Collection: Orkney Museums

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  In 1967 Orkney County Council commissioned a report from a joint committee from the Museums Association and the Carnegie UK Trust. They recommended the approval of a museum being set up at Tankerness House in Kirkwall. A local committee was set up to oversee the development of this new museum, based on the Kirkwall Antiquarian Society Collection which had previously been housed at Kirkwall Library.

  The committee to oversee the development of the museum included Dr Stanley Cursiter, Mr E. W. Marwick, and Mr E. MacGillivray, who was appointed as Honorary Curator until a full-time appointment could be made. Students from the department of Museum Studies at Leicester University were brought in to help with displays.

  The official opening took place at 3pm on 31st May 1968. R. B. K. Stevenson, Keeper of the National Museum of Antiquaries, was invited to perform the opening ceremony.

  The collection has continued to grow ever since. A significant agricultural collection was built up and housed at Corrigall Farm Museum (opened 1984) and Kirbuster Museum (opened 1986). In 2000 the museums service took over the management of the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum, Lyness, along with its collection of material relating to WWI and WWII. This was uncatalogued and poorly documented and a portion of this work was immediately undertaken by the first Curator, Bryce Wilson.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2019

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Arts, Museums and Heritage Service collects items and associated information relating to all aspects of Orkney’s human history in all periods. The collections are held for the public benefit, for display and for research.

  The Collecting Area for the Arts, Museums and Heritage Service is the area of Orkney, and surrounding waters. The period of time to which the collection relates covers the whole of known human history in Orkney, from earliest traces to the present day. The collection is currently cared for by two curators, each responsible for the entire collection, with specialisms in archaeology and social history, including fine and decorative art.

  Items made in, or at some point used within, or otherwise provenanced to the Arts, Museums and Heritage Service’s Collecting Area, may be acquired, regardless of their location at the time of acquisition. Where this involves the collection of items from a place within the geographical sphere of influence of another museum, a principle of open actions and good communications will apply.

  Where the Arts, Museums and Heritage Service seeks to collect the work of artists from Orkney, or living and working in Orkney, or to acquire local views, the area defined above will normally be used as the basis for decisions.

  The Orkney Museum has a collection of around 100,000 objects. The archaeology collection is estimated at 70,000 and social history at 30,000.

  Archaeology

  The archaeological collection consists mostly of material from formal excavations, with a substantial number of individual finds that have been brought in by members of the public. Orkney Islands Council’s policy that artefacts excavated in Orkney should stay in Orkney whenever possible was confirmed by a General Meeting of Orkney Islands Council on 21^st April 1992 (Paragraph 5 (b) (1)). However, archaeological collections may only be acquired by allocation through the appropriate legal system.

  The Arts, Museums and Heritage Service archaeological collection consists of an estimated 70,000 items from more than 70 sites. In September 2008 the Archaeology Collection cared for by Orkney Museum was Recognised by the Scottish Government as a collection of National Significance to Scotland. Major items in the collection include the spiral-carved stone from Pierowall Quarry in Westray, the Neolithic pottery sequence from Pool in Sanday, the bones from the tomb at Isbister, and the goods from the Viking boat grave at Scar in Sanday.

  The material is held for display and for research. Each new group of material is not only useful in its own right, but also adds to the understanding of the existing collection, attracting more researchers to develop new interpretations of Orkney’s past environment and human history.

  Social History

  COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

  Agriculture – Our most important artefacts in this collection are those uniquely Orcadian items whose use dates from the centuries predating the agricultural improvements of the 19th century when equipment and methods began to be standardised with the rest of Scotland. The traditional artefacts include Orkney-made tools, implements and utensils for ploughing and sowing, reaping and milling, stock-raising, food production, peat-cutting and transport.

  Weaving & Knitting – The collection of the once important linen industry includes several examples of Orkney linen from the 18th and 19th centuries, along with a flax spinning-wheel and glass linen smoothers. There is also a parish hand-weaver’s loom, Orkney blankets, and examples of 20^th-century weaving product and spindles of wool. So far, knitting consists of some fine examples of traditional wedding stockings and North Ronaldsay pattern, and several knitted shawls. Of modern commercial knitting, there is only one example of “runic” knitwear, along with advertising ephemera.

  Kelp & Straw Plait – The kelp collection consists of two rare kelp irons and an example of burnt kelp from a 1980s experiment. Straw plait is represented by a small collection of plaiting equipment and examples of the craft.

  Brewing & Distilling – The collection includes labelled bottles of the current distilleries and brewery (with some gaps), plus photographs and ephemera, and part of an illegal whisky still.

  Modern Crafts – The collection includes representative samples from local jewellery firms, plus advertising ephemera. Pottery is represented by a selection of early Fursbreck ware.

