Museum staff in Fife have been working hard behind the scenes so people can access a treasure trove of objects.
Curators at a giant storage facility in Glenrothes are reorganising thousands of artefacts – previously under wraps – so they can be more readily appreciated by visitors.
The objects – mostly donated by the public – are being thoroughly researched and digitally catalogued by staff at the Collections Centre managed by cultural charity OnFife.
More than 80,000 items from Fife Council’s Museums Collections were transferred to the former Amazon warehouse five years ago.
The collection, now cared for by OnFife, is more than 100 years old and includes donations from individuals, businesses and community organisations.
Objects too big or oddly shaped to fit into boxes were bubble wrapped for the mass flitting; others had been covered up for safe keeping.
The move means the items – including 1,000 works of art – can be kept in stable, environmentally controlled conditions, secure and free from damage risk.
Many reflect Fife’s industrial past – a time clock that ensured workforce punctuality at Nairn’s linoleum factory in Kirkcaldy; linen and silk sample books produced by Dunfermline cloth manufacturers; and a pair of National Coal Board wellington boots, still with traces of coal dust.
Among the artefacts are echoes of Fife’s maritime heritage – a dressing case that belonged to Catherine the Great’s revered admiral, Inverkeithing-born Samuel Greig; an elegant shop sign, shaped like a sailing vessel, that hung outside a Methil ship chandler’s.
There are reminders of a lost commercial world – a ‘Protectograph’ that prevented unauthorised alteration of business cheques; a set of Scots weights and measures used by Burgh inspectors in Burntisland; and one of the earliest mass-produced office calculators.
Household gadgets – once ‘must have’, now ‘most rare’ – include a 1904 hand crank Singer sewing machine, bought in Dunfermline; a 1920s gramophone, purchased in Cowdenbeath; and a 1950s Bakelite TV, complete with nine-inch screen and 49 Guineas price tag.
There are vintage toys galore – a black Triang doll’s pram that defines the term ‘design classic’; a red pedal racing car swish enough for Stirling Moss; and a charming child’s desk, perfect for today’s homeworking were it not so petite.
Collections staff are now 18 months into this monumental process.
“Around 1,100 objects have been carefully unwrapped so far,” says Collections Curator Jane Freel. “The condition of each has been checked and recorded and its id number matched to its documentation record.
“A detailed description of each artefact is recorded digitally, along with a record of its precise location, so items can be easily found if needed by a curator or visiting researcher.”
Collections staff have been working with colleagues in OnFife’s Archives & Local Studies to gain fresh insights into many objects that had limited background information.
Once such example is a trunk used during the Second World War by a Captain D Drysdale, about which staff had very little recorded information.”
“We now know much more about David Drysdale,” says Collections Support Assistant Susan Goodfellow. “We have details of his military service, his career in banking, his involvement in many local organisations, his service as Honorary Sherriff Substitute for Fife and as a Justice of Peace.
“These important details are now recorded on our catalogue. That’s such a vital part of the work we are doing because behind every item lies a human story. We are honouring people’s lives as much as the objects they left behind.”
OnFife’s Uncovered project has been made possible with funding from Museum Galleries Scotland. People wishing to view a particular object at the Collections Centre should email museums.enquiries@onfife.com
