SCOTS museum staff are undertaking a mammoth task as they aim to uncover and reoragnise a giant artefact stash.
Curators at a storage facility in Glenrothes, Fife, are reorganising more than 80,000 items prevously kept under wraps so that they can be more “readily appreciated” by visitors.
The objects – mostly donated by the public – are being thoroughly researched and digitally catalogued by staff at the Collections Centre managed by cultural charity OnFife.
The items, from Fife Council’s Museums Collections, were transferred to the former Amazon warehouse five years ago.
The collection, now cared for by OnFife, is more than 100 years old and includes donations from individuals, businesses and community organisations.
Objects too big or oddly shaped to fit into boxes were bubble wrapped for the mass flitting whilst others had been covered up for safe keeping.
The move means the items – including 1,000 works of art – can be kept in stable, environmentally controlled conditions, secure and free from damage risk.
Many reflect Fife’s industrial past including a time clock that ensured workforce punctuality at Nairn’s linoleum factory in Kirkcaldy; linen and silk sample books produced by Dunfermline cloth manufacturers and a pair of National Coal Board wellington boots.
Household gadgets include a 1904 hand crank Singer sewing machine, bought in Dunfermline; a 1920s gramophone, purchased in Cowdenbeath; and a 1950s Bakelite TV, complete with nine-inch screen and 49 Guineas price tag.
Collections staff are now 18 months into the process.
“Around 1,100 objects have been carefully unwrapped so far,” says Collections Curator Jane Freel.
“The condition of each has been checked and recorded and its id number matched to its documentation record.
“A detailed description of each artefact is recorded digitally, along with a record of its precise location, so items can be easily found if needed by a curator or visiting researcher.”
Collections staff have been working with colleagues in OnFife’s Archives & Local Studies to gain fresh insights into many objects that had limited background information.
Once such example is a trunk used during the Second World War by a Captain D Drysdale, about which staff had very little recorded information.”
“We now know much more about David Drysdale,” says Collections Support Assistant Susan Goodfellow.
“We have details of his military service, his career in banking, his involvement in many local organisations, his service as Honorary Sherriff Substitute for Fife and as a Justice of Peace.
“These important details are now recorded on our catalogue.
“That’s such a vital part of the work we are doing because behind every item lies a human story. We are honouring people’s lives as much as the objects they left behind.”
