Over the past year, a group of young people between the ages of 14-17 have been completing their Gold Arts Award through our ‘Arts All Around’ programme: a partnership between University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections and the University of Stirling’s Collections. In this blog post, some of our young artists share with us the project they completed for Unit 2 of the Arts Award which requires them to develop their leadership skills and their advice for other young people completing similar projects.

Fantasia: An Exhibition for Young Artists, written by Ella, Emma, Jagoda, Maya and Tanya

Introduction

In the first section of our Arts Award, we mainly focused on looking at different art forms and our own creative projects. We also wrote reviews of exhibitions at the university and elsewhere as well as carrying out work experience placements and writing a debate essay about an arts topic. For the second part of the award, we had to work on our leadership skills and come up with a project together which would allow us to demonstrate these skills. We decide that we’d like to host a exhibition for other young artists as we felt that there were not many opportunities out there for young people to display their work.

Planning

At the start of our planning we researched a few different venues where we could hold our exhibition, ultimately deciding on our first idea of St Cecilia’s Hall as the venue is very accessible in the city centre and we liked the fact that people wouldn’t just have to come for our exhibition but would also be able to look around the museum. From there we met at the venue so we could have a better idea of the space we had and to further our planning. We worked together to come up with a theme for the exhibition by researching other exhibitions and their themes for inspiration and using a generator to give us a few different ideas of themes that we could then build on. We collectively agreed that the theme of Myths felt the best and kept the theme very broad to allow for artists to have more creative liberty. For the submissions to the exhibition we created a Google Form with all the information we needed about the artist’s piece and to reach as many people as possible to try and get submissions from, we sent out a general email to people and made a poster to put up that included information about what the exhibition was and what we were looking for with submissions and a QR to the form.

Intro to the Exhibition

Lead up to exhibition / On the Day

On the day of the exhibition, the group ran into a few issues which we had to solve ourselves using our own initiative. Emma, one of the organisers, had to cancel at the last minute, and Laura couldn’t come before a certain time, meaning we did most of the setting up by ourselves. We were provided with music stands to display artworks on, however more stands were required due to some last minute submissions, so we had to ask the staff at St. Cecilia’s hall to bring more. We also had to solve a few problems regarding technology, as the fairy lights we were using in the displays wouldn’t turn on for a while, however this was fixed after a few attempts. Finally, we had to write extra signs for some people who had submitted art but weren’t able to show up on the day. We used the artists’ form submissions to write descriptions and information about them with the craft supplies provided at the venue. 

Some of our display

When the exhibition was being shown, there were Post-it notes set up where people could write feedback on our artworks. The response was very positive, and the number of visitors who came in was higher than expected, making the exhibition a success! 

Feedback

Advice for People Planning a Similar Event in future

With these events it is good to plan ahead, do extensive research on the perfect venue, theme and what is needed to put together the exhibition. What is most important is to communicate with your team as a lot can be done in a group, working together can create efficiency and also make it more fun. You have to be open minded, listen to others and learn how to compromise. Of course what is also a key part of planning these events is to be passionate about your project, it keeps you motivated.

One of the works in our exhibition

Reflection

Throughout the planning process we lost track of what each person was in charge of doing. Making sure everyone knows what you are working on is important in a group and getting updates from each other would have been beneficial to everyone. With a few delays we had to move the timeline along & change the dates on the posters but that was handled well and efficiently. Starting the artist form process earlier so that we could exhibit more art by a broader range of individuals would have been beneficial & made the exhibition more substantial but what we had was well received by the turnout. Meeting more often would’ve moved the project quicker but due to the variety in our schedules that was hard to organise. Overall, the exhibit was quite the success & blew our expectations out of the park. Despite the planning sometimes getting muddled, we successfully organised the exhibit and had a great time and turnout!

Another of the works in our exhibition

Thank you to guest blogger, Andrea Edwards, who shares her experience of spending the ‘summer’ working on the Charles Lyell correspondence…

Andrea at work, studying Lyell’s American correspondence, in the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh.