  Traditional and Commercial Food Production – Butter and cheese, oatcakes, biscuits, fudge, seafood, and lemonade are traditional industries, but, in recent years, initiatives such as Orkney Island Gold and Orkney the brand have been used to market Orkney food products. The collection consists of glass and ceramic milk and lemonade bottles of local firms from the 19th and 20th centuries, a small amount of packaging, and advertising ephemera.

  Shops, Restaurants, Hotels – The collection consists of printed paper bags from the 19th and 20th centuries, modern polythene carrier bags, a shop till (and a display counter on loan) of the early 20^th century, a mangle bearing the name “James Flett & Son”, engraved and printed hotel glasses, china and cutlery, advertisements and photographs.

  Trades – The collection consists of historic trade guild banners, emblems and chests, carpenters’ tools, including a fine set of moulding planes, slater, mason, blacksmith, tinsmith, wheelwright and saddlery hand tools, watch-makers’ and shoemakers’ equipment, and tailoring goose irons. There is a commercial weaving loom used by Gardens of Kirkwall in the mid-20th century.

  Tourism – The collection consists of Orkney souvenir china from the late 19th/early 20th centuries, a variety of souvenirs produced in the 1980s, along with guide books and other ephemera. The collection on this now important industry consists mainly of ephemera, but is linked closely with other modern crafts and businesses and the collection of items relating to Orkney’s transport links, including objects and souvenirs marking the first air mail service between Inverness and Kirkwall in 1934.

  DOMESTIC & COMMUNITY LIFE

  Furniture & Household Effects – The collection consists of a good representation of traditional Orkney-made furniture and utensils of straw, wood, horn, stone and metal, along with commonly used imported items up to the 1920s (after which domestic interiors tended to have less local character).

  The straw and heather collection is of superb quality, representing the finest traditional craftsmanship. It includes two chairs made almost completely of straw – two of only three now known to exist. There are fifteen other straw-backed Orkney chairs in the collection which show the variety of design and technique employed.

  The living conditions and interest of the landed and professional classes are chiefly represented by the possessions of the Baikies of Tankerness. Robert Baikie’s library was catalogued in 1990 by Katherine A. Armstrong of New College, Oxford, who described it as, “a potentially fascinating hunting-ground for research into the printed matter available to provincial readers in the late 18th century … the library contains a number of rare books which the Bodleian catalogue, for one, does not list.” Baikie furniture includes a longcase clock with marquetry case, dating from the early 18th century, a Regency period sofa table, and a dressing mirror. There are also fine pieces of family silver, a superb 18^th-century Oriental Lowestoft punch bowl, and the brass microscope built by William Cowan, with which he identified the phosphorescence, Nocti Luca.

  There are carved 17^th-century panels of the Traills of Holland, Papa Westray. Reputedly from the Earl’s Palace in Kirkwall, there is a fine mid-18^th-century tea-table. There is also an early 19^th-century piano which belonged to Dr Logie, minister of the Cathedral, and a sealed wine bottle of the Elphinstones of Lopness in Sanday.

  Garments and Soft Furnishings – There is an extensive collection of clothing, chiefly women’s garments from the late 19th/early 20th centuries. These include wedding dresses, shawls and undergarments. There is a superb collection of babies’ embroidered caps and dresses, dating back to the mid-18th century, and, from a bog burial at Huntsgarth in Harray, a Scotch bonnet and swaddling clothes from the same period. A man’s shirt from the early 19th century is reputedly made from linen spun and woven in Orkney. There is one pair of ‘rivlins’, home-made shoes of untanned hide.

  Soft furnishings comprise mainly table and tea-cloths, kist runners and patchwork quilts (including a superb one from Hall of Gorn, Holm); sheets and blankets, and a feather bed.

  Education – The collection consists of a fine collection of embroidery samplers dating from the 18th century, copy books and text books, an art folder, slates, a school desk and other items from late 19^th/early 20^th-century schools, plus photographs and ephemera up to the present time.

  Health – The collection consists of two Victorian machines for the treatment of nervous diseases and the improvement of blood circulation, along with several bottles of patent medicines, advertising ephemera, and photographs of hospital facilities.

  Law & Order & Local Government – The collection consists of the last birch rod used in Orkney, part of the Kirkwall Gallows Tree, two pairs of handcuffs, the key of the old Kirkwall Prison, and photographs of policemen and magistrates. There are also the robes of Kirkwall Town Council, the Provost’s chain of office and the burgh flag. There is a fibreglass coat-of-arms of the County of Orkney made by Harry Berry.

