Friday Gem – Royal Mail Stamps

Tags

Dumfries, Folk, Poetry, Poet, Stamp, Stamp collecting, Royal Mail, Hobbie, Competition, Postage, Bicentenary, Bruce, Bannockburn, Scotland, Auld Lang Syne, Ballad, Mouse, Mauchline, Verse

This weeks Friday Gem concentrates on a new Burns related acquisition here at Dumfries Museum. Issued to mark the bicentenary of the poet in 1996, these are First Edition stamps from the Royal Mail.

Awarded as part of a contest, the lucky winner also won a special bicentenary diary along with the stamp presentation pack.

Take a look at the pictures below to see the splendid detail of the illustrations!

In 1793 Burns also wrote the lines Scots, Wha Hae, the Poet’s imagined rallying cry of Bruce to his men at Bannockburn. It was never published in his lifetime, but is now a national song of Scotland.

In Auld Lang Syne Burns reworked a traditional air and added his own verses in 1788, one of hundreds of songs he saved or recreated, so giving the world a universal anthem sung at the close of gatherings worldwide.

A Red, Red Rose contains a lasting testament to the pain of a lover’s parting. An amalgam of several traditional ballads, it shows Burn’s genius for reworking folk material and creating a poetic gem. It was composed in 1793 in Dumfries.

To a Mouse shows the Poet’s sympathies extending to all living things trying to overcome the frailty of existence. Autobiographical, it was written in 1785 at Mossgiel farm, Mauchline, and published the following year in the book of his verse which launched his fame.

Rozelle House

Tags

Alexander Goudie, Alloway, Artwork, Ayr, Collection, Digitisation, Gallery, House, Museum, Painting, Park, Photography, Rozelle, Tea

Tucked away in Rozelle Park is Rozelle House Galleries, a beautiful building which contains many beautiful artworks. It is perhaps best known for displaying the series of 54 Alexander Goudie paintings of the fabled Tam O’ Shanter poem.

It would be easy to overlook Rozelle given its close proximity to Alloway and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, but to do so would be a mistake as it contains a wealth of material relating to the life and times of the bard.

Last week, I spent two fruitful days digitising the collection held at Rozelle. All manner of items were encountered, from prints to jugs, and books to bowls! The combination of two and three dimensional items proved fascinating to work with. I’m currently editing the images created, so it’s not possible to preview any yet. However, you can view the full collection with the launch of the newly redeveloped National Burns Collection site.

The most important part of any Gallery, the Tearoom!

Sneak peak of the set-up I use to capture 3D objects. Who said digitisation wasn't glamorous?

Friday Gem – Posters

Tags

Advertising, Burns, Library, Poet, Poetry, Poster, Promotion, Scots, Scottish Poetry Library, To A Mouse

This weeks Friday Gem differs slightly from the usual Burns items which draw upon the collections of the National Burns Collection. Instead, I’ve decided to concentrate upon these fantastic poster offered by the Scottish Poetry Library. Such a simple and effective way of promoting the poetry of Burns!

Just take a look for yourself.

“A phrase plucked from one of the most famous of all love poems, A Red Red Rose by Robert Burns. Perfect for Valentines Day, for expressing undying love in all its forms.”

SPL Poster Seas Gang Dry Robert Burns

“A companion poster to our International Version of Robert Burns‘s last verse of ‘A Man’s a Man For A’ That.”

SPL Poster National Robert Burns

“Robert Burns is not just admired by Scots – his poems have been translated into many languages. We’ve created a multi-lingual version of the last verse of ‘A Man’s a Man For A’ That’ to celebrate his international fame.
Top to bottom: Esperanto, French, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, German, Scots.”

SPL Poster International Robert Burns

“Robert Burns reminds us of the pleasures to be had if we were to wander out and take the air, in this short phrase taken from his poem ‘Epistle to Davie, a Brother Poet‘. To be fixed to a door maybe.”

SPL Poster Commoners of Air Robert Burns

“Whatever our intentions, it’s good to be reminded that things don’t always work out as we planned. Here’s an appropriate line fromRobert Burns‘ popular poem ‘To a Mouse’.”

SPL Poster Best Laid Schemes Robert Burns

“Succinct and to the point, the title of Robert Burns‘ famous song ‘A Man’s a Man for A’ That‘ reminds us that we are all the same and that we all have the potential to share a common dignity, whatever our circumstances.”