Hi! My name is Andrea Edwards. I am an undergraduate student at the University of Wyoming (UW), majoring in History and Environmental Studies, and minoring in Museum Studies. I travelled to Scotland to do a month-long internship, funded my university’s ‘UW in Scotland’ program. On securing funding, I had to find myself a placement, and I contacted Heritage Collections staff at the University of Edinburgh, and agreed a placement based with the Centre for Research Collections (CRC) in order to learn about and gain experience in UK archives.

During my time there, I learned a lot about how archivists work in the UK, which combined with my knowledge and experience of collections management in the US, really extended my understanding. We talked about the current state of the heritage sector, discussing topics such as budgeting, colonial legacies, the climate crisis, and changes in best practice. It was fascinating to see how the staff at Heritage Collections are dealing with these global issues, compared to the US.  I was able to meet and work with lots of amazing people, specifically my supervisor Pamela McIntyre, archivist extraordinaire. I also visited many other heritage organizations, such as the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh archives and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, to learn about they manage their collections.

Start of a list of shells, found on the coast of Massachusetts, and identical with shells found on the European Atlantic Coasts, observed by AA Gould 1842, and sent to Lyell

My main project during my time in Scotland was cataloging Charles Lyell’s American correspondence. Charles Lyell travelled extensively throughout the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia, in order to conduct his research. Lyell also visited North America, 4 times, between 1841-1853. During those trips, Lyell made several connections with prominent American scientists and politicians, and continued to stay in touch with many over the years, generating quite a bit of correspondence.

The recent revision of the Lyell collection based at the University of Edinburgh, has identified much more correspondence from American born or based correspondents than perhaps previously has been understood. A lot of this has come from the increase in names ‘agents’ (the writers of the letters) being identified, and extended from 40 to 308; as well as extended by an additional tranche of records coming to the University in 2020. The purpose of my project was to add more detail to the catalogue for Lyell’s American correspondence. I was assigned 19 folders, and went through each, counting the number of letters and making notes of significant people, places, or subjects mentioned in each individual letter, allowing me to create a comprehensive scope and content on each file. I was able to catalogue 93 individual letters, with dates ranging from 1841-1875.

Letter from Ticknor, to Lyell, written at Boston, 23 January 1849.

Through spending time with these records, I got to understand the extent of Lyell’s personal and professional network abroad. Lyell corresponded with people that headed American society: politicians, doctors, university professors, and naturalists. Some characters that he corresponded with include naturalist and conchologist Augustus Addison Gould, and Charles Thomas Jackson, a New England physician and scientist, with a reputation of accusing others of claiming his discoveries. His correspondence with Lyell perhaps confirms Lyell’s position as an ‘authenticator of fact’. Twenty letters to Lyell from George Ticknor, an academic and Hispanist, document his feelings about the Mexican American War, his gossipy tone revealing the friendship between them. William C. Redfield, a meteorologist who gets very excited about fossil fish— content which now flags up another potential topic of investigation in the Cockburn Geological Museum! The correspondence creates a mosaic not only of Lyell’s personal relations, but of the United States’ fledgling academic community, a very tight knit community where everyone writes for the Benjamin Silliman’s journal, is related to a Boston Brahmin family, and knew and extensively talked about each other— the work of Louis Agassiz being regularly mentioned throughout.

This years ‘summer’ backlit Glencoe’s amazing geology, especially for Andrea….

Lyell travelled throughout this life. I felt encouraged by him to explore Scotland, and it lived up to every expectation. I spent most of my time in Edinburgh, exploring all of its nooks and crannies, and absolutely fell in love with the city. It has such a charming and intimate atmosphere, and despite this being my first solo trip, it felt like a home away from home. I took the time to visit Glasgow, Inverness, and bits of the Highlands, all of which were amazing places that I would love to visit again. I loved the public transportation! Throughout my travels, I loved how climate conscious Scotland is, and I was impressed with their mindfulness about waste and their carbon footprint. It was especially interesting how Heritage Collections strive to apply this thinking to their work.

