Explore collections

The collections cared for by Museums and Galleries are estimated to comprise some 250,000 items. For management purposes the collections are regarded as discreet collections accessioned to six venues, Annan Museum, Dumfries Museum, Gracefield Arts Centre, Sanquhar Tolbooth Museum, The Stewartry Museum and Stranraer Museum.

 

Annan Museum

In 1955 Annan Town Council took over responsibility for a small collection of local history objects and paintings on display in Annan Library in Bank Street and gathered together by Annan Rotary Club.  Subsequently the collection was moved to Moat House, Bruce Street where it was administered by an Honorary Curator until 1979, when it was moved to Dumfries Museum for safe-keeping.  In 1991 the collection was returned to Annan Council Chambers and stored in the attic and a basement room.  In 1992 a Museums Curator was appointed and in 1993 Annandale and Eskdale District Council created a museum with permanent and temporary exhibition spaces in the former Library in Bank Street, Annan. Over subsequent years the collections have been developed, often with financial support from the Friends of Annandale and Eskdale Museums, with a particular focus on works by local artists and of local scenes.

 

Dumfries Museum

The museum was founded in January 1835 as an astronomical observatory and museum in the stone windmill built about 1790 on Corberry Hill.  In 1862 the Main Hall was built to house the collections of the newly founded Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society.  During the 20^th century the museum acquired the local elements of Dr Grierson’s Museum, Thornhill, Langholm Museum and the Myrseth Folk Museum when they closed. The collections are now the most extensive in South West Scotland, ranging from fossil footprints left by prehistoric animals and the weapons of our earliest people to stone carvings by Scotland’s first Christians, herbarium specimens and manuscripts by the poet Robert Burns.

 

The Old Bridge House Museum

In 1959 the sandstone house built into the western end of the mediaeval Devorgilla’s Bridge in Dumfries became a museum of everyday life, displaying artefacts from Dumfries Museum’s collection.  Constructed in 1662 for the barrel maker, James Birkmyre, the Old Bridge House was an inn until well into the 1800s. It became a dwelling house sometime during the 1800s, and it is now the oldest surviving domestic dwelling in the town.

 

The Robert Burns Centre

In 1986 the Robert Burns Centre was opened as the main focus for the southern part of the Burns Heritage Trail.  Its purpose is to present the story of Robert Burns and his life in South West Scotland and to direct the visitor to other locations in the area with Burns connections. Interpretive panels and displays of artefacts and manuscripts associated with Robert Burns, mostly from the Dumfries Museum collection or on loan from Dumfries Burns Club, tell the story of the poet’s last years spent in the bustling streets and lively atmosphere of Dumfries in the late 18th century.

 

Robert Burns House

This simple two storey sandstone house is where Scotland’s national poet spent the last three years of his life.  He died in July 1796 at the age of thirty seven. The development of the railways saw Dumfries become a tourist destination, and in 1903 the Town Council took on responsibility for the building, and began to work with Dumfries Burns Club to create a museum to the poet’s memory.  The artefacts now on exhibition come mainly from the collections of Dumfries Museum or are on loan from Dumfries Burns Club.

 

The Service also has responsibility for Burns Mausoleum in St Michael’s Churchyard, Dumfries.

 

Sanquhar Tolbooth Museum

The museum was founded in 1975 in the Grade A listed 1735 tolbooth built by William Adam.  Initially an Honorary Curator developed and managed a collection of local archaeology, folk life and geology specimens.  The world famous tradition of Sanquhar knitting is particularly well represented and attracts visitors from all over the world.

 

By the mid 1980s the fabric of the building required substantial refurbishment and in 1987 the museum was closed while the works were carried out.  The premises re-opened in 1990 with new displays.  The former cells were opened for exhibition, and a collections store was created in the pend beneath the galleries.

 

 

Gracefield Arts Centre

Gracefield Arts Centre is located in two buildings on Edinburgh Road, Dumfries. The Gallery 1 building was bought in 1951 and a committee of local people were responsible for raising the money needed to buy the building and do the alterations that changed the former house, ‘Gracefield’ into an Art Gallery. In 1988, the Gallery 2 building was converted from the former Braidmyre School into an exhibition venue, café, craft shop, print studio, activity rooms with office space for administration staff.