SPL Poster A Man’s a Man Robert Burns_0

All posters courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library website:

http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn/posters

Pinterest

Tags

Archive, Copyright, Digital Humanities, Digitisation, Digitization, Distributed National Burns Collection, Images, Library, Museum, Pinterest, Social Media

Part of my role as Museums Officer for the Burns Recognition Project involves looking at new and interesting ways to engage with audiences. Pinterest is one such avenue which I’m starting to explore.

‘But wait!’, I hear you say. Do we really need another social media network to keep up with and constantly update? Well, yes, I would argue, especially if it broadens the appeal and interacts with users in a new and positive way.

Click on the image above to go to the Burns Scotland Pinterest page.

Founded in 2010, it was not until 2011 that it became the latest trend in the social media world. Jumping from around 1 million users to over 4 million between August and December 2011. Pinterest is basically centred around images. If you like an image, you can add it to your own board, re-pin it, like it, common on it etc.

In a nutshell, it’s one giant communal pinboard. As you can see from my own page, I’ve begun to promote the collections of the National Burns Collection and the various digitisation efforts I’ve been involved in. ‘Pinning’ images onto specific boards from a number of affiliate sites (this blog, Flickr page etc.) allows me to direct traffic and increase awareness of the collections held by the partnership.

I’m still in the early stages of trying to work out how best to achieve these aims, but it will be fascinating to see how other museums, libraries, and archives adapt Pinterest to their own needs. Various museums are already pinning their own content, but what interests me is how else they will engage with users.

Don’t forget to follow Burns Scotland on Pinterest by simply clicking the button below! If you have your own page, or want to share your own thoughts and ideas then please do get in touch or leave a comment.

Thanks to the following people for blogging about Pinterest and encouraging me to try it out for myself:

ArchivesInfo – Pinterest for Cultural Hertiage

Museum Diary - Museums and Pinterest An Introduction

Best of 3 – Pinterest and Museums

Friday Gem “Wi airle-pennies three”

Tags

Annan, Coin, Medal, Museum, Poetry, Robert Burns

This week’s Friday Gem concentrates one of the most seemingly ordinary and mundane of objects, the humble coin. The poems and songs of Robert Burns contain many references to money in general and certain coins in particular. Several poems make reference to ‘airles’ or an ‘airle-penny’, the coin exchanged to seal a bargain. The opening verse of ‘O, can ye labour lea’ illustrates this admirably:

I fee’d a man at Michaelmas

Wi airle-pennies three.

Over the past two centuries Burns has been the subject of a number of medals. What you can see in the Flickr slideshow is two such examples kindly shown here from Annan Museum. They are exquisitely detailed yet show standard images of Burns and the Mausoleum. Have a look for yourself in the Flickr slideshow below…

There are a bewildering away of medals celebrating the life and work of Burns, but the commemorative medal reached its zenith at the close of the nineteenth century, but declined rapidly in popularity as other commemorative media were developed.

If you have any Burns medallions at home, then please feel free to send me an image and share the stories behind them!

Dumfries Museum & Robert Burns

Tags

Burns House, Burnsiana, Clare Melinsky, David Lockwood, Dumfries, Dumfries Museum, Robert Burns

The second feature highlighting partners of the DNBC focuses upon Dumfries.

Burns obviously had close links with the area and after his death in 1796 the esteem with which he is held in Dumfries has only risen. Dumfries itself has been described as a ‘living museum to Burns’. Being based at Dumfries Museum also gives me access to these wonderful surroundings and heritage which the area is steeped in.

These fantastic images of Dumfries Museum, Burns House, and the Robert Burns Centre were all done by the very talented illustrator Clare Melinsky.

The slideshow below is one example of recent efforts to digitise the collections held within the partnership of the National Burns Collection. These Burnsiana postcards had previously been lying dormant. It is hoped that by providing access to the incredibly rich resources of the NBC the legacy of Burns can continue to grow. The postcards themselves represent a unique insight into how appreciative the people of Dumfries are when it comes to celebrating Scotland’s National Bard.

Take a look at some of the amazing images of Burns collected over the years at Dumfries Museum!

