Zexuan is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University, and recently completed a six-month placement with the musical instrument collection of the University of Edinburgh. In this post, Zexuan shares the highlights of his work, which focused on the study and preservation of historic bagpipes.
In this post, Technician Robyn Rogers discusses her bespoke mounting and rehousing of loose-leaf papers from the University’s decorated paper collection. Robyn’s first post about working through the collection’s bound volumes can be seen here. If you are interested in learning more about the historic uses, production and trade of decorated paper, you can visit the online exhibition on this collection, curated by Elizabeth Quarmby Lawrence here.
As part of ongoing work on the University’s historic loans, Collections Registrar, Morven Rodger, investigates the history and provenance of the University’s John Rae collection.
In July 1926, the University Court agreed to lend the “John Rae Collection of Arctic and Other Relics” to the Royal Museum of Scotland. Almost a century later, The Royal Museum is now the National Museum of Scotland, and John Rae’s items remain on loan, but how and why did the University come to have these items in the first place?
In this post book conservator Amy Baldwin talks about the conservation work undertaken on volumes appearing in the upcoming online exhibition “Rewriting the script: the works and words of Esther Inglis”.
Isabela Tapia Hernandez
The Collections Care Assistant role was created for our students to explore the cultural heritage sector through employment and support their career aspirations post-graduation.
This is the second of three blog posts detailing their time with us!
Back in March we welcomed our new Student Collections Care Assistants; Abigail Miskin, Ella Joyce and Isabela Tapia Hernandez. Four months on and it is time to say goodbye and thank you to the first, Abigail, who has been offered an amazing opportunity to shadow a team of conservators in Italy, learning Paintings Conservation and develop on the skills she has learned here with us.
The Collections Care Assistant role was created for our students to explore the cultural heritage sector through employment and support their career aspirations post-graduation. This inaugural year involved collaborative efforts to optimise the role for students, collections, and service. Abigail, Ella and Isabela exhibited exceptional communication, maturity, flexibility, and a willingness to learn, making the role’s first year highly successful. These qualities also allowed the established team members to learn and improve the role, which we aim to continue offering in 2024-25 and beyond.
This is the first of three blog posts detailing their time with us!
By Amanda Dodd, Projects Conservator, Heritage Collections
In this week’s blog, Amanda Dodd reviews the work she did on the One Health Project with a particular focus on this use of more sustainable materials when conserving collections.
Above: Rehoused R(D)SVS photograph and ornate frame of O.C. Bradley.
In October 2023 I took over as Project conservator for The One Health initiative. A little bit of background: The project, generously funded by the Wellcome Trust, was a monumental effort to catalogue, preserve, and provide access to three distinct archival collections pertaining to the evolution of animal health and welfare in Scotland from the 1840s onwards. These collections include the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS), OneKind Animal Charity, and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS).
We are delighted to welcome three new people to the Conservation and Collections Management Team this month. Abigail Miskin, Ella Joyce and Isabela Tapia Hernandez will be joining us as our first ever Student Collections Care Assistants.
Ella, Abigail and Isabela will be working with us until the end of July on a range of different projects and activities. Let’s hear them introduce themselves in their own words:
In the first post of this two part series, our Musical Instrument Care Technician (and former conservation intern), Esteban Mariño Garza, discusses his Musical Instrument Research and Documentation Internship project to try and discover who made one of the harpsichords in the Musical Instrument Collections of the University. Continue reading
It’s that time of the year when the leaves start changing, the air gets cooler, and I get creeped out by works in the collection…
As the Art Collection is an ever-moving beast, on display across the University of Edinburgh’s entire campus and beyond, I am responsible for overseeing the transport of artwork in and out of storage and ensuring locations are kept up to date. However, occasionally I can get spooked out by works that I swear that I’ve never seen before – a fitting topic for today’s Friday the 13th blog!