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Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The collections in the care of Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service are an amalgam of several independent collections, the earliest dating back to 1828 in the case of the collection once resident in Banff Museum. Consisting of some of the finest archaeological objects in Scotland, including the Iron Age Deskford Carnyx and the Gaulcross Hoard of Pictish silver, the collection was complemented by donations of arms and armour from the Duke of Fife and the natural history collection of noted Scottish naturalist Thomas Edward, who was also the former curator of Banff Museum.

  Adam Arbuthnot, a merchant from Peterhead, began collecting archaeology, numismatics and objects from world cultures in the first half of the 19^th century, and James Kerr of Inverurie was an avid collector of archaeology and ephemera.

  Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service also holds a collection of agricultural material purchased in 1994 by Banff & Buchan District Council from Adamston, Huntly, and collected by the late Hew McCall-Smith. This was supplemented by the purchase and relocation of Hareshowe Croft in 1990, to form the core collection located at Aden Country Park, Aberdeenshire. The collection was awarded Recognised Collection of National Significance status in 2008.

  The enthusiasm of Aberdeenshire collectors has resulted in an eclectic and diverse collection that encompasses the length and breadth of the history of north-east Scotland, including farming, fishing, whaling, archaeology and the county’s unique contribution to cultural and economic development world-wide.

  In 1975, all museums were transferred to local authority control, and in 1996 became the responsibility of Aberdeenshire Council. Live Life Aberdeenshire (LLA), the Council’s new and innovative way of delivering high quality cultural and sports services, including museums, was created in 2019. All reserve collections have been relocated to Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service Headquarters in Mintlaw since 2004, allowing ease of access by staff and communities alike.

  The collections have been available to the communities in which they were collected since their creation and have long been appreciated and accessed by those communities, an ethos which Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service is committed to uphold.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Fine and Applied Art

  For ease of consideration the Art collection has been divided into sub-headings:

  a) Fine Art – includes paintings (oils and watercolours), drawings (pencil, ink, charcoal and pastel) and prints.

  b) Applied Art – includes sculpture, silver, glass, ceramics, furniture, horology, metalwork and some miscellaneous domestic and religious material.

  Fine Art

  The core of the Fine Art collection largely comprises the former burgh collections. While there are four pre-19th-century portraits, the greatest concentration is on 19^th– and early 20^th-century Scottish painting, particularly portraits, maritime paintings and a few landscapes, and some contemporary 20^th– and early 21^st-century material by Aberdeenshire artists.

  Oil Paintings

  This group comprises portraits (mainly of former Provosts), maritime paintings, landscapes, still life and some genre paintings. Important names in this group include Sir David Wilkie, Robert Brough, Joseph Farquharson, James Giles, George Sherwood Hunter, R. Gemmell Hutchison, Norman Macbeth, John Phillip, Sir George Reid and George Fiddes Watt. Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service holds the only collection in public hands in Northern Scotland of works by the Peterhead artist James Forbes, the teacher of John Phillip. Several contemporary paintings by Aberdeenshire artists were acquired pre-2015.

  Watercolours and Drawings

  This is a small group, the most significant of which are the 18^th-century portraits by James Ferguson, and the series of watercolours of Peterhead painted in 1795 by Montague Beattie. There is a small number of contemporary watercolours and drawings by Aberdeenshire artists.

  Prints

  This group falls into two distinct sections. One group is of 19^th-century prints, largely landscape views, nearly all of which are of Aberdeenshire scenes. The other group is a larger collection of late 20^th-century prints, mostly by contemporary artists from the North East.

  Applied Art

  The Applied Art collection covers a wide variety of objects and materials, of which the silver sub-collection (especially that of Banff) is of national importance.

  Silver

  This group of artefacts includes material produced in , Peterhead, Ballater and Stonehaven. The collection of silver is the largest in . Half of the known Banff silversmiths are represented in the collection. There is an important series of silver prize trophies associated with the mid-19^th-century Volunteer movement in Aberdeenshire.

  Sculpture and Ceramics

  There is a small number of sculptures and ceramics, some of which are by contemporary Aberdeenshire artists.

  Furniture and Horology

  This is a small collection, the most significant items being several 17^th-century chairs, the chair of Inverurie poet William Thom, and a few longcase clocks.

  Metalwork

  This group of material includes brass, copper, pewter and plated wares. It incorporates secular and religious material such as presentation gifts and trophies and community plate, mostly of local manufacture and association.

  Natural Sciences

  For ease of consideration the National Sciences Collection has been divided into sub-headings: the collection is composed of Vertebrate Zoology, Invertebrate Zoology, Botany and Geology.

  Vertebrate Zoology

  Taxidermy and Skeletal Material

  This collection consists largely of British birds, mammals, some reptiles and fish, with some foreign species. Much of the material represents what survives of 19^th-century collections. Some 20^th-century specimens have been acquired for display purposes.

  Bird’s Eggs

  This is a small collection, largely of British birds, with some exotic species (e.g., ostrich). Legislation now prohibits the collecting of eggs of British birds; this collection will not expand in the future.

  Invertebrate Zoology

  This is the largest collection in Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service comprising several thousand specimens from various sources. The two principal components are mollusc shells and insects.

  The mollusc shell collection is largely of foreign species; much comes from historical collections, and there is an extensive and high-quality late 20^th century collection. The historical collections reflect scientific collecting during the 19^th-century period of “Scots abroad”, while the modern collection has good accompanying data.

  The insect collection derives from historical collections; no recent additions have been made to this section.

  Botany

  The botanical collection mainly consists of a small herbarium of Arctic plants collected by Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier who accompanied Sir John Franklin on his last expedition, and a small miscellany of algae, plant specimens etc., collected in the 19^th century. There is a small collection of seeds, nuts and dried plant material collected in the 19^th century.

