If you have been following the CHDS blog for the past few years you will have seen some of our content relating to the digitisation of the Charles Lyell Collection held by the University of Edinburgh (links to some of our past blogs can be found here and here). This collection is made up of material belonging to the Geologist, Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) and contains geological specimens, around 300 notebooks, correspondence, and other papers relating to his work.
This spring the short but broad digitisation project, OneHealth, reached its end. The OneHealth project was focused on early animal welfare history, utilising new material brought in from a trio of organisations: Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, and the animal welfare charity OneKind. During those 6 months, we had a vast and diverse materials pass through our studios. From the historically rich early records of Edinburgh Zoo to morbidly curious Veterinary School implements to the delightfully pet centric magazines of the OneKind charity, the project spanned a wide range of items.
Today is World Photography Day, ‘an annual celebration of the art, craft, science and history of photography.’ This year, we’d like to turn the spotlight on the amazing photographers working in the Cultural Heritage Digitisation Service by allowing them to highlight their favourite collection items they’ve photographed, and to share a piece of their own work as well. We hope their insights into the medium and their technical process will prove both interesting and informative!
Last month, team members Marian and Miranda attended Knowledge Exchange Week, hosted by the University of Edinburgh. This was the fifth time the event had been held, and the theme was the ‘Open Library.’ The event also incorporated the Edinburgh Open Research Conference. After a whirlwind week of programming and networking, we thought it might be interesting to hear more about what they learned and experienced.
How often do you walk past a 1000 year old rune stone? The answer is every day, if you work or study near the Main Library!
Earlier this year I completed a project photographing James Skene’s Album of Sketches in greater detail. When I came across his runestone illustration again I was intrigued and did some research, making the surreal discovery that the subject was a 3 minute walk away. At 50 George Square behind the Scandinavian Studies Department, stands a Swedish runestone with a curious history. This 1.3 tonne granite stone found its new home here at the university in 2019, having been moved several times prior.
I began working with the Cultural Heritage Digitisation Services team last November, as a Digitisation Operator. Before joining the team, I was digitising plant specimens in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. I am also a photographer, with my work most recently appearing in the Accidentally Wes Anderson exhibition which opened in London December 2023.
2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year, with several projects in the works. Some of these have been in the planning stages for a long time, and we really couldn’t be more eager to finally get started. With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to provide a ‘movie trailer’ of sorts, with a short preview of each project we plan to tackle in 2024:
Last summer, I spent five days photographing the skeleton of William Burke to document recent conservation as a record for future collection care. The remains had been conserved and cleaned for the first time since the 1800s and the skeleton was going on display at the National Museum of Scotland for their 2022 exhibition “A Matter Of Death and Life“. I also photographed the life and death masks of Burke, Hare and Robert Knox (“the man who buys the beef”).
For the past eleven weeks I’ve had the opportunity to intern with the Digital Imaging Unit, working on a project to evaluate the potential of establishing a 3D digitisation service within the department. “3D digitisation” in this sense encompasses everything from the initial production of digital models – using suitable items from across the University Collections – to online display, preservation of 3D data, and 3D printing. The project was roughly organised into three phases: research, testing, and implementation.
Although I worked primarily with Susan Pettigrew (Photographer, DIU) and Mike Boyd (uCreate Manager) I always felt supported by the other Library & University Collections staff; everyone I had the chance to speak to was eager to discuss their own work on top of contributing to the project.
