| The Scottish textile industry
has a rich legacy that is preserved within numerous museums
and archives within and beyond Scotland. These collections comprise
textile machinery, tweeds and tartans, haute couture garments,
knitwear, paisley shawls, furnishing fabrics and pattern and
sample books, designers’ records and other business archives
of their manufacturers. Many of these collections are relatively
unknown yet can provide a wealth of information for historians,
textile designers and other researchers.
The project aims to provide a one-stop shop for information
relating to Scotland’s textile treasures. The project
team are surveying and catalogue textile collections within
the 6 partner institutions and other museums and archives
within Scotland. The end result will be a searchable database
and image gallery for the first time giving a holistic view
of Scotland’s textile heritage held within Scottish
museums and archives and pointing to significant collections
held elsewhere. This will be enhanced with online essays and
articles that demonstrate how the collections can be used
and interpreted.
Further to this, the project will also devise methodologies
for the appraisal and documentation of textile collections
and develop a framework collecting policy for a distributed
national textile collection.
The project is led by Heriot-Watt
University Archive, Records Management & Museum Service
and is funded by a Scottish
Museums Council Strategic Change Award and runs from May
2003 until May 2004. A team of archivists and museum professionals
staff the project. They include a Project Co-ordinator based
at the Glasgow School of Art
and Documentation Officers based at Paisley
Museum and Art Galleries and Heriot-Watt’s
Scottish Borders Campus in Galashiels. The project also
draws upon the expertise of textile historians, designers
and other users.
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