Find out more about the origins of Burns associatin with Dumfries by reading exercpts of ‘Celebrating the Legend’ by David Lockwood below:

First Contact

Robert Burns’ first contact with Dumfries and Galloway came in 1787 during a short tour of the Borders with his friend Bob Ainslie, a law student. Following the success of the Kilmarnock edition of his poems he found himself acclaimed as ‘Caledonia’s Bard’ by Edinburgh Society. The 3000 copies of the new Edinburgh edition were selling well and his fame had been further increased by an article about him in the ‘Lounger’, a weekly magazine. He arrived in Dumfries from Carlisle on 4th June. Dumfries Town Council immediately made him an honorary burgess, little knowing that one day he would come here to live. The main reason for his visit was to look at a farm offered to him by Patrick Miller, a director of the Bank of Scotland and chairman of the Carron Company in Falkirk. Miller, an admirer of Burns, had recently purchased the estate of Dalswinton, 6 miles north of Dumfries. He offered him the tenancy of one of the farms, Ellisland, on the banks of the Nith, at an advantageous rent:- seventy pounds a year restricted to £50 for the first three years. Burns had always been doubtful of earning his living by his pen and was looking for another means but when he saw the farm he was not impressed and was worried that the ‘bargain’ might ruin him. In March 1788, despite his misgivings, he signed the lease. Shortly before, however, he had written to Robert Graham of Fintry, a Commissioner of the Scottish Board of Excise, that he “wished to get into the Excise”. Graham, another admirer, used his influence and arranged for Burns to receive a position in the Dumfries area as soon as one became available.

Burns Night

Tags

Alloway, Birthplace Museum, Burns House, Burns Night, Burns Supper, Dumfries, Dumfries Museum, Facebook, Haggis, Poet, Poetry, remarkable poems, Robert Burns, Scottish Poetry Library, Statue, Tam O' Shanter

Today is of course Burns Night, where the life and poetry of Robert Burns is celebrated up and down Scotland.

This year sees events taking place across Scotland marking the birthday of the bard. From the Birthplace Museum’s unveiling of a new £25,000 statue in Alloway, to the extraordinary range of events taking place in Dumfries as part of the Big Burns Supper, there really is a myriad of options for all Burnsians out there.

It should be remembered that Burns Night is not simply celebrated in Scotland, but across the world:

In the Year of Homecoming, 3,600 Burns Night Suppers were held in 80 countries, with only a third of those taking place in Scotland. Burns continues to appear around the world often in the most surprising places. Take the artist Chiang Yee, who painted Burns in traditional Chinese peasant garb. Or the recent story (can it be true?) that Michael Jackson recorded an album of Burns songs before his death. Where next for Burns? *

Not everyone see’s the positive side of Burns Night however, with The Sun columnist Rod Little giving his controversial view on Burns Night.

Never one to dwell on the negative, a recent post on the Facebook page of the Birthplace Museum pretty much sums up better than I ever could the joy of Burns Night:

And, on a day when pubs and restaurants are falling over themselves to find new gimmicks to get people to buy tickets to their own Burns Nights – from Haggis sushi to rap versions of Tam o’ Shanter – let’s also remember how this all started – with one incredible man from Alloway, whose remarkable poems and songs discovered the power of the common good that lies in every human being and celebrated brotherhood, love and liberty above all.

If you’re wondering what all these pictures of poems are, they were taken around Dumfries and organised as part of ‘Windows for Burns Night’. Several locations throughout Dumfries have had their windows filled with short poems following a call out for contemporay poems to be displayed in windows of some of Rabbie’s favourite haunts. A neat idea to fill up some empty shop windows and celebrate comtempoary poetry at the same time.

* Quote taken from the excellent blog over at the Scottish Poetry Library.

Friday Gem “Kings give coronets; alas, i can only bestow a ballad.”

Tags

Burns House, Dumfries, Empheria, Friday Gem, Museum, Robert Burns, Social History

Today we have not just one gem, but a whole collection of gems!

Burns House in Dumfries has a upcomming exhibition titled ‘Burns and Graham – A Poet and his Patron’. It opens on Saturday 21st January and continues until Sunday 15th April. Please come along!

The exhibition describes the friendship between Robert Graham, 12th Laird of Fintry in Forfarshire, and Robert Burns. The poet first met Robert graham, an Excise Commissioner, in 1787 and the latter soon became a patron and friend, supporting the poet’s application to become an Excise Officer.