  Geology

  The collections of rocks, minerals and fossils are variable in quality.

  Rocks

  The rock collection consists of a few hundred specimens from Aberdeenshire, Britain and Europe. There is patchy coverage of local rock types, though there is a representative collection of granites.

  Minerals

  This collection contains a fairly representative group of minerals, suitable for display, education and research.

  Fossils

  The fossil collection includes representative specimens of the major fossil groups and has important Old Red Sandstone fish material. Much of the material, however, is not of display quality, although the Old Red Sandstone fish material has been the subject of research work in the past.

  Human History

  For ease of consideration the Human History Collection has been divided into the following sub-headings:

  Farming; Social History; Archives; Costume and Textiles; Archaeology; Numismatics; Ethnography; Arms and Armour; Photography

  Farming

  The agricultural collections of the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum were awarded Recognised Collection of National Significance, designated by Museums Galleries Scotland, in 2008.

  The collection is based on the original agricultural collection amassed at Adamston, Huntly by the late Hew McCall-Smith and purchased by Banff & Buchan District Council in 1984. The original collection was augmented by further acquisitions by the former North East Scotland Agricultural Heritage Centre (NESAHC), including the relocation to of the Hareshowe croft in 1990. The NESAHC collections were supplemented in 1996 by the agricultural collection of North East Scotland Museums Service (NESMS).

  The collection presents an extensive view of farming and country life in North East Scotland over the last two to three hundred years, with a strong focus on the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The collection includes some important items such as the early wooden ox plough from the NESMS collection. The range of larger agricultural implements demonstrates the importance of the local burgh foundries to farming in Aberdeenshire.

  Archives relating to this collection include some rural farming business material such as Barclay, Ross & Hutchison of Turriff. There is a good, though incomplete, run of the Transactions of the (Royal) Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland from 1872 to 1968, as well as Clydesdale stud books and catalogues of important breeders and their herds of Aberdeen Angus cattle.

  Social History

  The social history collection covers a wide range of material including bicycles, prams, shop fittings, industrial machinery, ship models, medical, musical and scientific instruments, commemorative and ornamental items, toys and games, weights and measures, photographic and textile equipment, and everyday domestic material.

  Much of the material has a specific association with Aberdeenshire, such as civic regalia and weights and measures. In particular, the maritime collections relate to the herring fishing, the whaling trade and harbour development.

  Archaeology

  The archaeology collection comprises material from North East Scotland, with a small collection of Egyptian and classical Greek material. The material from the North East is generally confined to individual items from Aberdeenshire.

  In the past, individual finds came to the collection mainly by donation. The Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel (SAFAP) has allocated copious items to the collection in recent years.

  The collection is strongest in Neolithic and Bronze Age material, with a large collection of flints of various ages, a significant collection of beakers and cinerary urns, and an important collection of carved stone balls. The most important parts of the archaeology collection comprise the Neolithic Ardiffery jet necklace (part of the Ardiffery/Greenbrae assemblage), the Iron Age Deskford carnyx, and the Pictish Gaulcross silver hoard (the latter two, on temporary loan to National Museums Scotland, are of national importance). The medieval period has been augmented by several excavation assemblages.

  Arms and Armour

  This is a varied collection of British and foreign firearms, swords and daggers, shot and powder flasks, and some armour. There are two significant sub-collections: (a) the arms and armour donated by the Duke of Fife; and (b) the Anderson Bey collection of North African and Afghan militaria formerly held by .

  Costume and Textiles

  This collection comprises costume, textiles and accessories. The collection comprises mainly ladies’ costume with some notable 19^th-century dresses, including a fair sample for the period 1850 to 1920, and for the 1960s and 1970s. There are also several banners, most notably the banner of the Banff Hammermen.

  Numismatics and Paranumismatics

  The core of this collection is the Arbuthnot Coin and Medal Collection. This is a representative collection which includes Greek, Roman, English, Scottish, and British coins, and 18^th– and 19^th-century commemorative medals, together with associated archive material related to its acquisition by Adam Arbuthnot. There is a more general collection which includes trade and church tokens, as well as miscellaneous material including beggars’ badges. The church tokens form a representative collection across Scotland.

  The core of the commemorative medal collection is the Arbuthnot collection. There is a collection of military medals representing the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, as well as a Waterloo Medal.

  Photography

  This collection holds over 17,000 catalogued images, as glass negatives, lantern slides, original photographs, postcards and flexible sheet negatives. Over half of this material relates to the Peterhead area.

  The glass negatives primarily derive from the Shivas collection (959 images) of Peterhead and provide a record of the area between about 1860 and the 1950s. Original photographs and postcards provide a record up to the 1960s, supplemented by flexible negatives. The Broughall collection comprises 2,200 35mm and medium format negatives from the Peterhead area during the last two decades of the 20th century. The Morrison collection comprises 670 glass negatives and 45 black and white prints of farming scenes in the Foveran area between 1890 and 1920.

  There are also two large collections from the Banff area: the Bodie collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century glass plates (1,500 – 2,000) which include rare glass plate negatives by Banff photographer George Bremner, and the Ritchie collection of early- to mid-20th-century roll film negatives with an excess of 500 glass negatives totalling approx. 8,500 images. Both collections are in the process of being catalogued to item level.

  There is a need to maintain dialogue regarding the collecting of photographs with Aberdeenshire Libraries, Aberdeen City & Shire Archives, and various community heritage groups.

  Ethnography

  The Ethnography collection is based on the Arbuthnot collection and on other 19^th-century collections. The most significant section in the collection is the Inuit material, brought back by whaling ships in the 19th century; other items come from Africa, the Americas, Australasia and China.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC