsgate Institute Library in London.

After that, the class split into two: one group sat with Amanda, our Local Studies Librarian, and looked at a wide range of images of Maxton – from personal photographs, to election pamphlets to newspaper cartoons – and compared how he was portrayed in the press to how he was remembered as a man.  My group discussed if Maxton could be thought of as a “success” or not, based on positive and negative book reviews of a Maxton biography from the mid-1950s.

We were really pleased to be able to relate the collection so closely to what the pupils had been studying, and to do some interpretation and evaluation of the sources.  It was also a nice opportunity to show the class what goes on in the Heritage Centre and how they might use archives if they go on to study history in the future.  Thanks very much to all the pupils and to Mr. McDonald for coming to see us, and good luck come exam time.

Three of the four Maguire paintings now on show at Eaglesham Library

Two weeks ago I was delighted to see four paintings by John E. Maguire finally go on permanent display in Eaglesham Library.  This was the culmination of a good five months’ work: sourcing quotes for the restoration and framing; liaising with the local restorer/framer; preparing leaflets and other information to support the display; arranging for the installation; and inviting along some guests for a special preview.

The four paintings are all oils showing local views of Eaglesham and nearby Waterfoot – three views of Montgomery Street, and one of Dripps Mill.  They date from around 1900, which is just about the time that the Maguire family moved to Eaglesham from Beith.  We know from the 1901 census and other family documents that the Maguires lived at several addresses on Montgomery Street up to John’s death in 1920.

Meanwhile, some of our volunteers and I have been busy putting together resources that visitors can use to find out more about the artist and about our Maguire collection.  We have had pop up banners designed and made for each of the four collections that the project has explored, so the Maguire banner will stand near to the paintings.  We also have a folder showing all the paintings in the collection, along with a family history and other research that our volunteers have carried out.  Lastly, there is a Maguire leaflet for people to take away.

If you have the chance to visit the library, please let us know what you think of these “new titles”.  The central aim of our project has been to get objects out of storage and on display, so that people can enjoy and learn from them, so the paintings are good concrete evidence of what we’ve been able to achieve.

National Library of Scotland Roadshow

A Carlibar PS pupil looks at a jotter from the Gibson Collection

Class 3/4 at Carlibar Primary recently visited Barrhead Library to learn about what it was like to go to school in Barrhead in the 1920s and 1930s.  The pupils got to handle, view and discuss items from the Gibson collection that relate to Margaret Gibson’s own schooldays at the then Barrhead High Public School.  We all admired her neat handwriting, and everyone got the chance to write their name with a fountain pen. The focus on education and schooling in the Gibson Collection ties in very well with the curriculum, as pupils had recently completed a project on Schools in the Past.  Thanks to the staff and pupils of Carlibar, and to the library staff at Barrhead for their help.

HLF Museum Artefacts Project volunteers at the Mitchell Library

A group of our volunteers recently enjoyed a visit to Archives and Special Collections at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, to view items from the James Maxton collection.  Senior Archivist Dr. Irene O’Brien told us all about the archive and showed us some of the highlights, such as letters that Maxton wrote while he was in Calton Jail.  It was a great opportunity to learn what other organisations do with their collections: how they make them available to researchers, or use them for displays, or promote them to the public.  We particularly liked the small plaster bust of Maxton that was present on the day!

Heritage Project Officer Jenny, Councillor Mary Montague, and volunteer Tom at our VFA celebration

I made mention in a previous post in October on volunteering that we were working towards the Volunteer Friendly Award, which recognises and celebrates the work that organisations do with volunteers.  It is a straightforward quality standard, which assesses you on five areas of practice:

• Commitment to involving volunteers
• Making volunteering happen
• Fair and equal volunteering
• Volunteering tasks and getting them done
• Celebrating volunteers’ contributions

We were delighted to pass our assessment in November and held an evening do at Giffnock Library before Christmas to receive our award and celebrate with our volunteers and other guests.  You can see some of the photos from the night on our Flickr account.  Check out the massive cake!  Ahem.  Anyway, thank you to everyone who attended on the night, including volunteer Margaret who was our official photographer.  Thanks also to Harry and Diane from Voluntary Action East Renfrewshire, who guided me through the whole process and shared their professional knowledge so freely, and to East Ren Libraries’ colleague Alison Meechan, who shared her own VFA work with me while she was working on a new volunteer service for the libraries.  Last, but by no means least, thanks to all our volunteers on the project, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to get so much work done.  It’s all down to you folks!

Volunteers with Stuart Nisbet from Renfrewshire Local History Forum

One of the aims of our project, and indeed of the Heritage Lottery Fund generally,  is to provide volunteers with new or improved skills.  So far, most of the training has been one-to-one, in order to enable folks to carry out a particular task like cataloguing or scanning.  We also enjoyed learning about conservation earlier in the year from the Council’s Records Manager, Craig Geddes.  However, recently we had the chance to offer something a bit different, with the help of members of RHLF, the Renfrewshire Local History Forum.

I was keen to find training options that looked at the more general issue of local history research, to complement the practical hands-on skills that volunteers were able to pick up through working on the collections.  This type of training could help people with some of the small research problems we have encountered so far, or might encourage them to undertake their own local history research in future.  Stuart Nisbet and Alan Steel of RLHF have many years’ experience of carrying out local history projects between them, so we decided to offer a couple of informal workshops/discussions: Stuart would speak about locating and using sources, both primary and secondary, and Alan would offer a kind of research surgery, where volunteers could raise problems they had come up against so far.

Both sessions were really enjoyable: not just because of the informal round-the-table style, but because both Alan and Stuart are very engaging speakers, and convey their own passion for local history so well.  We were impressed with Stuart’s visual aids – an old pram blanket with a map drawn on it, plus some wooden houses, to represent the outskirts of Greenbank estate – and with Alan’s stories of the intrigue in Barrhead party politics throughout the years.  In fact, Alan’s stories were so good that I forgot to take a photograph of the session for my records - and as our long-suffering volunteers will tell you, that is a rare occurrence indeed!

We are delighted to announce that the Heritage Service will be hosting a series of local history talks from the Renfrewshire Local History Forum, from March to May 2012.  More details will be available in the New Year.

In the past couple of weeks though, we have finally made a start.  Four volunteers have begun to sift through the folders, comparing the contents to the original documents, or listing the article details, weeding out duplicates, and identifying poor quality copies, in case we can source better replacements.  It is fascinating to see Maxton’s political life unfold through the articles; sometimes in his own words, or through the criticism of others, or through the pen of a cartoonist.  Even the smallest detail could form the basis of a news story, such as the time a pigeon landed on Maxton while he was addressing a crowd at a Labour rally in Essex, and he managed to incorporate the incident into his speech:

‘”You workers”, said Mr. Maxton, upon whose shoulder the bird was still perched, “are like that pigeon.  You are surrounded by all the good things  of the world, but do not help yourselves to them.”‘ (unknown source).

What is also interesting to me is how the folders themselves demonstrate a very basic issue for local studies libraries, which is how best to make materials accessible to readers, both now and in the future.  These folders and their contents are very much of their time, from the early 1980s.  They consist of foolscap size pages, rather than A4, and the contents were created using the most readily-available technology to the library staff – the photocopier.  These days of course, with access to PCs and scanners, we would have the option of scanning a clippings collection, which would preserve digital copies as well as provide images to print from.  Mind you, the paper photocopies have managed to last for 30 years already, whereas we cannot predict if our digital files would be accessible to readers 30 years from now.  An everyday problem for libraries and archives everywhere.