Everyone I met was so nice and welcoming. Everything was so beautiful, from the winding medieval streets of Edinburgh to the lush green peaks of Glencoe. I will always treasure my time spent there. But it’s also gratifying to know that I’ve also made an impression on Scotland. Due to the work that I have done, Lyell’s American correspondence has been enriched— taking their detail from a scant skeleton entry, to exact dates, extent, content and related agents. This had made this special subset of study more accessible to researchers. I wish them luck on their journey.

We also want to express our gratitude to the University of Wyoming for supporting Andrea’s cross-cultural internship, which has enhanced our understanding of Lyell’s global connections. A special thank you to our colleagues at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and all the staff at Heritage Collections for their warm welcome and mentorship, which made Andrea’s experience both educational and memorable. But, most of all, thank you for all your efforts Andrea.

Claire and Harriet proudly display the newly catalogued Lyell’s loose Offprint collection

Hello, we are interns Claire and Harriet, who have now been working for 5 months on Charles Lyell’s Offprint collection held by Heritage Collections. In our first blog post, we covered how our work on these offprints was starting to reveal the extensive network of researchers and topics that Lyell was collecting and reading about. And we’re now finished! 

Within this collection, we have worked through all sorts of sizes and types of Offprints, from larger folios (slightly bigger than A4), the smaller Offprints (roughly A5 size), as well as oversized, some miscellaneous items, as well as offprints of Lyell’s own published works. To date, we have now catalogued 1291 separate offprints and organised them into 32 boxes! Many have needed alphabetical reordering, where they have been previously misplaced or incorrectly labelled. It was especially satisfying to see this final re-shuffling and re-labelling of these boxes, now all under our new catalogued order.

But, we were not quite done! True to every other archive listing project (ever), we still had 22 bound volumes to tackle! Shelved along with other unaccessioned material, and originally part of the Geology Library, these volumes are embossed with the titles ‘Geological Tracts’ a somewhat vague title, that was assumed to point to various other organisations or societies. Some had titles, and numbers embossed on the outside, others were ‘unknown’, their place in the series unrecorded. In fact, these 22 volumes contain annotations by Lyell, and are a unique set, recording his reading.   

Lyell’s ‘Geological Tracts’

“Geological tracts Unknown Vol. 2”, “Vol. 5”, and ‘Vol. 7”, feature journal articles and book extracts discussing Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, while volumes “Geological Tracts Vol. 3 Antiquity of Man”, “Vol. 5”, and “Vol. 11”, feature offprints on flint implements and geology in France. Each volume brings together as many as 33 different authors, all originating from different journals, with their own published volume numbers, page numbers – as well as Lyell’s own handwritten notes.

Papers about the Human species, their origin, their place within nature, and the different phases of human evolution within the geological/archaeological record, appear throughout, for example, Rolleston’s “Distinctive Character of brain of Man and of Anthropomorphic Apes” (Vol 2, 17) and Babbage’s (1859) “Chalk on human implements mixed with bones of extinct animals” (Vol 3, 16). 

The bound volumes labelled “Miscellaneous” include assorted articles on geological formations, zoology, submergence, glaciation, plants, and the deep-sea from locations all over including: the Americas, India, Europe, Islands, with a higher proportion on England, Wales, and Scotland. 

‘Tracts’ was a word that we had seen before – it had cropped up several times whilst cataloguing the other separate offprints, expressed in handwritten notes on their front covers. From this we have inferred that ‘Tracts’ refer to these bound volumes. We have also become familiar with the authors and contributors and their topics of interest, and recognised they were reappearing in these bound volumes, and that Lyell appears to collate the topics that he was most interested in. It has been incredibly rewarding to see the re-emerging connections, made possible from our work over the previous months, making more sense in these final bound volume offprints.  

