Costume Collections in Scotland
by Eleanor Farrell
When I wasn't dodging rainstorms and gales or traipsing around ruined castles on my recent ten-day stay in Scotland, I managed to visit or learn about several costume-related collections in various parts of that country. I'm sure this list is quite imcomplete, but it may be of interest to anyone planning a trip to Scotland, or who has an interest in the history of costume, textiles, or ethnic designs from this area.
The obvious association of clothing and Scotland is the tartan, the symbol of clan membership and an item of great historical interest. The Tartans Museum, headquarters of the Scottish Tartans Society, is located in Comrie, Perthshire. In addition to a collection of over 2,000 tartans, the museum has a dye plant garden and weaver's bothy, and offers various workshops and mail order services.
The Scottish United Services Museum in Edingurgh Castle offers more opportunities to study tartans in a military context, with its "Story of the Scottish Soldier" exhibit. Although probably the smallest national military museum in the world, the SUSM has an exciting, wide-ranging collection of military artifacts, including paintings, weapons, medals (including the New Zealand Cross, only 23 of which have ever been presented), sporrans made of badgers' heads, and uniforms dating from 1600 to the present. (Lack of storage space precludes inclusion of ships and aircraft, but the museum is planning an expansion to be completed by 1996, so who knows?!) Entrance to the museum is free, but there is an admission charge to Edinburgh Castle, which is worth paying for the view alone (not to mention the Honours of Scotland, which include the only British pre-Restoration crown to escape being melted down by Cromwell).
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, residence of the British royal family when they are in Scotland, offers tours of some of the 17th century State Rooms with an impressive collection of art, including some outstanding plasterwork ceilings and the ubiquitous tapestries (18th century Brussels and 17th century French). A 16th century round tower houses the apartments where Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Lord Darnley, lived (and where Mary's secretary David Rizzio was murdered). The Darnley jewel is on display, a relatively tasteful collage of rubies, emeralds, diamonds and the like.
The Royal Museum of Scotland has two buildings in Edinburgh. The Queen Street building houses the collection of antiquities, including finds from the Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae and some Viking hoards, some of the Lewis chessmen, and a large Dark Ages sculpture collection including Pictish symbol stones and Anglian sculptured crosses. A roomful of findings from Roman settlements (including sandals!), a splendid selection of silver, arms and armour, and the 1561 Maiden (the Scots version of the guillotine) are also found here. There are some very old banners and embroidered tapestries, as well. A special joint exhibit (by the Royal Museum and the National Portrait Gallery sharing this building) entitled "Dynasty: The Royal House of Stewart", which included portraits, jewelry, swords, fans, banners and other items related to the Stewart monarchies, was also on display.
A second building on Chambers Street houses the rest of the Royal Scottish Museum's Edinburgh collections, including the costume gallery. The current exhibit was "Taking Shape: The Structure of Clothes", an impressive collection of costumes, fabric and sewing implements, shoes and accessories dating from 1630 to the present. One case had a display of bodices from 1810 to 1890, opened to show their construction. There were early twentieth century evening dresses by Lucile and Madeleine Vionnet, a display of men's breeches, waistcoats and suits from 1705 to 1989, and an early 19th century Intuit parka made of seal intestines, sewn with sinew thread.
The heart of the Royal Scottish Museum's costume collection, however, is the Shambelllie House Museum of Scotland, New Abbey, Dumfries. This Victorian country house, designed by David Bryce and built in 1856, was donated to the museum, along with its extensive collection of costumes and accessories, by Charles W. Stewart. A delightful little book, Holy Greed: The Forming of a Collection, tells the story of this collection and describes how Mr. Stewart became, in his own words, "...that obsessed and demented being, a Collector." (I think some of us can sympathize with this type of mania!)
Inverary Castle, in Argyll, is the Campbell family seat, and the castle is open to the public for viewing. The Campbells, as well as being politically shrewd, were great collectors, and their castle has a large supply of portraits by Gainsborough and the like, clan banners and ceremonial garb, archeological finds from excavations on Iona and other sites, and more weapons in their great hall than I suspect are owned by most major museums. The nearby Church of All Saints, in addition to having an extremely fine ring of bells, also has a small display of historical liturgical garments, donated by the Duke of Argyll from the Campbell collection.
The village of Glencoe in the Highlands is remembered mainly as the site of the infamous 1692 massacre of Jacobite-sympathizing MacDonalds, by the aforementioned Campbells. It is also the site of the Glencoe and North Lorn Folk Museum, an amazing collection of local history, founded in 1967 practically single-handedly by Barbara Fairweather, who still moves the entire collection from the four or five small thatched museum buildings into her own house during winter. In fact, half of the collection is kept in Ms. Fairweather's house, as the museum isn't big enough to hold it all. This place has everything! Dollhouses and miniatures (including an imaginative tableau of the massacre, with red-tinted cotton representing the smoke of the Campbell guns, being fired at tartan-clad MacDonalds running for the moors). Tools from every walk of life: spinning, weaving, shoe-making, sheep shearing, slate working, farming. Volumes of local photographs from the early twentieth century (some of which are extremely interesting in their details of clothing). A cabinet of narrow drawers containing nothing but lace: collars, trim, doilies, gloves, etc. A chair which belonged to Prince Charlie. And a small but impressive collection of costumes, including a "hard" tartan (a very tight weave designed to last, but which could actually cut the skin of the wearer), a lace-trimmed christening gown belonging to the MacDonald clan chief, and a 1740s dress in incredible condition. The museum publishes one or two small pamphlets per year about its collection; unfortunately not much material was available covering the costumes, although I did pick up a pamphlet on historic photographs.
I have additional information on many of the collections I have discussed here. Some of the museums offer workshops or mail order services; others have publications available on their collections. If any of you have an interest in learning more about these sources, please contact me through the newsletter and I will try to help.
Reprinted from The Costumer's Scribe 2:8, October 1992.