Category: Conservation

NRS Conservator Jacqueline Thorburn is one of the team responsible for conserving items held within the NRS archives. Here, she tells us about a fascinating artefact of Victorian Scotland that she has worked on – a small book containing details and photographs of inmates of Inverarary Jail… Front cover and title page, before treatment This … Continue reading Locked Down: The Inveraray Jail album

Plastics are a wonderful material for creating all manner of useful items but as NRS conservator Andy McFarlane explains, they can create difficult conservation challenges... Whatever image comes to mind when you hear the word “Archives”, I am pretty certain it will be of something old, pre-modern. “Modern” and “Archives” seem contradictory - they just … Continue reading Plastic Fantastic: Archives and Modern Materials

Conserving the Evidence of a Revolution NRS archivist Simon Johnson and conservator Jackie Thorburn recently collaborated on a six-month project to improve public access to the trial papers of the Scottish ‘Radical Rising’ of 1820. This facilitates our plans to mark the 200th anniversary of the Rising in September 2020. In the first of two … Continue reading The “Radical Rising” of 1820, Part One

The National Register of Archives for Scotland (NRAS) was set up in 1946 to compile a record of collections of private papers in Scotland, to encourage their care and to make information about them available to researchers and others. Today, Dr Alison Rosie of NRAS provides some helpful advice on how you can preserve your … Continue reading #LockdownLearning – Preserving Your Papers

On 6 April, National Records of Scotland is celebrating the 700th anniversary of the most famous and iconic document in their collections – the Declaration of Arbroath. Linda Ramsay is responsible for preserving the Declaration of Arbroath for future generations. She told us that this world-famous document has been a constant in her life since … Continue reading From Arbroath to Edinburgh – The Declaration of Arbroath at 700

On 6 April, NRS is celebrating the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath one of Scotland’s most iconic and famous historic documents and a key treasure in our archives. Ahead of the anniversary Dr Alan Borthwick – NRS head of medieval and early modern records - looks at the document’s long and surprising history and … Continue reading What is the Declaration of Arbroath?

From today until the end of November, a facsimile of the 500-year-old Halyburton Ledger will be on display and free to view at General Register House.   Ahead of his free talk about the Ledger this Friday, NRS Conservator Peter Dickson tells us how he made a facsimile of the volume and what he learned about … Continue reading Conservation – A Volume 500 Years In The Making

"The fundamental role of the conservator-restorer is the preservation of cultural heritage for the benefit of present and future generations..."* I remember very vividly John L. Sharpe, a rare book historian and conservator, teaching a class at my conservation course in Italy and describing conservation as a triangle with History, Science and Craft at each … Continue reading Conservation for the Nation