Finally, we have applied our deep understanding of Lyell’s Offprints, to his ‘Index Notebooks’.

At the end of the series of Lyell’s Notebooks, there is a set of 16 index notebooks – but that title isn’t as clear as it seems. Our work has explored the relationship between these indexes, and Lyell’s reading, and it appears 13 of these notebooks are the key to unlocking the bound ‘Geological Tracts’. There are 2 General Indexes which relate to a series of 11 indexes, filled with Lyell’s reading, research, and correspondence notes. The second General Index (currently A5/12) lists alphabetically the names and papers of key researchers Lyell made notes on. This index lists where Lyell’s notes can be found inside both the Tracts and the series of 11 notebooks.  

Aided by our comprehensive lists, we were able to put our theories as to how these records connect, to the test. For example, Lyell’s notes on Agassiz’s ‘Distribution of Animals’ is listed as Index 1.122 and Tracts 1.6. Therefore, these notes can be found in index book 1 (A5/15), page 122, and the paper itself can be found in Geological Tracts 1 entry 5 (Geological Society Vol. 1. 1850-1855). Because of this, we were able to correctly identify 2 volumes marked ‘unknown’, as ‘Geological Tracts‘ 6 and 12. We can piece together the whole set, and, recreate their original order – including some that are dated earlier, and may be their prototype! 

Harriet and Claire’s internship has been funded by the Friends of the University Library – which is apt, given the relationship between Lyell’s archive, and, the Offprints, that technically form part of the book collections. The task of listing the voluminous Offprints must at times, felt never ending – and yet, the application of their knowledge, has meant we can now properly catalogue a crucial set of archival indexes, not to mention, extending Lyell’s network by several 100 people! Adding the detail of Lyell’s ‘reading’ to his other tools – of observation, collecting specimens, and correspondence- is a crucial part of the story of his contribution to how we understand the world today. Thank you both for your amazing efforts! 

Ash Mowat is a volunteer with the Civic Engagement team and in this blog explores the journals of James Mitchell from the 1820 convict ship voyage to New South Wales.

In this blog we shall delve into the journal of ship’s surgeon James Mitchell aboard the 1820 convict ship voyage from London to New South Wales, held in the University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Heritage Collections.

Biography of James Mitchell

Mitchell was born in Fife Scotland in 1792 and died in 1869.[1] He trained for and was appointed as a surgeon in 1813 and had a military career as a medic including service during the Battle of Waterloo. He travelled as the ship’s medic on two voyages to Australia before settling to live there in 1823. He later became a politician.

I viewed his journal,[2] which dates from March 1820 on board the Neptune[3] situated on the Thames before embarking on its journey to Australia and dating up until August 1820 when the ship made its return voyage back to London. Further information of the crew and organisation on board, including some details of the convicts can be found here.[4] The journal is only very rarely dated, unlike as in a diary, making it difficult to assess time lapses between entries.

The journal itself is slightly bigger than A5 in size and numbers in 151 pages. The handwriting is not always clear of legible, until to my eyes, so I was unable to read the notes in their entirety, although hope nevertheless that excerpts provided here provide a flavour of the author and of the voyage itself. In addition to Mitchell’s medical expertise and military background, he expresses throughout his profound Christian faith and a religious teaching is practiced and encouraged on board for all crew and indeed the convicts.

In an early entry he begins: “The Neptune sailed for Woolich on a sandbar, but from the stupidity of the pilot, who seems to be in his dotage.”  It is interesting to here witness an early criticism of the navigation of the ship which we say echoed at the end of the journal on the return journey.  He then records: “Next day we received the convicts in number 156 of them, 20 were boys! Amongst them was one Wharton, a lieutenant in the 48^th regiment, the very regiment that is stationed in New South Wales. His crime was embezzlement, using a fictitious name in order to procure clothes, all arising from extravagance. This is a young fine-looking man, very tall about six foot two. He is of that family of Wharton’s….he is a nephew of Dr Wharton the poet laureate.[5] It is revealing here to learn how informed Mitchell is with regard to the crimes of those on board and their families, suggesting a good share of trust and rapport with them in his role as physician.

