Our annual newsletter provides information about the activities, projects and exhibitions of University museums and associated collections in Scotland. It is hoped that the information provided will stimulate further interest in the University collections and promote awareness of the many fascinating objects which can be found there. The UMIS website address is http://www.dundee.ac.uk/umis/

Although new museums have opened during this last decade of the twentieth century, many others have been forced to close. UMIS is planning to hold a Conference (with published Proceedings) on 14th and 15th September 2000 in the University of Glasgow on "The Death of Museums ?". Papers will be invited on meeting this challenge in the 21st century. The sessions will focus on provocative aspects of the possible demise of museums and the questions that will have to be faced - will the IT revolution and the creation of virtual reality remove the need to visit museums - will societies world wide be able to afford museums - should education or entertainment dominate in museums - will museums become a resource or a curiosity? So all those with answers, suggestions, differing viewpoints or more questions, are invited to take part in a lively debate on what museums should be doing now to delay "death". Participants will be able to see the newly created Kelvin Gallery in the Hunterian Museum.

Among the exhibitions in Marischal Museum during 1998 were a display of the Deskford carnyx on loan from the National Museums of Scotland, a photographic exhibition of war memorials from the Imperial War Museum to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1918 armistice and "Blue Blood, Oils and Ink" an exhibition curated by a cultural history graduate which used the University’s painting collection to explore ideas of monarchy. Visits by schools to participate in object handling workshops continued as in previous years, as did the series of evening archaeology lectures, while the museum hosted the first UMIS conference and evening lectures of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Among the activities of the other University collections, the Natural Philosophy collection moved to new storage in the basement of Marischal College. September saw the retiral of Charles Hunt who was curator of the museum from 1979. He managed to marry with great success museological and anthropological theory with museum practice to create distinctive and innovative exhibitions that have raised our expectations of what museums can be.

In 1999, following the merger of Marischal Museum, the Library's Department of Special Collections and Archives and the University Art collection into the Heritage Division, Dr Alan Knox was appointed as Manager in February. A revised staff structure for the museum resulted in the appointment of Neil Curtis as Senior Curator and Margot Wright as Senior Curator (Conservation). A priority is establishing partnerships with other departments of the University to build on current links, such as hosting evening lectures, "Northern Identities" (a conference in the Elphinstone Institute), and teaching the Cultural History course on 'Material Culture and Museums'.

The transfer of collections from existing stores to a new store in the basement of Marischal College has been accelerated with the discovery of an Australian Spider Beetle infestation. The transfer has been supported by a grant from the Scottish Museums Council for new shelving. Funding from SCRAN for a three-year project to provide 500 full records and 4500 basic records each year started in January and enabled the appointment of Rosemary Feilden as Curatorial Assistant.

The 20 December 1997 saw the opening of "…. and a bagful of monkey's" at Barrack Street Museum, the culmination of a collaboration with Dundee City's Museum Service. The reward was 20,000 visitors seeing the exhibition by the time the exhibition closed in April 1998. During 1998-1999 grant-aid for two projects was achieved to continue with the care of collection and remedial conservation has been carried out on a leather quiver from the Medical History collection. A detailed survey of the textile collection was made. Spring was taken up with accessioning the moss collection. This has still to be correlated with a new checklist published outside the time available for this project. The new Scottish Arts Council Bequest of 174 works on paper was accessioned and has been on display on a couple of occasions. Early summer 1998 was taken up with the production of this year's exhibition based on the scientific instruments in the museum collections.

Summer once again saw the employment of Cathy Caudwell, as assistant curator, this time to help with the re-display of the Zoology Collection for the Biological Sciences Department. This work was met with enthusiasm and has enabled new rules to be imposed in order to build on and protect the work of organising the collection, carried out over previous summers. The collections are growing past expectations. Potential accessions are - transfers of pharmaceutical material from Heriot-Watt University, material at Liff hospital, the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and design collections and a thousand specimens of plant nitrogen fixation nodules from early research on the subject that need to be kept for future reference purposes. The end of the year was spent on administration for collection management. The management plan, the acquisitions and disposals policy, the collection management policy and the procedures manual were all tackled. Finally the task of producing a Disaster Contingency Plan has been left to complete as we head for registration phase two.