 

The first exhibition staged in the original gallery was in conjuncture with the Festival of Britain celebrations marking an important development of cultural interest in the area.  Gracefield became the permanent home for a collection of paintings owned by the Dumfriesshire Educational Trust, and over the years many new pictures have been bought, gifted or loaned to the Gracefield collection, which now incorporates the works owned or on loan to Dumfries & Galloway Council Arts and Museums.  There are over 600 artworks (with the earliest dating from the 1840s), but predominately works date from the late 1880s to the present day.    Of these works, 208 are still owned by the Dumfriesshire Educational Trust and looked after as part of the Gracefield collection with a management agreement.

 

The collection is shown in themed exhibitions in the Gracefield exhibition programme throughout the year and appointment can be made to view items in store when not on display.

 

The Kirkcudbright Tolbooth

The Kirkcudbright Tolbooth was opened in 1993 by H.M. The Queen.  The building was originally erected in the period 1625-1629 (with later additions) as Kirkcudbright’s Tolbooth when it was used as a Town Council meeting place and office, Burgh and Sheriff Court, and the Criminal and Debtor’s prison.  One of the most famous prisoners was Captain John Paul, later known as John Paul Jones, hero of the American Navy. The top floor is maintained as a gallery for a huge range of contemporary art and craft exhibitions.

 

The Stewartry Museum

The Stewartry Museum was founded in 1879, and first occupied part of the Kirkcudbright Town Hall.  The present purpose-built museum was opened in 1893.  The Museum exhibits a wealth of objects relating to the area known as The Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire.

 

Castle Douglas Art Gallery

Castle Douglas Art Gallery first opened in 1938 having been gifted to the town by Mrs Ethel Bristowe, a talented artist in her own right.  The gallery was upgraded in 1996 with lottery funding through the Scottish Arts Council, and now forms an excellent venue for contemporary art and craft exhibitions.

 

Kirkcudbright Galleries

Opening spring 2018 Kirkcudbright Galleries is an architect-designed gallery of national significance built within the historic Town Hall to celebrate and promote the unique art heritage of Kirkcudbright. With high security display spaces the Kirkcudbright Galleries offers a permanent exhibition of the Kirkcudbright Artists Collection and a range of temporary and touring exhibitions, a café and shop.

 

Stranraer Museum,

Opened in 1988 in Stranraer’s historic Old Town Hall, built in 1776, Stranraer Museum offers a permanent gallery exhibiting a selection of Wigtownshire’s collection of artefacts. Including one of Scotland’s oldest ploughs and displays on archaeology, local history, costume, farming and dairying. On the second floor, upgraded to offer Government Indemnity Standard security, the museum displays a variety of temporary exhibitions.

 

The Castle of St John

The Castle of St John sits in a prominent position in the centre of Stranraer.  It is a particularly fine example of the type of tower house built and used by Scottish lairds in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Castle of St John was built around 1500 by the Adairs of Kilhilt, one of the most powerful families in Wigtownshire.  In the late 1670s it was used as a military garrison for the government troops commanded by John Graham of Claverhouse.  In the Victorian period it was used as a jail. It is now a very popular tourist attraction.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2018

Licence: CC BY-NC

Archaeology

 The archaeology collections of Dumfries and Galloway Museums and Galleries were Recognised as being of National Significance in 2007.  The Recognition Scheme celebrates, promotes and invests in nationally significant collections held outside the nationally run museums and galleries.  Funded by the Scottish Government and managed by Museums Galleries Scotland, the Recognition Scheme helps to make sure that these important collections are identified, cared for, protected and promoted to a wider audience.

Museums and Galleries has an extensive and fully representative archaeology collection covering all periods of Dumfries and Galloway’s human history from the Mesolithic to the seventeenth century.  Material includes the collections assembled by notable early antiquaries such as Grierson, Selby and Anderson plus the collection of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, established in 1862 and one of the oldest archaeological organisations in Scotland.  The collection also has a large number of chance but often spectacular finds acquired over the last 160 years plus important excavation assemblages such as Fox Plantation (prehistoric), Birrens, Middlebie (Roman), Whithorn (Early Medieval) and Cruggleton Castle (Medieval).  Significant themed groups include Mesolithic and Neolithic worked stone axes, Bronze Age pottery and metalwork, late prehistoric log boats, Roman military material, Early Medieval coins, metalwork, carved stones, pottery and glass and Medieval pottery and metalwork.

The Museums Service will continue to collect items which complement and enhance its existing archaeology collections as a result of allocation by the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel.

 

Applied and Decorative Art

The collections include horology, silversmithing, ceramics, civic and ceremonial items, furniture and firearms, most of which have been made locally or have local associations.  Items relate to friendly societies, co-operatives, occupational associations including trades incorporations, social and recreational societies, local government including the patrimony of the Royal Burghs of the region.

