Community collections

Community collections

Community collections have been gifted or loaned indefinitely to the Archive. Created by local individuals, families, communities and organisations, these collections provide valuable insights into our heritage.

To help you find the collections most useful to your research, we have created summaries of each one within popular themes:

	Estate papers Estate papers are those of local landed families and frequently span more than two or three hundred years. They can reflect the lives and occupations of tenants and employees as well as the domestic, economic and political concerns of the incumbent families, while providing insight into agricultural and industrial development. Download the summaries of Estate papers (pdf.53k)
	Business and industry The business and industry summaries include collections created by law firms and their clients, by manufacturers, retailers and other commercial institutions. They often include financial and administrative records, title deeds and other legal papers, advertising ephemera and plans. They can also include personal and recreational papers. Download the summaries for business and industry collections (pdf.70k)
	Union, guilds and associations Collections created by trades unions, guilds and societies as well as party political associations offer information about their activities and members. Download the summaries for union, guild and association records (pdf.70k)
	People, family and community Collections in this group include the personal papers of individuals as well as genealogical material relating to particular families and histories of specific towns or villages. These records, created by the area's communities, provide valuable insights into change and development over the centuries. Download the summaries for the people, family and community collections (pdf.95k)
	Religion and philanthropy Most kirk session and other church records are held at the NAS, but a few collections relating to local churches and congregations are held by us, as are records relating to some local charities. Download the summaries for the religion and philanthropy collections (pdf.43k)
	Education, leisure and recreation These collections provide insights into our activities and aspirations, and often include individuals' details. Download the summaries for education, leisure and recreation collections (pdf.69k) Download a list of plans and collections on cinemas in Perthshire (pdf.43k)
	Politics and the state These collections document the activities of individuals and organs of the state, including the military, and local administrative organisations. Download the summaries of the political and state collections (pdf.37k)

Please be aware that some documents may not be available for consultation. This may be because the information is confidential, because of restrictions placed by depositors on their collections, or because the item is too fragile.