  Religion – The collection consists of communion vessels and tokens, church collecting boxes (on poles), photographs and ephemera. Recently added are five 19^th-century oil portraits of ministers of the Paterson Church (formerly the East Kirk, now the Council’s One Stop Shop), including a fine portrait of Dr Robert Paterson, presented by the East Kirk Session. On long-term loan from Birsay and Harray Kirk Session are two silver-gilt communion cups, presented to the Kirk Session of Birsay by Nicol Spence in the early 18th century.

  Clubs, Societies & Institutions; Sports & Entertainment; Writers & Musicians – The collection consists of Good Templar and Oddfellow regalia and ephemera, Orkney Volunteer Artillery uniforms, photographs, badges etc of local clubs and organisations, a cylinder gramophone and some records, but is by no means a comprehensive collection.

  Transport – The collection consists of ox and horse carts, a pony gig (on loan), Orkney yoles, photographs and ephemera. Further representative examples of Orkney yoles, skiffs and other inshore craft must now be actively collected and stored for the projected Orkney Boat Museum. The Kirkwall hearse is on loan to the Fossil and Heritage Centre in Burray.

  WORKS OF ART

  There is a collection of oil portraits of local landed families, including several by Charles Smith of Tormiston, “Painter to the Great Mogul”, dating back to the late 18th century, and an engraving by Sir Robert Strange, the Kirkwall-born artist whose reproduction of famous paintings received royal patronage in the 18th century. Robert Clouston’s Rest After Toil is a fine illustration of a late 19^th-century Orkney interior. George Jamiesone’s 1640 portrait of Murdoch Mackenzie, Bishop of Orkney, is now on long-term loan to the Orkney Museum from Jean Clarke (née Baikie of Tankerness) and her family, the loan to be reviewed in 2022. The portrait of James Stewart of Brough (builder of Cleaton House in Westray) by Sir John Watson Gordon P.R.S.A. is on long-term loan to Cleaton House Hotel in Westray under the Orkney Heritage policy of the distribution of works and artefacts to suitable public places in the county.

  There is a small number of 18th-20^th-century topographical water-colours, prints and drawings by reputable artists from outwith Orkney: A View of Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands by Edward Dayes (Turner’s tutor), dated 1787; the full set of 12 hand-coloured aquatints of Orkney by William Daniell, dated 1821 and 1822; Kirkwall from Highland Park Brae by Sam Bough, dated 1867;The Lammas Fair, Kirkwall, by Tom Scott, dated 1900; a drawing of Palace Road, Kirkwall, by Sir Muirhead Bone, dated 1918; a fine watercolour of Kirkwall Harbour in 1908 by the Irish painter, J. W. Carey.

  There are now thirteen oils and watercolours by Stanley Cursiter RSA, Queen’s Limner in Scotland, and a native of Kirkwall, including a fine watercolour of the Shore Houses of Kirkwall, donated by Ragnhild T. Hickey of Illinois, USA, in memory of her father, Dr John Tait. Four of these are displayed in the Orkney Museum, and five in Kirkwall Town Hall. They include a portrait of Margaret Baikie, Orkney landscapes and a seascape, a series on St Magnus Cathedral, and a fine studio work, House of Cards.

  There are cartoon drawings by “Spike”, photographs by Tom Kent, and a growing collection of contemporary Orkney prints, chiefly by Soulisquoy Printmakers.

  In accordance with the decision of Orkney Islands Council (11.10.94) the Museums Service administers the Art in Public Places Scheme, presently in abeyance due to financial cut-backs. Works by Mark Scadding, John Cumming, Matilda Tumim, Sam Macdonald, Gloria Wallington, Malcolm Olva, Sylvia Wishart, Frances Pelly, and other Orkney-based artists, have been bought in previous years and are on display in a number of locations, including care homes, schools and public buildings. A selection of contemporary works relating to Orkney was also gifted by the Scottish Arts Council, including a 1980 portrait of George Mackay Brown by Alexander Moffat from his series of seven portraits of the major poets of the Scottish literary renaissance.

  WARTIME ORKNEY

  This theme relates to Orkney’s major role as a naval base in two World Wars. The Museums Service collects artefacts and memorabilia which existed in, or, in some cases, are similar in type to those which existed in Orkney during both World Wars. The collection includes the scuttled German light cruisers, Dresden, Brummer and Köln, vehicles and firearms, oil pumps, ships’ furniture, uniforms, photographs and ephemera, and small boats, such as Admiral Ludwig von Reuter’s barge.

  Until 2017, wartime artefacts were exhibited at the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre & Museum, Lyness, although there is a selection of wartime objects illustrating the wider experience of Orcadians during the two World Wars at Orkney Museum. The Scapa Flow Visitor Centre & Museum is currently closed for refurbishment and is scheduled to reopen in 2022.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2019

  Licence: CC BY-NC