Get Down and Dusty

It's a brand new year in the Orkney Archive and time to get down and dusty. Here are a group of regulars doing just that on Thursday night. Shoes and pencils were cast aside, casual onlookers bewildered and staff were trapped behind the counter.

Some of our maps are just ginormous and have to be unrolled on the floor. This one of a part of Westray in the 1830s, proved difficult to figure out. North was not at the top of the map, there were only a few houses or farms shown and parts of the coastline did not match the modern map. But then a lot can change in 190 years!

The map shown is D8/N/15[E2] Plan of the lands of Midbea, Tuquoy and Fitty Hill, Westray showing land belonging to Dr. Traill of Tirlet. c. 1830

Sound Familiar?



Taken from The Genealogy of the Orkney Traills byWilliam Traill of Woodwick, 1883.

 Apologies for the lengthy break in blogging but we were just too full of Christmas pies and busy playing with our new lego sets to manage until now.

Today is, of course, Burn's night and I informed Dusty that I intended to celebrate this by posting verses by Colonel Thomas Traill the 1st of Holland (1618 - 1648) which many believe to have been an inspiration for 'My Love is Like A Red, Red Rose'.

This was risky as Dusty has been in a deeply committed, albeit posthumous, relationship with Rabbie since the early 90s. "It's a rumour", she said sternly. "There's NO proof that Traill's was the original! Robert travelled a lot, he could have heard it anywhere"

Proof schmoof. It's a nice version.

So long, farewell

Verily did we weep, dear readers as yesterday we were forced to remove our Discovery Week Archive World Traill exhibitions from the walls of the Searchroom. Our displays are like our children. So much time is spent researching, collating, photocopying, sticking, snipping, gluing and arranging, it is hard not to grow attached to their dear presence.

As each piece was packed away in it's little acid free box or archival plastic poly pocket, we reminisced and softly laughed as we bid them adieu once more.

Three months is the maximum time that we like to have archival documents out of the carefully controlled atmospheres of the strongrooms and we have plans for a new exhibition. We have big machines on the sides of the strongroom walls which control the temperature and humidity of the room. These settings vary from room to room (there are four stores) with the photographs, for example, needing less humidity in the air than our paper documents.

I am not going to lie, this plays havoc with our hair and complexions. We are thinking of insisting on a wage enhancement to spend on conditioner and moisturiser. The plants need watered every day too, or their soil turns to dust. Seriously, my hairdresser is appalled...

And the winners are...

Discovery Week is officially over. The balloons are down, the banner will soon follow suit and there is no baking or cooking going on anywhere in the building. We are a little morose. Prizes have been won, however, so let's look at the winners:

The winner of the Photo quiz and recipient of a year's worth of free DVD and CD loans is: Steven Smith!!!

The winner of the Archive World Traill (Traveller level) and recipient of 'The Seventy Great Journeys in History' and a year's worth of free DVD and CD loans is: Fran Flett Hollinrake!!!

And the joint winners of the Archive World Traill (Explorer level) and therefore winning a book each are: Chloe Barclay!!! and Kirsty Melrose!!!

Well done everyone and thank you for taking part. Chloe and Kirsty are pictured above with Michael Forsyth, who won the library cooks quiz, Chloe Rosie, the winner of the library scavenger hunt and our manager, Gary.

Other great news is that the wonderful soup for Haiti event raised over £360 pounds and the Coffee morning raised £125 for the same cause. Hooray!!!

Everyone agrees that Janice and Sandra did a fantastic job yesterday and thanks is due to our lovely volunteers for helping out at both events.

It's the Final Countdown! Doo roo doo doo, Doo roo doo doo doo.

There are only hours left until the first day of the rest of your life i.e. the first day of Orkney Library & Archive's Discovery Week 2010. Tomorrow is also World Book Day so those few non-Orcadians who read this blog (thanks guys) can celebrate by reading or dressing up as a book.

Downstairs in the library, sale books are being humphed, displays titivated and home-bake recipes pondered. But what is happening in the archives?

Lions... aeroplanes... skyscrapers... huskies & igloos... revolution... petitions...war....ritual charcoal and nudity related humiliation at the hands of South Sea islanders.... Our Archive Discovery World Traill has all these great things and more.

There are two levels to the Traill; Explorer and Traveller. The winner of the Traveller's prize draw will win this brilliant book. The triumphant Explorer will take home not only this awesome tome, but a book of Great Explorer themed pop up board games that is so amazing, we will not post an image of it for fear that it will BLOW YOUR MINDS.

Discovery week starts tomorrow with the Traill, Book amnesty, photo quizzes, children's stories and craft with Britt Harcus at 4.00pm and Tom Muir's storytelling from 5.30 - 6.30pm in the MacGillivray Room on the first floor.

Our manager shall be hanging the Discovery Week banners outside this afternoon in a death-defying, fathers for justice-style crawl along the front of the building. Come along to laugh/cheer/boo, whatever comes naturally.

Discovery Week 2010

'Good Lord', I hear you cry, 'what a brightly coloured, informative and well laid out leaflet that is! I do wonder what it's for?'

Well wonder no more. To the right, you can see a break down of all the events that have been planned for Discovery Week 2010. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

There will be food (Broth and Breid), there will be adventure (the Archive World Discovery Traill), there will be tea, biscuits, prizes, competitions, gentle mercy (Book Amnesty) and much, much more.

Our last Discovery Week occurred in 2008 and caused such frenzied and unbridled joy amongst the citizens of Orkney that we decided to make it a biennial celebration and provide a restful fallow year.

See you all on the 4-10th of March! Be there or be square!

5th June 2009 - New Acquisition

Yesterday, the archives received a most exciting donation: 4 travel diaries written by Dr. Thomas Stewart Traill of Tirlot in 1814. These surprisingly intact, leather bound and marbled volumes cover Traill’s travels through France, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Africa towards the end of the Napoleonic wars.

The diaries are clear and legible and will make very interesting reading. In them, Traill discusses and draws little sketches of all the places that he visited, remarking on the weather, architecture and geology. One book contains a floor plan of the Alhambra which Traill visited.