Find out more about the history of Scottish working men and women

The National Library of Scotland is featuring in my blog again with a mention for their upcoming exhibition entitled:  Scottish working people's history.

The display promises to give a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary Scots workers who involved themselves in the development of the early trade union movement.  Highlights of the exhibition are:

• The original deed of establishment in 1761 of the Fenwick Weavers' Society in Ayrshire which is regarded as the world’s first ever co-operative society  
• A membership card issued almost two centuries ago to one of the first ever trade unionists in Scotland  
• The service and pay book for John Dunlop who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War

Finding out more about ordinary folk rather than the 'great and the good' is always a challenge when using documentary sources, but exhibitions like this can at least give us a glimpse into aspects of the lives of our more 'humble' ancestors.

The exhibition runs from 2nd September until the end of October at George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, and should be well worth a visit.  More details can be found at: http://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/treasures

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Talk on National Library of Scotland Maps

A really early 'shout out' for an upcoming event that might be of interest to many...

Chris Fleet the National Library of Scotland's senior map curator will be speaking about the history of Scotland as shown through maps on the 4th October 2011 at the NLS.

You can book online or find more information at http://www.nls.uk/events - it should be an interesting discussion as it promises to take a look at mapping the nation from the 2nd century AD right up to more recent 'digital endeavours'.

Image: luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Protecting, preserving and recording our war memorials.

I read today about a project that I hadn't come across before: 'In Memoriam 2014' is a national project which will, with the assistance of local communities and groups, locate, log, maintain then protect the nation’s war memorials in time for Remembrance Day 2014.

The project hopes to encourage local communities and youth groups to locate and get involved with their local war memorials and seems well worthy of support.

You can find out more at the In Memorium website or check out their facebook page.

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Scottish Archive looking for your old family movies...

The Scottish Screen Archive has a remarkable collection of film and video documenting the social and cultural history of Scotland over the past 100 years and more.

Their films cover much of 20th-century Scottish social, cultural and industrial history as well as giving rare glimpses into the lives of ordinary Scots across the generations.

Now they are looking for help with their latest project: Specifically they are asking for donations of films shot between 1970 and 2010 including those from:

Video workshops, Community groups, Action groups, Cine / video clubs, Promotional films for local industries / charities / tourism, Sport and leisure, Footage depicting significant changes in local communities, Special local community events – e.g. gala days, millennium celebrations and more...

An additional project is seeking evidence of children using film technology and they are looking for material from those

• who made their own movies as a child

• who were part of a group that ran video workshops for children

• who participated as a child in movie making during the 1970s-2000.

Contributing to the archival collections could mean helping to create an invaluable resource for future generations who may look back in 50 or 100 years or more and ask what our lives were like now.  So if you have some old cine-film lying around the house, now might be the time to dig it out.

Find out more at the Scottish Screen Archive website.

Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net