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E-ARMMS Newsletter 11
January 2012
A monthly newsletter from Archive, Records Management and Museum Services (ARMMS) and the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS) at the University of Dundee.
In this edition:
- Museum Services wins £100,000 Art Fund Grant
- Comic Source List
- New Manuscript Collection
- Peto on TV
- New Semester
- Oral Histories
- Current Exhibitions
- Paintings Online
- Independent Study Projects
- Professor Charles McKean’s Research Papers
- New Accession
1. Museum Services wins £100,000 Art Fund Grant
The Art Fund have awarded the University of Dundee Museum Services a grant of up to £100,000 as part of their RENEW scheme to build a collection of art inspired by D'Arcy Thompson, the university's pioneer of Life Sciences and founder of our Zoology Museum. We are one of only six projects in the UK to receive funding, and the two-year project will allow us to buy both 20th century works and to work with current artists to create new works drawing on the collections in the museum. Further details are available at www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/zoology/renew.htm.
2. Comic Source List
Kenneth has recently added a Comics section to the Sources Database. This database is available in the searchroom and allows readers to search our collections by subject. An online list of some of the sources we hold relating to comic books and cartoons will be available in due course.
3. New Manuscript Collection
Kenneth has just completed the listing and cataloguing of MS 336 which consists of original artwork for D.C. Thomson Comics. The material includes an original Keyhole Kate strip drawn by the legendary comic artist Alan Morley as well as work by Bill Ritchie and other well-known comic artists. In the past year we have also received Bill Ritchie's own copies of the annual student charities magazine Glad Mag, which Ritchie illustrated in the late 1950s and early 1960s in his typical style.
4. Peto on TV
In 1962 Granada Television produced a schools programme called Arts in the Making. The fifth episode of this series focused on Michael Peto. As there are references to this broadcast in Peto's papers Kenneth has recently been trying to establish if any copies of this broadcast still survive. Unfortunately, enquiries to ITV and the BFI have indicated that neither organisation holds either a copy or the original film/tape of this broadcast. We would therefore be very interested in hearing from anybody who may know the whereabouts of this item or who remembers seeing it on television.
5. New Semester
CAIS has been very busy preparing for the new term. We have had four new tutors starting, one new module (House History, written by Nick Barratt) and several revised modules.
6. Oral Histories
Rhoda Miller has continued to record oral history interviews for Archive Services. She will be starting 2012 by focusing on D C Thompson employees particularly those involved in comics. Rhoda and Caroline have been discussing with Chris Murray of English how the oral history programme can complement the English Comic Masters degree. Archive Services has also received many comics which will be used by students for research.
7. Current Exhibitions
In December Museum Services launched two new exhibitions. In the Tower Foyer Gallery the exhibition Arctic Bound shows fascinating photographs taken in the 1890s by Alexander Rodger and David Dickson, who were sent on whaling voyages to the Arctic by Prof D'Arcy Thompson to collect specimens for his Zoology Museum. The photos are shown alongside some of the original specimens they brought back. Upstairs in the Lamb Gallery, the exhibition Larger than Life shows paintings by students at Duncan of Jordanstone College in the 1980s, when a distinctive tradition of painting emerged inspired by magic realism and comic book pop culture. Artists such as Graeme Todd, Ian Scott, Eddie Summerton and Derrick Guild gave Dundee an enviable reputation for its drawing and painting, and their work along with many others' is included in the show.
8. Paintings Online
All of the University's oil paintings (over 800 in total) can now be viewed online following a year-long documentation project in partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation. The images are included on the BBC's Your Paintings website, which ultimately aims to show every publicly owned oil painting in the UK. There are three separate collections to view - the main University fine art collections can be seen at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/galleries/collections/university-of-dundee-fine-art-collections-1445 ; the Duncan of Jordanstone College collection at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/galleries/collections/duncan-of-jordanstone-college-collection--1446 ; and the Tayside Medical History Museum art collection at http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/galleries/collections/tayside-medical-history-museum-art-collection-1447.
9. Independent Study Projects
Caroline has spoken to the level 3 history students about independent study projects (ISPs, formerly known as dissertations). As well as telling the students about a wide range of potential study projects based on the University Archives, Caroline also talked about using archives in general. Archive Services holds previous student dissertations which students find useful to consult.
10. Professor Charles McKean’s Research Papers
After the retiral of Professor Charles McKean Archive Services will be receiving many of his research notes, correspondence and other papers. As well as being an expert in architectural history, and in Dundee in particular, Charles sits on a number of bodies such as Historic Scotland and his papers contain a wealth of material not likely to be duplicated elsewhere.
11. New Accession
Archive Services has received more material from the artist Peter Haining, creator of the attic archive. This accession was transferred from the National Library and we have already had a researcher consult it. The researcher, who was visiting from Australia, was delighted with the collection.
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