The highlight of the exhibition, a two-volume edition of "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" published in Edinburgh with inscription by Burns.

In 1793, a two-volume edition of “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect” by Robert Burns was published in Edinburgh. Burns presented several copies to his friends, including the Grahams. Theirs has been cherished by the family ever since. The current owner, the 18th laird of Fintry has kindly loaned the books to Robert Burns house for the exhibition.

The first volume has a telling dedication to Mrs Graham, written by the Poet:

“It is probable, Madam, that this page may be read when the hand that now writes it is mouldering in the dust.”

As well as the books, we have been able to borrow a group of delicate miniature portraits of the Graham family. They include a portrait of Robert Graham, along with several of his children. A couple of keepsakes from the Dutchess of Atholl to members of the Graham family complete the display.

The collection in all it's glory!

Burns and Graham – A Poet and His Patron

Saturday 21 January – Sunday 15 April
at Robert Burns House, Burns Street, Dumfries,  DG1 2PS

Tel: 01387 255297

‘Artefact’ Conference Review

Tags

Artefact, Burnsiana, Centre for Robert Burns Studies, Conference, Dumfries Museum, Empheria, Glasgow, Memorabilia, Robert Burns

Above: The newly unveiled bust of Burns watches expectantly as the conference begins to proceed.

As a follow-up to the recent feature on the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, what follows is my own experience of the annual Robert Burns Conference held at Glasgow University and organised in conjunction with partners of the DNBC.

Below: Dr Pauline Mackay, Research Fellow for ‘Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century introduces the next speaker.

There were a broad range of speakers presenting papers on all aspects of Burns life, and in particular the culture which Burns inhabited. Topics ranged from farming life (Gavin Sprott from the National Museum of Scotland), to a rare glimpse into the world of the private collector with Dr Bill Zachs. Unfortunately, Andrew Presscott from UCL was unable to make the conference, but was ably replaced by Prof. Gerry Carruthers and his entertaining look into Freemasonry and Burns.

To ensure the conference wasn’t completely left to the device of academics, local councils had the chance to show off rare and previously unseen Burns ‘artefacts’ from their collections. During this segment, I had the opportunity to showcase Dumfries Museums upcoming exhibition ‘Burns and Graham – A Poet and his Patron’ (Burns House, Saturday 21st January – Sunday 15th April).

Below: Kirsten Easdale relaxes after entertaining the conference with some of Burns’ songs.

Above: Delegates enjoying a chance to relax and chat.

I have to admit, before starting work on the Burns Recognition Project my experience of Burns had been rather limited. However, attending the ‘Artefact’ Conference allowed me to gain further insight into the fascinating world which surrounds the life and times of the bard. I thoroughly enjoyed my first Burns Conference and look forward to seeing what exciting strides have been made by this time next year.

Click on the image below to hear another of the conference speakers, Clark McGinn, speaking on BBC Scotland’s Newsweek about the final days of Robert Burns.

Friday Gem “Time is too short for ceremonies”

Tags

Calender, Edinburgh Edition, Friday Gem, Glasgow, Necropolis, Poetry, Printers, Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Special Collections, The Forth Bridge, University of Glasgow

This weeks Friday Gem is an intriguing item from the Special Collections Department at the University of Glasgow. The collections they hold have been built up over a period of 500 years amounting to over 400,000 items. Among these items is a particularly special rare first Edinburgh edition of Burns’ Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect embellished with manuscript notes and poems penned by the poet’s own hand.

Alas, this particular Edinburgh Edition is on loan at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, and you can see the extensive story and images of it here. Onto the Friday Gem…

Can you guess what it is?

Well, it turns out to be an advertising calender from 1897 issued by the Glasgow based Leggat Brothers Printers. Unusually, this particular calender was found in the back of a large bound printed work of The Forth Bridge. The printed work itself is highly decorative and includes illustrations of the monument in Glasgow Necropolis of Robert Burns, his cottage and the Burns’ family bible.

As you can see from the amazing detail of the images below, this is a highly decorative item which represents the length and breadth of Burns enduring image.

My thanks go out to all the staff at Special Collections who helped me in gaining access to this fascinating item. If you want to find out more about this item, then click here.