An exhibition of paintings and works of art by mentally and physically disabled adults, attending art workshops run by the Scottish artist Andrew Hay, was on display from December 1998 to June 1999 at the Ninewells Medical School Gallery, associated with the Medical History Museum. At the centre of the exhibition was a remarkable painting by Andrew Hay of one of the disabled artists, entitled "Estado de Gracia" to emphasise its visual links with EL Greco. The Medical History Museum project to record "Highlights of a Scottish Medical History Collection" for SCRAN was completed in June 1999. The next exhibition will open later in 1999 on the history of ophthalmology, when items gifted by the family of Reginald Balfour Barrow (1889 - 1996) will be on display. Dr Barrow was the longest surviving graduate in the Faculty of Medicine, graduating in 1914 in St Andrews. Thirteen 1914 etchings of University and ecclesiastical buildings in St Andrews and Dundee, belonging to Dr Barrow, are now permanently displayed in the Medical School Foyer.

In 1998 there were several steps forward in the care and extension of the University collections, with the assistance of SMC grants. Conservation of the Fine Art collections continued and a large part of the project to clean the portrait busts housed in the Playfair Library was completed. The next project is conservation of the frames of paintings in the Torrie collection. Two items from this collection have been loaned to European exhibitions - Richard Wilson’s "Italian Landscape" was sent to Berlin and the "Cain and Abel" bronze sculpture by Adrien de Vries has been on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam before touring further. Storage racks have been installed in the attic area of the gallery for undisplayed items of the Fine Art collection.

In March 1999 an exhibition opened using the works acquired by the University’s Fine Art collection during the past ten years. This includes examples from the Hope Scott Bequest, gifts from Alan Davie and John Bellany and paintings acquired from the dispersal of the Scottish Arts Council. Photographic records are also on show of two recent sculptural commissions - the major Paolozzi work for the new Institute of Cell & Molecular Biology at King’s Buildings and a smaller commemorative work of the sprinter Eric Liddell, now housed in the foyer of the Old College. A major exhibition is being planned for autumn 2000 using the various University collections to illustrate the history of the University. This project will be adapted to form a permanent exhibition in a new venue if far-reaching proposals for teaching of the arts in Edinburgh are implemented.

The Collections Committee continues to support the care of the collections and funds have been allocated to various curators. The University was successful in gaining full registration with the Museums & Galleries Commission for five of its collections. Efforts are continuing to build on this positive result. The vases and casts in the Classics Department continue to be used in teaching, and the project to photograph and catalogue them continues. A new exhibition in the Cockburn Museum of Geology has become part of the general refurbishment of the entrance hall, and a large wall map is being created in the main lecture theatre. SMC grants have enabled the curator of the historic musical instrument collection to improve display and storage, as well as conservation of a number of brass musical instruments. The Museum Gallery for the Natural History Collections was formerly named in honour of Aubrey Manning at the end of 1997 and the creation of virtual reality models continues. The Patrick Geddes Centre for Planning Studies held a successful international symposium on "The City after Patrick Geddes" and the catalogue has been updated. There are two published volumes, one on Geddes papers, the other on photographs. During summer 1998 Mrs Sophia Leonard retired as Curator and her successors are Dr Ian Boyd-Whyte and Dr Volker Welter. The collections of the School of Scottish Studies continue to be consulted regularly from near and far.

The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery have recently achieved registration under the MGC’s Part scheme. Since the last report work has begun on the complete re-furbishment of the Museum’s Kelvin Gallery and the installation of a new paassenger lift from street level to the Museum. The £3.5 million project is funded by the Wolfson Foundation, the European Regional Development Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund and is due to be completed early next year. There have been significant staff changes: Dr Graham Durant (deputy director of the Museum) has been seconded to the Glasgow Science Centre for two years, Peter Black has joined the Art Gallery to take charge of the Print Room, following the early retirement of Martin Hopkinson, and Dr Ingham and Dr Mackie have retired from the Museum. Dr Keppie has been awarded a personal chair and K Grant has joined the Art Gallery on a short term contract to work on the Mackintosh Collection, with funding from Carrick Jewellery and the Pilgrim Trust. Later this year Professor Malcolm McLeod retires as Director, to become Vice-Principal for External Relations and Marketing.