He goes on to detail a medical intervention on a convict, an old man of 70 years of age with various complications involving his hip. “The operation was performed and for some time even this promised very fair, but at last the discharge of matter was so great that he became hectic and he is now at death’s door.” No convicts reportedly perished on the voyage so it must be assumed that Mitchell’s surgery on this individual was ultimately successful.

Once the voyage is underway Mitchell cannot resist another opportunity to critique that navigation of the Neptune: “We have now sailed to Gravesend, but the stupid pilot being with us, we get aground again in the river, but providentially as the sand was soft, we sustained no injury”.

There follows another description of a convict and Mitchell’s account of them. “One of them, a very much fine-looking lad, and from his appearance you would be ready to suppose that being sent along with such wretches must have arisen from false evidence being given against him on some such cause. He has been for some time very much under my care. After he got better, he came up to me one day on deck and thanked me for all the trouble that I had taken with him. But alas, so much for his gratitude, smoot hypocritical countenance, he was discovered one night to have robbed his master of the whole of his tea which was found upon him….he begged forgiveness, yet with the crime being so flagrant…that I found it necessary for the use of discipline to make an example of him. Of course, I place no confidence in him afterwards.”

There a few striking issues arising from his comments above. The use of the word wretches to describe the convicts on general can be viewed as pejorative and one might hope that a professional physician would be less inclined to judgmental views, although we must take account of historic attitudes and of the fact that the Neptune was under hierarchical military jurisdiction. It is interesting also that in his initial appraisal of the convict he makes the dubious conflation between someone’s physical appearance and their moral character, a practice that was erroneously given valid medical consideration and later included into the pseudoscience of Eugenics. Perhaps Mitchell might have better benefited from the pitfalls of such assumptions as written by Shakespeare in Macbeth over 200 years previously, when early in the play King Duncan remarks that “there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”

In a later note Mitchell relates another example of his medical interventions on board: “Shepherd was carried to the hospital on board the ship under my care, dangerously ill. However, by the mercy of God he survived under my care. I took him out of his irons as he had behaved since his arrival on board in a most exemplary manner. However afterwards I put them on again thinking this was a favorable opportunity when he had had the prospect of death so near his eyes.”

We learn, perhaps surprisingly, from Mitchell that there were women aboard, presumably wives of the crew: “What a wonderful providence that there should have been another woman on board giving birth. The first woman said to me as I had done everything so well that were I able to baptize the child. This I declined as it was out of my province, particularly as the child was healthy…..the Captain acquiesced when I asked him to do it.” Here Mitchell’s role as a physician on board extended to overseeing childbirth and displays his professionalism and modest in electing not to exceed his role in baptizing the child, but leaving this duty to the Captain.

In a later note Mitchell recounts a perilous episode of the coast of South Africa: In the shape of a sugar loaf and the crocodile rock, which from its name you may suppose is a very deceitful place being hardly visible above water. A most dangerous navigation which has hardly ever formerly been attempted. We are sailing at a great rate in the night, and have been hugging the coast too closely in endeavoring to round the cape. As a consequence, the ship experienced a close encounter, we would have been dashed on the rocks in the night, were it not for the actions of the Captain and crew.” The expertise of the Captain noted here, in contrast to the role of ship’s pilot who was previously criticized.

On arrival at Port Jackson Australia after 114 days travel Mitchell records: “One of the greatest views in my life, it has left an impression which will never be effaced. I could not help exclaim when I saw it from the beautiful countryside to be the place devoted as the abode of convicted felons”. Shortly after he makes the following troublesome observation:

“It is by far too noble, precious a country to be inhabited by such villains. No wonder that so many crimes are committed in England when they have it as the place of their banishment.” Again, the language here to describe the convicts seems jarring and unprofessional, and ignores the fact that they are being brought to Australia against their will to work.

