Saturday 2 July 2011

New Displays and Strange Old Customs

 
We are proud to announce that we now have a new display of archives about Deerness in the Library foyer and continuing upstairs in the Archive Searchroom . [Now over.] This display is to help promote the Deerness in 100 objects event at Deerness Hall from 24 June - 7 August.

Our display includes school log books, kirk session minutes, photos of ploughing cups and medals, and one of the Deerness Coastguard Station books.

We have also provided some nice colour photocopies of some of the contents of the archive items to the Deerness Hall for the public to view there.

We are all waiting impatiently for our day off so that we can go down to Deerness and experience it ourselves.

We have not forgotten all you pirate fans out there though - do not despair! We have copied and moved the display of Orkney Pirate archives and Tall Ships photos down to the wavy wall in the library. The wavy wall (a very apt place to put it!) is near the childrens area on the way to the Marwick Room and the Computer Room in the main part of the Library.

And just to keep you laughing through the weekend here are a couple of drawings we found recently in the Customs & Excise Records. These are instructions to Kirkwall Customs Officials to watch out for some ingenious ways of smuggling tea and lace from ships in 1834.

Archive reference: CE55/2/6 Customs and Excise Records : Board’s Orders: Board to Collector, 1834.