Friday 7 September 2012

Great Scott

It seems appropriate, while the Paralympics are in full swing, to post about Hettie Scott, a Harray lass who achieved more than most able-bodied people despite having no hands and being unable to walk.

Hettie learned to write, paint, knit and crochet using only her feet and, more importantly, she mastered the art of drinking a cup of tea with the saucer in her left foot and the cup in her right. Hettie says in her short autobiography Brightening Her Corner, that tea was one of her favourite things, a confession which we heartily applaude here at Orkney Archive.

Hettie was particularly talented at both painting and needlework and favoured scenes of animals and flowers which often illustrated biblical texts. Hettie was uncomplaining about her limitations but was no po-faced martyr. Her book made me snigger three times.


Hettie was born in 1878 and passed away at the age of 70 in 1958.


Photograph reference L7081/4,
Brightening Her Corner reference D1/882/7/3,
Letter addressed by Hettie D31/1/1/22.

8 comments:

  1. "Get Dusty" always brightens my day.

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  2. Thank you Mary, you've just brightened ours!

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  3. I love it , I am delighted , keep posting it !

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  4. Thank you for your encouraging comment.

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  5. We now live in Hetties home in Harray.

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    1. Ooh, if you find any interesting records hidden in the house, let us know!

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  6. I would love to have pictures of the little cats Hettie made and were visible in almost every farm house or home in Harray, I am the proud owner of a large painting of pink carnations in an old gold-ish colour basket on black silk that I have owned for decades I bought it when I was a teenager in Edinburgh, not knowing anything about the artist. I was amazed to find years later after that it was one of Hettie's works, amazing woman I would love to attached to the back of the frame a little of her story including some examples of her abilities.

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  7. Incredible, what a find! We would love to see the cats too...

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