History and Archaeology Collections
Last updated | 04/08/2008
10,000 years of history . . . the fascinating story of Perth and Kinross district.
The collections are a cultural record of how the people of Perth and Kinross have shaped and been shaped by their environment.
The priceless, permanent collections encompass archaeology, social and local history, costume and textiles, numismatics, world cultures, archives, photography and arms & armour.
Don't hold back, come and explore our past.
The History collections are:
Archaeology
The collection comprises British, mainly Scottish, and foreign material.
There are internationally significant medieval urban collections that have been found during archaeological work in Perth since the 1970s.
Other important elements of the collection are Pictish stone sculpture, prehistoric flints and Bronze Age metalwork and ceramics.
The foreign archaeology includes a small, diverse collection of Egyptian material including a Mummy acquired in the 1930s
from Alloa Museum.
'Material Histories: Scots and Aboriginal Peoples in the Canadian Fur Trade’ website, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is now fully up and running. Go to
www.abdn.ac.uk/materialhistories select artefacts and stories and then Colin Robertson. This is a project we have been supporting run by Aberdeen University. You will find three of our Salish objects illustrated.
Arms & Armour
The Arms and Armour collection includes British and foreign firearms, swords, daggers, staff weapons, shot and powder flasks and armour. Notable are a pair of pistols by McNab of Rannoch and an 18th century highland targe.
Numismatics: coins, paper money, tokens, badges and philately: (stamps) collections
The broad collection of coins and related material includes Scottish and wider British (medieval to modern), Greek, Roman, Celtic and world (mostly 19th century and later).
There are also trade tokens, communion tokens (notably the D L Edwards collection), banknotes, stamps, postmarks, jettons, coin-weights, medals, badges, seals and beggars' badges.
World Cultures: ethnography
This collection is based on a core of material originally donated to the Perth Literary and Antiquarian Society in the early 19th century. Notable donations were made by Dr David Ramsay in 1825 and by Colin Robertson in 1833. Ramsay's material focuses on Oceania (notably Polynesia) and Robertson's on the indigenous peoples of North America, including the Coast Salish and the Inuit.
Social History
The collection covers a wide range of material including:
industrial and agricultural objects
modes of transport and communication
shop fittings
photographic and textile equipment
models
medical, musical and scientific instruments
commemorative and ornamental items
toys, games and sports equipment
weights and measures
religious and educational items
trade tools and furnishings
commercial and business material
as well as everyday domestic items.
Photography
There are around 120,000 images from negatives, prints, lantern slides, 35mm slides, photograph albums, postcards and greetings cards to modern digital images.
Notable collections were produced or collected by the following photographers and businesses:
Jackson, 1850-1890
Wood, 1900-1920
McLaren 1940-1960
and Cowper and Flood 1940-1980
There are also 12 calotype portraits by the famous early Scottish photographer D O Hill.
Costume
This is a collection of costume, textiles and accessories.
Most of the collection is ladies' costume with some notable Spittalfield silk 18th century dresses. The gents' costume includes a unique 17th century dance costume and a very rare early 17th century slashed silk doublet, the conservation and display of which won the prestigious ICOM Conservation Award 2007.
Scottish military uniforms include that of John Gibbons, Royal Perthshire Militia from 1813 with accessories and the original trunk and a cavalryman's full length hide coat of the 17th century.
Textiles include banners; a highlight is a rare painted and embroidered silk banner of the Glover Incorporation of Perth of 1604.
Other material ranges from Paisley shawls and samplers to lace to a sample of silk dyed with 'Perkin's Mauve' to the world's first synthetic dye, bedcovers, shoes and fans.
Archives
Manuscripts, printed material, bound volumes, bundles of archives, a number of framed and glazed items, printed books, maps, plans and posters make a rich and varied collection.
Some of the highlights are:
The entire archive of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth 1784-1914, which was the original ancestor of today's Perth & Kinross Heritage Service
The archives of the Wrights Incorporation of Perth 1530 - 20th century
The Minutes of the Tailor Incorporation of Perth 1530-1754
The Convener's Court Book of Perth 1365-1717
The William de Brailles Illuminated Bible from about 1240
The 15th century illuminated sermons of Jacques de Vitry and an illuminated Books of Hours, probably French 15th century.