After several months in Australia and situated at Batavia Mitchell records: “During the two months we have been here, I attended several ships in which almost the whole crew were suffering from this dreadful fever….providence favoured me to such that I neither lost an officer or man. But very different was the state of my own ship in spite of every exertion I could make both night and day. Large quantities of ardent spirits from which many were in a continual state of intoxication, such they might be much more liable to the deadly attack of the fever. Very few escaped from it (the fever), in the course of weeks we lost the 2^nd Officer, who by the by was a drunkard and a notorious villain. We also lost 7 men by death. Some ships after this were more fortunate….14 Captains of different ships died in the space of 3 months.

Mitchell then goes on to make some observations on the policy of treatment of the convicts which are quite startling. “The only fault that I have to find with the Government, is that they are far too well treated, both in the way of accommodation, provisions, each convict being allowed two gallons of port wine on the voyage..more provisions than they could consume….many men give their surplus of porridge and soup to the pigs.” It is surprising to learn of alcohol being made readily available to the prisoners on board as one can imagine how that might make discipline aboard the voyage problematic, and it is easy to understand Mitchell’s concerns in this instance.

But then he continues “Is not this singular treatment to men who have been found unworthy to live in their native country and have been banished, some of them from their flagrant crimes had been justly sentenced to death by the laws of their country, but whose sentence has been commuted.” And he observes of an intervention he made saying “I got the Governor to put him to hard labour during his serving years, as a carrier of stones.”

The Neptune began its return voyage to England on 14^th August, and on the 14^th of November the ship docked at the Island of St Helena where Mitchell observed “I had an opportunity of seeing the cage that had contained one of the greatest men the world ever saw. It gave me more pleasure to see this island than it would have given me to see the coronation of George the 4^th”. Given that Mitchell himself had served in the battle of Waterloo to defeat the enemy lead by Napoleon, is quite shocking to read these sentiments of his favour and respect for Napoleon seemingly taking ascendance over loyalty to the King, presumably sentiments that he reserved for this private journal.

In his final entry Mitchell recounts bad weather and a further concern with the ship’s pilot’s competence, placing his faith in God instead for their safe passage “having experienced a gale of wind in a dark night through a danger of navigation and with the bad pilot, we had to trust to the good pilot who alone can conduct us safely through the numerous dangers of this world.”

By today’s standards Mitchell’s use of disparaging and judgmental language comes across as jarring and contrary to the required skills of empathy and understanding that we’d expect from a doctor. However, such attitudes are representative of the time and given that this mission was under military jurisdiction with consequent hierarchies and levels of command. Furthermore, we have to recall that this is his private journal and he wasn’t therefore necessarily expressing these views to others or letting his opinions influence his professional duties as a doctor. Obviously, we only have Mitchell’s testimony of events to go by, but he appears to have been very committed to his work in as ships doctor to the prisoners and to have been respected by them for his expertise, efficacy and fair treatment of them. All of the prisoners survived the journey to Australia, unlike with the confusingly also named Neptune voyage of 1789, where almost one third of prisoners died on the voyage and the regime on board was far more brutal and cruel towards the prisoners.[6]

I should like to thank my supervisor Laura Beattie (Community Engagement Officer) at University of Edinburgh, and to all the staff at the Centre for Research Collections for their kindness and professionalism in enabling to view this historic notebook.

[1] James Mitchell (New South Wales politician) – Wikipedia

[2] Collection: Account of a voyage to New South Wales on the ‘Neptune’ by James Mitchell (1792- ), ship’s surgeon | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections

[3] Neptune (1780 ship) – Wikipedia

[4] Convict Ship Neptune 1820 (freesettlerorfelon.com)

[5] Thomas Warton – Wikipedia

[6] Neptune (1780 ship) – Wikipedia