The National Burns Collection is the largest distributed collection of material relating to Robert Burns in the world. The eight partners who hold the collections developed the Distributed National Burns Collection website with support from the Strategic Change Fund in 2004 to showcase their collections.
The National Burns Collection (NBC) is made up of priceless manuscripts, books, relics, art and memorabilia, which help shine light on the person and work of Scotland’s National Bard, Robert Burns.
The NBC is cared for by a network of museums, libraries, galleries, archives and other bodies; the main custodians of Burns heritage in Scotland. These bodies formed the National Burns Collection Partnership in 2008, although the NBCP relies on a much wider affiliation of organisations and individuals to coordinate access to, and facilitate the preservation of, a distributed collection of national significance.
The NBC grew out of a project called The Distributed National Burns Collections Project (November 2003-March 2005), a 16-month Strategic Change Fund initiative which sought to encourage those organisations in Scotland holding Burns-related artifacts to work in partnership to improve access to, and stewardship of, the distributed national collection.
The National Burns Collection Partnership works together to tackle challenges such as improving conservation and documentation of the distributed collection, increasing access for different audiences, and realising the enormous learning potential of the National Burns Collection.
