Old Orkney Photograph Phun

Dusty and I began our morning when our Very Orcadian Colleague invited us to inspect these fantastic photos. He often brings through examples of interest, mirth or mystery and these delighted us.


The first is a positive image printed on glass of a group of four.

Photographs of this vintage rarely include people smiling as the exposure times were too long for sitters to hold a smile for. Dusty and I thought the woman looked particularly grim and wondered if she was having a bad day. VOC informed us that they were 'probably all in clamps' to keep them still (photographers used posing rods and neck rests to help sitters to remain static) and wondered why we were not more intrigued by the fellow on the right who was feeling his fellow sitter's ear and holding what appeared to be a small pipe.

What's his deal?

The instruction not to smile clearly caused this wee lass some mirth and we were amazed by how modern this picture seemed. It could have been taken yesterday. VOC thought it was early twentieth century and guessed from THE WALL BEHIND HER that it was taken on the isle of Westray.

The Orkney Photographic Archive comprises of close to 70,000 images of people, places, transport, archaeological digs, sporting events, terrifying creatures, mystery (poo-like) objects and many, many more subjects and/or events. Most of these are available to peruse in the Archive Search Room on the first floor of Orkney Library.

We can photocopy and scan images we own the copyright of and VOC can makephotographic prints for you in his Tardis-like darkroom.

Update: VOC investigated the origin of this photograph and it was indeed taken on Westray.





Orkney Archive Advent Calendar - A Christmas Farewell

Today we thought we'd  bring you the disembodied, yet Christmassy head of our social media brother, @OrkneyLibrary on his last ever day of working here.


Sob....




...but then we decided to give him some bodies after all...

 

Stewart's shift ends at 1pm today (slacker), and so, as he turns in his date stamp, hangs up his key and helps himself from the library till one last time, let us all open the nearest window, crank up the volume and serenade him with this Buck's Fizz classic. Perhaps Storm Barbara will quieten long enough for him to hear it as he stands in the car park, a tear in his eye and that Mavis Riley book he went on about in his arms.

 So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen (pet), good by-ee.


Adieu Stew!

Please Meet Jason, the Unshrinkable Pants

Ahhh ha ha! I shall henceforth refer to my own underwear as 'Deborah'. You?

The Problem With Topical Comedy...

One of our latest acquisitions is this small bundle of postcards. The drawings are fantastic and we would like to know who the artist is...

The images all refer to the Bay of Firth Oyster Fishery and are obviously meant to be humorous but we don't really understand the joke. Something to do with oysters...

Tee hee...

Very droll, I'm sure...

Stop! My sides!

The Syndicate of work!

Insect powder in some bellows, powering a jumper-sailed boat... hilarious!

Yeah!!!!!!!

At long last, the sun has re-appeared and we can see our colleagues' faces once more. There were a couple of days last week that literally didn't ever get light and it felt like we were all doing the night-shift.

In fact, we are a little giddy with this unexpected sun light and some mirth has been experienced despite some of us having to do some quite complicated sums to work out the volume of archives that we hold.

Working out statistics is an important part of archive work. We calculate visitor statistics, photocopying statistics, spatial statistics, volume of requests per customer, type of archive requested, daily requests, monthly requests, yearly requests etc. etc. etc. Consequently, administration is also a large part of the job.