There has been a notable increase in gifts and bequests to the Art Gallery in the last 12 months. Some are directly related to the fact that the University strongly opposed the City’s attempt to break the Burrell Trust. Both the Museum and Art Gallery have continued to mount temporary exhibitions, some from their own resources, some by way of external loans. A major exhibition - "The Animal Construction Co." - opened in the Museum in March as the University’s main contribution to Glasgow 1999, City of Architecture and Design. The Museum received a highly commended status and £100 from the Gulbenkian Trust in the category of "Best Provision for Visitors with Disabilities", for its exhibition "Senses in Touch".

The summer of 1998 was dominated by the international Conference at Liverpool University ‘Child Action and Social Welfare’ at which ten countries were represented. Heatherbank offered both a paper and a video specially made by Caledonian Students on the theme of "Boarding Out". In addition two travelling exhibitions were mounted as part of the conference. In the autumn the museum provided an exhibition on historical developments in mental health for mental health awareness week in the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. In December the museum left its base at Park Campus and moved to City Campus. An excellent site for the Museum has been identified in the Library and Information Centre. The museum will have its own dedicated entrance just steps away from a major city centre street. Work on the conversion of the area commenced in June 1999 with a relaunch of the museum and its website for the next semester. In preparation for this several new volunteers have been recruited and both the main book library and the picture library are being re-catalogued, with work scheduled to start on the re-cataloguing of the artefact collection shortly.

The main theme for 1999 has been "containment", society’s buildings for the marginalised. An exhibition with this title was mounted in May for Museum’s week; a video has been made on the theme of the resettlement of people with learning difficulties into the community; and the museum is part of a collaborative exhibition to be mounted in ‘The Lighthouse’ in October on the same theme. This will be the Museum’s second contribution to Glasgow 1999 UK City of Architecture and Design, the first being a sampler exhibition in the University itself in January.

In April 1998 the School loaned almost 40 works of art from its permanent collection to a Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition at the Hida Takayama Museum of Art in Takayama, Japan. Curated in part by the School, it formed part of "UK98", a series of Anglo/Japanese arts events which had the support of the British Council. In return for this exhibition, the Takayama Museum's director, Mr Tetsuya Mukai generously endowed the School with £90,000 to establish the Tetsuya Mukai Scholarship. These scholarships are being offered to assist Japanese students to undertake study at GSA and/or GSA students to do likewise in Japan, thus furthering mutual understanding and cultural development between the two countries.

1998/99 was also a year in which the number of enquiries and researchers visiting the School's archives rose by almost 30%. Accessions were also up following articles in the School's alumni magazines and the GSA textile collection was finally transferred to the Archives from the Embroidered and Woven Textiles Department. The GSA also acquired, at auction, a prize book awarded to Charles Rennie Mackintosh whilst a student of the School in the late 1880s. Throughout 1999, the School will be playing a major part in the provision of exhibitions, seminars and workshops to coincide with Glasgow's nomination as UK City of Architecture and Design. Highlights will include major exhibitions on the work of the post-war Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, Jessie M King (one of the so called 'Glasgow Girls' of the early 20th Century) and Susan Cohen, one of Australia's leading contemporary jewellers.

Following the restoration and display of the sandstone busts of Leonard Horner and George Heriot last year, four more busts from the University’s collection have been conserved with grant aid from the SMC, and can now face the new millenium free from the grime of the previous two centuries. SMC grant aid also part-funded the purchase of a new display case, which currently houses the temporary exhibition "From City to Campus", faturing significant milestones in the University’s development. The next scheduled display will reflect one of the most rcent developments - the University’s merger in October 1998 with the Scottish College of Textiles, Galashiels. The University Archive is now responsible for the rich collection of textile industry records held at the Scottish Borders Campus. Plans are currently under way to provide additional storage and research facilities that will enable this unique archive to be used and developed to its full potential.

