Projects

[1034] British India in the Early 20th Century: Part 2

These photographs come from a collection of glass plate negatives of British India taken in the early part of the 20th century and held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The photographs are thought to be largely of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and other areas of Bengal and north-east India. They show Indian men, women and children at work and leisure as well as westerners. The photographer is unknown.

Keywords: India, Kolkata, Calcutta

Location of Project Material: Outside Scotland

[1033] Sheep-rearing at Ferniehaugh farm

Ferniehaugh is an Upland Stock-rearing Farm, and this project records day-to-day life on the farm, including rearing new-born lambs, herding sheep, and taking them to market.

Cairns Aitken, the photographer and contributor of the project, was an academic physician/psychiatrist in Rehabilitation Medicine, becoming Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and retiring as Vice-Principal at the University of Edinburgh in 1994. He was born in Dunoon, Argyll in 1933. He has had a life-long interest in photography, and in completing projects. James Christie, the farmer, had been a colleague at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In Spring 2007, Cairns started to take photos of the activities at the farm, both the sheep and the pheasants. In 2009/10, he made camcorder videos of similar activities; these have been deposited at the scottish Screen Archive of the National Library of Scotland [A2236 Aitken Collection]. He was awarded the CBE in 1998 for his contributions to the Health Services.

Keywords: sheep, farming, dogs, seasons, farming, agriculture

Location of Project Material: Borders

[1032] The Scottish Cemetery in Calcutta | part 1

The Scottish and Dissenters Cemetery was established in 1820 to cater to the needs of the large Scottish population in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Scots were involved in thriving enterprises, including tea, jute, paper and transportation. Many performed administrative or military function within the East India Company and, later, the British Raj, whose capital was here. For those Scots living in India there was the constant threat of illness and diseases, such as cholera, diphtheria, typhoid and malaria and the rate of infant mortality was extremely high.

Over ninety percent of those buried in the cemetery bear names of Scots origin, such as Anderson, McGregor, Campbell and Ross. Around ten percent are Bengali. Many of the gravestones are carved from Scottish sandstone or granite and still bear inscriptions of the monumental masons who made them, indicating that almost all of them would have been made in Scotland and transported to Kolkata for use. The cemetery was abandoned in the 1950s, following India's independence.

The cemetery was surveyed and recorded by a team from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in 2008. These photographs show some of that work being undertaken. There are also photographs from St Andrew's Church, which adjoins the cemetery, and of memorials inside the church which are dedicated to many Scots who lived and worked in India.

Part one of this project gathers together images of: the gate house of the cemetery; survey and recording work being undertaken in the cemetery; St Andrew's, the adjoining church; and memorial inside St Andrew's Church.

Location of Project Material: Outside Scotland

[1031] The Statesman Newspaper, 1914

Pages from a 1914 edition of The Statesman, an English language Calcutta-based broadsheet newspaper. The pages give an insight into British India at this time, showing bills of entertainment, police notices, small ads and news reports. The Statesman is India's largest English-language newspaper. It incorporates two other publications: The Englishman (founded 1811) and The Statesman and New Friend of India (founded by Englishman, Robert Knight in 1875). British run and managed during the time of colonial rule, control of the newspaper passed to Indians following independence. Originally published only in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), today the newspaper is also printed simultaneously in New Delhi, Siliguri and Bhubaneswar.

Location of Project Material: Outside Scotland

[1030] Beacons & Buoys

Scottish lighthouse keepers were interviewed as part of NESTA’s idiscover programme. Working with artist Jenny Hunter, young people visited lighthouses to gain an understanding of this lost profession. The recordings reveal what daily life was like for the keepers who once worked for the Northern Lighthouse Board.

Keywords: lighthouse keeper oral history

Location of Project Material: All over Scotland

[1029] Beechgrove Garden

This project depicts the Beechgrove Garden in the Scottish Borders.

The garden where the photos were taken is situated in the village of Broughton at the junction of the A701 and the B7016. There has been a property at this site since at least the mid-18^th century. The present owner, Tom Shearer, bought the house in 1960 along with 2.8ha land. It had become a wilderness of weeds, which he cleared and maintained using modern weed-killers as they became available. Cultivation of flowers in numerous cold frames was quickly established, and the show garden in 0.7ha has been an annual delight for half a century. 

Tom was born near Lasswade in Midlothian in 1925. On leaving school aged 14, he started work with Dobbies, market gardeners at Gilmerton. He studied Horticulture at the College of Agriculture, then situated in George Square in Edinburgh. He was invited to join the staff of its Horticulture Department, where he worked until retirement in 1985. By that time he was the Senior Horticulture Adviser in the south of Scotland. He was awarded the MBE in 2008 for his services to Horticulture.

Cairns Aitken, the photographer and contributor of the project, was an academic physician/psychiatrist in Rehabilitation Medicine, becoming Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and retiring as Vice-Principal at the University of Edinburgh in 1994. He was born in Dunoon, Argyll in 1933. He has had a life-long interest in photography, and in completing projects. For several summers, he had enjoyed viewing the flowers at Beechgrove; during 2010, he photographed the garden when visiting. He was awarded the CBE in 1998 for his contribution to Health Services.

Keywords: flower, flowers, garden, gardens, foliage

Location of Project Material: All over Scotland, Borders