Today we have lots of celebrations as a number of alumni, colleagues and friends celebrate graduations.

Among them are Graham Dey who was Welfare Officer and music guru at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) for over 20 years and helped many students. Graham is a great supporter of the ECA archive and provided much advice on events and people at ECA during from the 1980s to the 2000s. Here is a caricature of him from the ECA Student Handbook 1993! (With thanks to the artist, Neil Kempsell).

I also met jeweller Sheila Fleet O.B.E. and her family. Sheila is receiving an honorary degree today and we had a great chat over items in the archive, including photographs where we spotted her and members of the family when at the College.  Within the group eight of the family had graduated from the College. Here is Sheila and her sisters Connie, Dorothy and Leila, who studied at ECA, on the staircase in the main building.

Sheila also brought along her College scarf.  I had never seen one, so was very excited when she brought it out of her bag!

And last but not least our own Emma Smith, who works as Exhibitions Assistant within the Centre For Research Collections.  She graduated today with First Class Honours.  We’re so proud!!

Congratulations to all!  We hope you’ve had a fantastic day!

Rachel Hosker, ECA Archivist