In October 1998 the University loaned its example of James Watt’s pioneering letter-copier to the new Museum of Scotland, where it is displayed fittingly in the Innovations section. A less literal move from storage to showcase was effected by our Spring 1999 lecture series "Out of the Archive" which put less well known aspects of our history and collections under the spotlight. We hope to continue this series of presentations and other outreach activities in the coming year.

Much effort is focussed on the completion of the SHEFC/Non-Formula Funding project to preserve and promote access to the archives of the University, of Edinburgh College of Art and of Moray House Institute of Education, now the Faculty of Education at the University of Edinburgh. Guides to the Archives will be available later this year in hard copy form and on our website. In May 1999 Christine Gillespie joined the project team in place of Jacqui Seargent who left to become the Archivist of John Dewar & Sons. We are also sorry to say goodbye to Rachel Vincent who in the role of Records and Collections Assistant has made a substantial contribution to the documentation, care and interpretation of the University’s collections. Her efforts will be rewarded in September when she takes up a Museums Association Bursary for the MA in Museum Studies at Leicester University.

NFF funding for the Learning Information Services Collection has been extended to 31 July 1999 to accommodate conservation work on selected items. The Collection’s splendid edition of the Liber Cronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493) and a number of other incunabulae have been successfully restored by conservators at the University of Dundee’s Library Conservation Unit. The refurbished accommodation for the collection is now available for researchers and has already hosted a number of visits, and hosted small seminars. An article on the collection is shortly to be published in The Human Face, a journal of the book trade, based on a talk given by Graeme Forbes at the Sixteenth Seminar on the British Book Trade held in Edinburgh last year. The web site for the collection is currently undergoing revision.

The War Poets Collection has been expanded beyond the parameters of the Great War to include materials relating to the former Craiglockhart Hospital. One notable accession has been an almost complete set of The Buckle, the journal of the post-war Craiglockhart College. Interest in the collection has grown substantially, evidenced by the number of enquiries fielded by Campus Library Manager Catherine Walker, recorded hits on the Collection’s web site, and comments on the revamped exhibition, based on the collection, in the main foyer of the campus.

The opening of the University's new Robertson Trust Library and Learning Resource Centre has at long last given specific space for the storage of special collections. A special collections room and adjacent store with mobile shelving have allowed us to house our collections in accessible areas for the first time in many years. The recent delivery of two small glass display cases has also allowed us a very modest, but attractive, display in the entrance hall of the new building. This display takes typical examples of artefacts (two aeroplane models, a larger ship model and a piece of scientific equipment constructed by a member of the College staff in the 1960s) and displays them with a very small selection of documentary material (some airline ephemera, a manuscript record of Clyde shipping movements) including printed books.

In time for the official opening in November we were able to purchase from local artist Marie Hay of Linwood seven original paintings and four reproductions of her set of paintings of ‘Paisley Doors’, originally painted for the Paisley Open Doors Day of September 1998. We were also able to acquire one of her town centre paintings which happened to show our new building under construction.

Featured with the new building itself are "Bookends ", free standing sculptures outside the main entrance by Linlithgow artist Jim Hamlyn. These comprise eight metal-framed glass panels set into marble bases, four of them serving as lenses to give a focusing effect on the buildings and surrounding area, and several of them featuring the Paisley Pattern design. This is picked up by Paisley Patterns etched into the glass of windows on our level 3 link bridge overlooking the panels.

Now that the collections are properly and accessibly stored, the next stage is to find the funds for proper cataloguing and indexing of major collections, especially the College/University archive and the Norman Buchan parliamentary papers. The University is now able to seek and acquire more actively further archival materials for its collections.

The most important development of 1998 was the proposal that a new Museum should be built as part of the 'Gateway' development planned for a site at the entrance to the town. If the project is realised, the building, which should be ready for the summer of 2000 will include an exhibition hall of about 580 square metres available for telling the history of the University and displaying its museum collections. There will also be a new curator's office and stores on the premises.

