OBJECTS AND COMMUNITY — MAKING CONNECTIONS

For our Year of Stories, we made six short films exploring community connections through a selection of our museum objects. We hope these films demonstrate the strong ties between our cultural history and our community today. The response from the community has been wonderful and we are very grateful to our contributors, both on and off-screen, for sharing their stories.

BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR (from the doctor’s bag)

One of the principal tools in the doctor’s bag is the blood pressure monitor used to give a reliable overview of our general health. High and low readings would indicate a health problem but a healthy diet and regular exercise are helpful to keep levels well balanced.

The link between improved wellbeing and outdoor exercise is now well established and evidenced locally in the popular resurgence of outdoor sea swimming.

GANNET

The Northern gannet (Morus Bassanus), the biggest of the gannet family, nests on the Bass Rock which has become the world’s largest breeding colony. In times past the bird was known as the ‘Solan Goose’ when their eggs were harvested as a food source and the birds themselves shot for sport.

Such practices are thankfully now illegal, allowing the gannets to thrive in safety when they return to the rock from warmer Mediterranean waters. They then pair-up, begin courtship and bonding rituals, before laying only a single egg.

OPEN RAZOR

Barbers have used open razors to shave their customers for centuries. They were sharpened on a whetstone before being treated with a leather ‘strop’ to obtain a keen straight edge.

It was common to be shaved by a barber but on board a large vessel at sea, this job was traditionally done by the ship’s surgeon who would have also used the blade to prepare a patient for surgery to minimise the chance of infection.

UGLI

The ‘Ugli’ was a distinctive handmade hat worn by generations of female farm workers known as ‘Bondagers’ – which means a bond or agreement with the landowner to provide work.

The Ugli was made to a standard design, often brightly coloured, and protected the wearer against the elements when out in the field.

Additional to the Ugli, their work clothes usually consisted of tackety (hob-nailed) boots, a neat blouse and a coarse woollen skirt covered by a striped apron.

FOLDING CAMERA

Photography become truly accessible to ordinary people in the early twentieth century when cameras came onto the market that could accept pre-prepared ‘film’, replacing the glass plates and toxic chemicals required to produce images previously.

Access to photography allowed us to record our own personal histories, often with formal family portraits, but also document the realities of life at the time. Billions of digital photos are now taken daily on camera phones. Has this changed how we look and see?