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. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
Thanks to everyone who visited the National Library of Scotland Roadshow at Eastwood Park on Sunday, we had a great day and I hope you enjoyed the various events on offer. Thanks also to all the project volunteers who turned up, helped out at our stand and stayed to the very end – what troopers you are! You can see some photos from the day on our Flickr set.
The Heritage Service is delighted to announce that the National Library of Scotland is bringing its roadshow to East Renfrewshire on Sunday 11 March. There will be a range of talks, stalls and drop-in workshops, all on the theme of local and family history. See the link below for full details. We are also using this event to mark the achievements of the HLF Museum Artefacts Project, so we will have a display and a talk all about our work, and some of our volunteers will be present to chat about their contributions to the project. Hope to see you there!
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:
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!
The end of the HLF Museum Artefacts project is only a few weeks away, so the next series of entries will attempt to catch up with events from the last couple of months. As we focus on trying to get as much done as we can before the end of March, and tie up a variety of loose ends, finding the time to update the blog, or add photos to our Flickr account, gets harder and harder. But both channels are a great way to record and publicise the events and tasks taking place, so I will endeavour to keep posting, even if it’s just a photo and a couple of lines.
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.
