Projects and events from University Archives

Strathmartine Hospital Histories

Working with colleagues from Social Work at the University, local groups such as Advocating Together and Thera Trust, a charity for people with learning difficulties, this Heritage Lottery funded project sought to revisit the history of Strathmartine Hospital. We interviewed former residents, staff members and people from the local community to understand what life was like at the hospital and to help develop resources to improve the care of people with learning disabilities. These stories and accompanying artefacts and records will be held in our archives for future generations. It was great to see our archive collections being accessed by former residents and staff, reinforcing the importance of archives in preserving memories and supporting a sense of community and connections with others.

Visit the website Strathmartine Hospital Histories for more information about the project and details of our extensive archives relating to the hospital since its foundation in 1852 as Baldovan Asylum can be found in our online catalogue.  

Great War Dundee

Running during the centenary of the First World War this was a collaborative project with the School of Humanities and heritage groups and organisations in the City. We contributed to several events and exhibitions and one of the projects legacies is the website telling the story of Dundee and its inhabitants in the Great War. The University Archivist, along with Matthew Jarron, the University Museum Curator, and colleagues from Humanities won the Stephen Fry Award for Public Engagement for the project.

Mentally Healthy Tayside

This pilot project built on the work that we have done using our hospital and asylum records to contribute to nursing, social work and medical classes. Working with Jacqueline Eccles from Health Sciences and with the support of the Dundee Health Minds network, we introduced a group of mental health service users to our local history archives and in particular to those relating to the asylums in Tayside. This led to conversations about the treatment of people with mental illness and learning disabilities in the past and how this can inform approaches today. Over a number of sessions we explored how today’s service users can describe and record their experiences for people to access in future. The project was Highly Commended in the 2020 Stephen Fry Awards for Public Engagement and we are part of a National Heritage Lottery funded nationwide project which will lead to further work in this area in 2022 and 2023.

Big Back Garden

The iconic Baxter Park in Dundee is the focus of this project which explores its history and how people enjoy it today. Pupils from Morgan Academy were introduced to archives, discovering the Park’s 160-year history and how it can represent the changes and development of Dundee and the wider world. Their research helped create stories of the Park and the people who used it, which were recorded and are accessible via QR codes fixed to benches across the Park.

The project continues, with memories of the Park being recorded by the Archive and Dr Susan Mains from UoD Geography and DJCAD’s Christine Kingsley working with data, stories and art to explore how the Park is used today and its potential impact on health and well-being.

Everyone is welcome to take part through contributions to the BBG website

Boomerang

Working with members of the Boomerang Reminiscence Group, the project encouraged and recorded their memories of home life, work and Dundee. Over several sessions and a visit to the Archive, the members used the collections as prompts to discuss their experiences and were encouraged to look out and share their own records of special times. Their generosity in donating these records helped us create the Boomerang collection.

Following a special end-of-project party, their recorded memories and photographs toured around the city to encourage other reminiscence groups to think about doing similar projects.

Working with schools

Archive staff can visit the classroom to provide hands-on experiential learning opportunities across a range of subjects. Archive collections hold unique evidence of the past, and our activities help pupils discuss and understand their heritage and how this relates to the present day.

We can tailor activities and visits to specific subjects and projects in accordance with the Curriculum for Excellence to compliment teaching within the classroom. Teaching across Early, First, Second, Third & Fourth and Senior Phase levels can be catered for using our wide resource of original documents. 

Popular topics include WW1, WW2, Victorian Dundee, Developing Dundee, Employment and Health in Dundee. Pupils will handle a range of original archives such as diaries, letters, ledgers, photographs, maps and plans while learning how to interrogate primary sources. Engaging in age and stage appropriate activities will strengthen their understanding of a topic, before reflecting on how the past relates to the present day and the world around them.

Archives offer a unique way of learning. Please contact us to arrange a classroom visit or to discuss how archives can enhance classroom teaching.

Brittle Bone Society

The Brittle Bone Society is a national charity founded in Dundee in 1968. The Society assists people living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bones, which affects approximately 5000 individuals in the UK. This project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to catalogue the extensive archive of the Society and make the collection as accessible as possible to the public. This will be supplemented by oral history interviews with people involved with the Society, ensuring their voices are preserved for future generations. The project runs for twelve months from October 2021.  

Exhibitions

We regularly mount exhibitions of our collections, often in collaboration with others. Along with Museum Services we hosted a major exhibition Good Vibrations to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the University in 2017 and produced a book of 50 favourite items from our collections.

The Michael Peto photographic collection has been exhibited in London, Ireland, Liverpool and Edinburgh as well as locally.

Prior to the pandemic we held two hugely successful exhibitions inviting designers and creative writers to produce work based on our collections: Bodies, Botanicals and Bindings: Reimaging Rare Books (2019) and River Deep Mountain High (2020). Watch this space for news of an exhibition to mark the Year of Scotland’s Stories in 2022.

Archives online

A lot of our engagement happens online whether through Twitter, Facebook, or our YouTube playlist (check out the great range of films about Dundee and its history). We also run the University Culture Blog which showcases the wide range of cultural and artistic activity at the University.