The work programme of the Collections Unit has been dominated in recent months by preparations and planning for the Gateway project, but curatorial work throughout the collections has, nevertheless, continued and a revised Collecting Policy and revised Forward Plan (1998-2000) were also produced, in time for our application for phase two of Museum Registration. With regard to public access, the ‘Bats, Balls and Bows’ exhibition at the St Andrews Museum, prepared by the Museum and Gallery Studies class, featured a display of many of our archery medals from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as items from other collections including our newly restored portrait of the Marquess of Montrose. The exhibition attracted over 11000 visitors and a great deal of publicity. Another notable exhibition - featuring items from our collections was the ‘Humphrey Cole’ exhibition at the British Museum, from March to May 1998, which had an estimated attendance of 10000 visitors. The two largest pieces on display were our Universal Instrument and Great Astrolabe, which is recognised as Cole's masterpiece.

We were again successful in attracting gifts and project grant aid. We obtained a grant from the National Fund for Acquisitions to aid our purchase of a Backstaff (c.1700) for the collection of ‘Historic Scientific Instruments’, and four of our bids for project grant aid from the Scottish Museums Council were approved, providing funding for acquiring a new display case for the Orrery, conserving ancient Cypriot bronzes and restoring two oil paintings.

1998 – 1999 has been a year of steady progress for the Art Collection, both in the area of acquisitions and in the changes to the University Committee structure which places the control of the Art Collection under a new and more powerful Collections Committee with a wider remit namely ‘to maintain an overview of all University Collections and to advise Policy Planning and Resources Committee... of policy issues in this area’. I am hopeful that we shall shortly be able to consider other University Collections such as the Press Room in the University Library and the Howietoun Fish Farm collection.

Three lithographs by Barbara Rae - Harbour Box, MacLeod's Field and Mull Ferry - and an abstract Polyphony by Diane Tulloch have all been purchased for the Collection with grant aid from the National Fund for Acquisitions. We are in the process of fund raising to acquire a kinetic sculpture One rectangle eccentric by George Rickey, for erection in front of the new Courtroom Building. So far we have been promised a grant from the Gordon Fraser Trust and I am hopeful that our applications to the NFA and the NACF will be successful.

The wonderful exhibition - "Into the Light - the Art of Lil Neilson", which was curated by Anne Steed and first exhibited at Aberdeen Art Galleries had its second highly successful showing this Spring at the MacRobert Centre Gallery at the University. Conservation projects in hand include work to be carried out by Clare Meredith on J.D. Fergusson's major work Rhythm and protective re-glazing of some of the SAC gifts and the University portraits. The Collections department is making loans to Scotland's Art at the City Art Centre. The University is to host the Annual General Meeting of UMIS on the 29th October 1999.

To celebrate Glasgow’s nomination as "UK City of Architecture and Design 1999", the Collins Gallery organised a series of exhibitions focusing on both contemporary and historical design and architecture. These included "Living Room", comprising installations by five young and established designers, "100 Giants of Chair Design", Miniatures from the Vitra Design Museum, "Collecting Cities: Images from Patrick Geddes’ Cities and Town Planning Exhibition" and "The Shed", lens-based work by contemporary photographers. Each exhibition was complemented by educational activities and with financial support from sponsors and Glasgow City Council, the Collins Gallery also produced publications for "Living Room" and "Collecting Cities", as well as a video for the former. Researched by Dr Volker Welter, "Collecting Cities" was undoubtedly the highlight of the programme, comprising over seventy paintings, maps, plans, prints and photographs from a collection of works first exhibited by Geddes in 1911 and presented to the University’s archives in 1955. The illustrated catalogue of 56 pages was also well received and thanks to sponsorship from Buredi, the Collins Gallery is able to provide any interested members of UMIS with copies free of charge. "Collecting Cities" will be displayed at Pittencrief House Museum in Dunfermline from 27th November 1999 to 25th January 2000 and thereafter will go to the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh from 17th June to 15th July 2000.

Looking ahead, the University is exploring new uses for the crypt and foyer of the Ramshorn Theatre and proposals include the development of a permanent exhibition space for the collection of historic scientific instruments and an information centre.