Museums and Galleries will continue to collect items which complement and enhance its existing collections where they are essentially local in their nature.

In particular, Museums and Galleries will develop its Recognised Kirkcudbright Artists’ Collection as well as collecting selected contemporary Kirkcudbright Artists’ work. The collection of Dumfries silver, built up over the last thirty years and now comprehensive in its makers and marks, will continue to be developed as the opportunity arises.

The Gracefield Arts Centre decorative art collection is very small, with only a few items of furniture and ceramics, and is not inventoried with the fine art collection. It will be policy for Gracefield Arts Centre to add to the decorative art collection as appropriate pieces appear.  It will not be the intention to collect a comprehensive series of glass, pottery or silver for the purpose of holding a typological sequence.  Additions to the collection will be made on the basis of items offered for donation and priority will be given to attempting to acquire items with specific connections to the region.

 

Ethnography

 Museums and Galleries has far eastern ethnography collected by local families, material transferred from the Royal Museum of Scotland for educational purposes and other smaller collections.  Museums and Galleries will not seek to add to this type of material unless there is a strong local connection.

 

Fine Art

 The Museums Service’s collection includes oil paintings, watercolours, prints, drawings and sculptures.  These are mostly of local scenes or individuals, and often by local artists.  Joseph Watson, William Coston Aitken, and the Faed family are represented.  There are also a number of fine paintings and sculptures by artists of international standing. In particular there is a fine collection of paintings by Kirkcudbright Artists, which was Recognised as being of National Significance in 2015

Items of local topography, portraiture, or strong local association that complement these existing collections will continue to be collected, with a particular focus on the work of the Kirkcudbright School and associated artists.

The work of contemporary artists will be considered for collection, where an artist has achieved a national reputation for the quality and significance of their work.

The Gracefield Arts Centre’s fine art collection numbers 643 accession records including 23 on long term loan.  The collection features artworks dating from 1840 to the present day and the media used includes oil, acrylic and watercolour paintings, original prints such as etching and linocut, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and photography, including the photographic archive collection of Lady Audrey Walker.

It will be Gracefield Arts Centre’s policy to collect fine art by Scottish artists or artwork of subjects relating to the region whether that be landscapes, portraits or other subject matters.

Gracefield Arts Centre has an extended loan of 5 pieces of outdoor sculpture and several smaller gallery works.  It will be the Gracefield Arts Centre’s policy to attract further pieces by Scottish sculptors as they become available.

 

Costume

 There is a small but important collection of local costume, accessories and textiles.  In the main this comprises 19th and early 20th century clothing, occupational costume and uniforms, needlework and banners.  There are also products of local textile industries including examples of Sanquhar knitting and Ayrshire Whitework.

Items of local association only will be collected.  The collection of Sanquhar Knitting, Ayrshire embroidery and products of local textile industries will be developed as the opportunity arises.

 

Geology

There is a comprehensive collection of rocks, minerals and fossils primarily from South West Scotland.  Some are type specimens and parts of the mineral collection are also of significance.

The collection ranges from the Ordovician of some 600 million years ago, through Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian to the Upper Triassic of some 170 million years ago.  The structural rocks of the area are well represented as is the area’s wide range of minerals.  Fossils range from graptolites of the Ordovician / Silurian to Carboniferous corals, tree trunks and nautiloids.  The Permo-Triassic is represented by red sandstone with ripple marks, raindrops, worm tracks and amphibian and primitive reptile tracks, several of which are type specimens.

Museums and Galleries will continue to acquire specimens of local significance not represented by the existing collections, whilst seeking to extend the geographical range of its geology collections to material from Annandale & Eskdale, Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire.

 

Natural History

The natural history collection consists of mounted animals, birds, birds eggs, fish, butterflies, moths and several significant herbariums, including the County Herbarium for Dumfriesshire.

Natural history specimens and collections with a local connection will only be acquired if they are already identified, are well packed and in a good state of preservation.

 

Numismatics

The numismatic collection covers coins, medals and tokens, including a comprehensive collection of local church tokens, coinage of antiquity and Scottish mediaeval coinage. The elements of this collection that are also ‘archaeological’ in nature were Recognised as being of National Significance in 2007.  Most items have local associations including coins from local excavations.  The assemblage of early mediaeval coins from the Whithorn excavations is of international importance.  Recent accessions include significant hoards from Gatehouse of Fleet, Closeburn and Catherinefield, near Dumfries.

