update WWW.SCRAN.AC.UK
Autumn 2014 2013
Gaberlunzies, Orramen and Leeries Scran’s just back from Who Do You Think You Are? Live, the family history event held at Glasgow’s SECC at the end of August. It was a busy couple of days and the numbers of visitors who called at the Scran stand proved that family history has never been more popular. Scran can provide valuable support to family historians. Once you have trawled the census returns and other archives to gather vital information about your ancestors, Scran’s imagery, sound clips, moving images and personal documents can provide some context and help to bring this detail to life. You might find out that you have a gaberlunzie, an orraman or a leerie in the family. Scran’s collections document these and many other occupations from the past – from miners to ship builders, fisherfolk to steel makers. There are photographs of the Scottish communities which grew up around these thriving industries. Photographs and documents relating to long-gone businesses can also be found on the site. Alongside still images, Scran hosts oral histories of people’s working lives, such as Bathgate’s truck and tractor factory workers, Edinburgh’s printers,
A leerie lights the lamps in a Glasgow tenement Just in case you were wondering... a gaberlunzie was a wandering beggar, an orraman was an odd-job man and a leerie was a lamplighter who lit gas lamps in towns and cities in the days before electric lighting.
Newhaven’s fishwives and coal miners from across Scotland. Images © Robert D Clapperton Photographic Trust / V&A / RMBC LMA / Hulton Getty / The Scotsman Publications Ltd
How Scran can support your family history research Movies & Sound Check out our collections of oral histories, including Bathgate Once More and Coal Stories. There are fascinating home movies from the Scottish Screen Archive. The Victorians We have photography which captures both the industrial and domestic developments of our 19th century ancestors, including schools, fashions, transport and technology.
Industrial Heritage The Victorians
Aerial Photography Collections of oblique and vertical aerials from the Aerofilms collection, the National Collection of Aerial Photography and the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland document how places have changed over time. Industrial Heritage Where to start? If you’re interested in mining, shipbuilding, farming, fishing, jute, textiles, golf ball manufacturing, seaweed farming... Whatever industry your ancestors were involved in, we may have something for you. Social History For 20th century social history, particularly Scottish urban history, look no further than The Scotsman, The Herald Photographic Archive and Hulton Getty. Our reminiscence kits also have images and artefacts from the recent past. Military History We’ve a wealth of material to support research into military history and past conflicts. Our World War One material has been brought to the fore as 2014 marks the centenary of the outbreak of hostilities. Local Repositories Regional contributors are a great source of local material. We host records from regional archives from Aberdeenshire to West Dunbartonshire.
Military History Images © Hulton Getty / East Lothian Museums Service / NLS
Scran Tip Go to Advanced Search and click on Contributor to see a drop down menu of all our contributors to Scran. You can search by Contributor to bring up a specific set of records.
The Expeditions of Ian Barr As a geographer, John TK Barr - known as Ian - was passionate about finding out about the world, particularly its more remote areas. As an educator, he believed the best way to learn about the world and how people live in their environments was to go out and experience it. Many of the photographs he took along the way are of the people he met. Ian was Principal Teacher of Geography at Port Glasgow High School (PGHS) for 35 years, from 1964 to 1999. By 1959, he was also Assistant Leader of the 7th Paisley John Neilson Institute (JNI) Scout Group. In these dual roles he was able to put into action his philosophy of getting young people out into the world. Over 40 years he led more than 40 major expeditions for both PGHS and the JNI Scout Group. He ran winter ski trips in Scotland, an Easter Ski trip overseas and a Scout Camp. He also organised the weeklong summer ‘Rannoch Ramble’ for younger pupils, as well as expeditions with former high school pupils, known as the Ibex Group. All of these trips required months of planning, training and team building for pupils and leaders alike. Ian organised the 1967 Overland Expedition to Jordan, Persia and Turkey - now available to view on Scran. He also travelled with pupils and Scouts to Arctic Norway, Crete, Czechoslovakia (during the Prague Spring), Iceland, Greece, the Pyrenees, Slovenia, Sardinia, the Hardanger Ice Cap, the Sierra de Gredos and many more. These were lifechanging trips for the participants, and many did more than one. Parents trusted Ian. Experiencing the wonders of the world’s geography was only part of his philosophy: it was also important to pass it on. Ian did this by writing accounts of his travels for serialisation in the local newspapers. He gave illustrated talks to almost every guild, private club and photographic society in the Central Belt of Scotland. In 2007, the Greenock Philosophical Society marked Ian’s 30th consecutive talk with a presentation plaque. A few months later Ian died. On the 100th anniversary of the Society they did him the honour of instituting an annual memorial lecture in his name. The only other recipient of this honour has been James Watt!
The Barr family now holds a massive archive of Ian’s professional quality photographs, which they want to be used in the way he intended. The family is delighted that Scran is able to use them to support teaching and learning and to inspire and entertain young people. Look out for more of Ian Barr’s expeditions on Scran in the future. More information about Ian and his travels is also available via www.jtkb.info. Barbara Barr
A spectacular overhanging rock on an expedition to Utah in 2000
Group leaders getting ready to set off in 1967 Images © J T K Barr
Scranners in Action People use Scran in a variety of different ways. Author, Ylva French, tells us how she used Scran as a picture library to source images and license them for use in her publication about the Dukes of Hamilton, Finding Veronese: Memoir of a Painting.
It’s now almost two years since I started researching the history of a small copy of a Veronese Altarpiece which has been in my family since the 1920s. I thought it might make an interesting article or short story but I had no idea of the complex trail which my research gradually revealed, of how this painting travelled from Venice during the 18th Century and ended up in the famous Hamilton Palace collection. The first Duke of Hamilton, friend and supporter of Charles I, met his death as brutally as the King in 1649. In common with his mentor he had discovered Renaissance art as a collector and his descendants followed his passion, culminating in the grand Palace and the collection created by the 10th Duke – El Magnifico. The trail took me across Europe and despite many false leads and twists and turns I was able to establish more or less how the Hamiltons acquired my painting and much later how it reached my family. BBC Your Paintings is a rich database of paintings in UK collections and I used it to track down portraits of the Hamiltons. Many members of the family, and certainly all the Dukes, had their portraits painted by the great artists of their time. Some I found in museums and others at Lennoxlove House, the Hamilton family seat in Scotland since the 1940s. And as I put the story into an E-book, I found Scran the best and easiest source for accessing these pictures and reproducing them in my book. Read all about it, and see the Hamilton portraits, in Finding Veronese: Memoir of a Painting, available as an E-book at www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.com search for my name in the Kindle shop. Ylva French
Portrait of Charles I and James, 1st Duke of Hamilton, c.1635 © Lennoxlove House Ltd
Out & About Since our last newsletter, the Scran team have been out and about spreading the word, delivering training and tasters sessions, taking part in learning events and fairs and meeting Scran users old and new in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Lothian and south of the border in Berkshire, Leeds, Macclesfield and Northampton. If you like us to visit you for a refresher session, training or taster session, or take part in a learning event in your area, do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. Schools – jackie.sangster@rcahms.gov.uk T: 0131 651 6817 Schools/FE and HE – andrew.james@rcahms.gov.uk T: 0131 651 6816 Lifelong Learning – helen.foster@rcahms.gov.uk T: 0131 651 6815 General enquiries – www.scran.ac.uk T: 0131 662 1456