The development of the numismatic collection will be restricted to items with a local connection.  Individual coins and hoards will be only be acquired when the findspot is known and by allocation from the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel.

 

Personalia

 Dumfries and Galloway Museums Service is one of the Accredited museum partners in Burns Scotland, a body which also includes archives, libraries and Burns Clubs.  The Accredited museums’ collections of artefacts relating to Robert Burns were Recognised as being of National Significance in 2008.  Some of these items are held on a renewable loan from Dumfries Burns Club.

Museums and Galleries will continue to collect manuscripts written by the poet and items associated with his life in the area.  Burns memorabilia, or Burnsiana, will not be collected unless it is of considerable interest or antiquity. However, there is a particular need to collect the original furniture of Burns House or appropriate contemporary pieces for display.

The collections of personalia relating to local people such as Thomas Carlyle, J M Barrie, Robert the Bruce, John Paul Jones and James Hogg also need to be strengthened.

 

Social History

 Museums’ and Galleries’ collections include objects associated with a wide range of local crafts, trades and professions.  They also include agricultural, medical, scientific and domestic items as well as those associated with transport, witchcraft, crime and punishment, religion, recreation and military history.

Artefacts of local interest will continue to be collected where they are not already represented in the collection.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2018

Licence: CC BY-NC

Dundee Heritage Trust (DHT) was founded in 1985, to preserve the industrial heritage of the city. This came from a desire to protect the industrial collection which was previously a part of the Dudhope Industrial Museum, whose collection was being dispersed. Full details of the origins of the trust can be found in the booklet: Dundee Heritage Trust The Beginning by Charlotte M Lythe, Austin H Walker, Michael J Edwards and Douglass H Ross (ISBM 1 870349 09 1).

In 1991 DHT secured the purchase of Verdant Works for the textile museum. In spring of that year the textile machinery, which had been the impetus for the creation of DHT was moved into Verdant Works.

Initially, the RRS Discovery was leased to Dundee and it arrived in Dundee at Victoria Dock in 1986. To begin, there was a quayside visitor centre whilst the purpose-built Discovery Point and Dock where built.

When DHT purchased the Discovery for £1 in November 1995s from the Maritime Trust they also gave DHT the collections that were related to the trust that was on loan and in store at the National Maritime Museum. As a result, there are a number of prefixes and numbering systems that DHT continued to use. These are ADM, BAR. BER, HOD, K, ROY, SCO, SHA, SKE, W 79.133. Items which came in subsequently have the prefix DUNIH.

From the 90’s DHT has collected for both the Polar and Textile collections. Both collections have been developed through donations and purchases for the collection and supplemented with loans both in and loans out. The collections have been stored at Verdant Works and Discovery Point, with one off site store. Both collections are Recognised of National Significance, awarded by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

Royal Research Ship Discovery and Polar Collections

The primary object is the historic vessel RRS Discovery, built in Dundee and the first ship built specifically for scientific research in polar regions. She took Captain Scott to the Antarctic in 1901-04 as well as taking part in other important expeditions.

In addition to the RRS Discovery, the Trust also holds associated collections related to the history of the ship and other polar expeditions. The collection is a Recognised Collection of National Significance and covers the fields of costume, numismatics, fine art, arms & armour, archives, science, photographs and social history. Items within the collections vary from navigational instruments, scientific specimens collected on the ship’s expeditions to personal objects which vividly represent daily life for polar explorers of the period. These include such items as wooden skis, sledging equipment (e.g. man and dog harnesses), fine quality expedition crockery and cutlery for use in the officers’ wardroom and some of the original food rations and games used for amusement during the long, dark Antarctic winters. The collections contain many rare and unique objects which have very special resonance and international importance.

Textile Industry of Dundee & Tayside

The textile collections relate to the history of Dundee’s textile industries – primarily jute but also flax, polypropylene and non-wovens. The core of the collection is the textile machinery representing the processing of jute through all the stages of the mill and factory.

The collection is a Recognised Collection of National Significance and as well as the large machinery objects, the associated textile collections cover the fields of industrial history, social history, fine art, archives, photographs, costume and numismatics. Topics covered in the collection include Dundee mills, research and development, textile products, quality control, textile engineering, the industry’s Indian connections and the lives of the workers. Objects include machinery patterns, jute and flax products, small tools, technical drawings and plans and quality control equipment. The archives and photographic records of various mills and their workers have considerable historical research value.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC