The Museum & Archive Collections
At any time, most of the collections are in storage, with a minority on display. However, the curators are very keen to give access to the collections by the public and, given 48 hours notice, they can deliver most of the items for study by amateur and professional. Call 01631 760 030.
Objects.
There is now a comprehensive illustrated catalogue mounted on the eHive platform, a web based platform used world wide by museums. This is not accessible on-line as yet but is available on request with the assistance of the curators (Bob Hay, Jennifer Baker and Morag Ferguson).
The objects collection consists of 163 fully accessioned, catalogued and photographed items, and around 20 objects that have been accessioned but await full cataloguing. Concentrating on social history over the last two centuries, the collection reflects the material culture of the island (home and work). Unusual items include boatbuilding and limestone quarrying tools; bagpipe chanters from the Waterloo era; evidence of the island’s connection with Nyasaland; a St Kilda post boat; a fine vernacular chair; and a WW1 military kilt. Most of these items have been donated by islanders. There is a small collection of archaeological items including a range of quern stones and medieval carved stones rescued from the graveyard. In addition, there are items relating to the work of the Liberty designer Archibald Knox (son of an islander).
Documents
The Document Archive is made up of 2 paper catalogues, updated to June 2024. This is accessible to the public in the Celm Library. Catalogue 1 has original documents; Catalogue 2 consists of copies of original documents, plus the archaeological archive, and books in the Archive Collection.
The collection of original documents, fully accessioned and catalogued include the MacGregor Papers (family of Rev Gregor MacGregor, parish minister (1836-1885); the records of the Lismore Agricultural Society (20th century to 1938); and smaller collections of church, agricultural, maritime, property tax papers etc. The unique set of MacDonald letters from Cape Breton to Lismore in the 1840s and 1850s have been complemented in 2012 by the John MacDougall correspondence (80 letters in the 1860s to 1880s between a Lismore weaver and family in Minnesota: gift of the MacDougall MacCallum Foundation).
In 2010-11, the archive received three very large accessions of papers from house clearances: a comprehensive collection of the records of a Lismore croft (Baligrundle 1) over the 20th century; the Daisybank papers, family and commercial documents from the MacCormick family, merchants on the island; and papers from Hawthorn House, including a mixed bag of family and commercial records of the Stewart family, also merchants on the island. The first two were generous donations from the families, the third a rescue exercise, when the contents of the house were being burned. These three accessions have been sorted but await full cataloguing.
The archive also contains a good collection of copies of historical documents (17th century to the present) acquired over 20 years from the National Archives of Scotland, the Argyll Archive, and a range of other sources. Many of these are of great interest to students and enquirers. A full inventory is available. Several albums and collections of press cuttings are also available for study.
Images
The archive has a collection of some 3,000 photographic images of Lismore people and places from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These have been scanned electronically and the originals returned to the owners. Many of the images have been used in the Lismore Faces exhibitions but the curators would like help in identifying some of the people portrayed.
Audio and Electronic Records
The archive holds six tape recordings of Lismore Heritage – interviews mainly in the 1990s, and a specially commissioned audiovisual record, in Gaelic, of the History of the Lismore Sailing Smacks, drawing on the memories of local mariners. Other recordings are being commissioned.
Objects. There is now a comprehensive illustrated catalogue mounted on the eHive platform, a web based platform used world wide by museums. This is not accessible on-line as yet but is available on request with the assistance of the curators (Bob Hay, Jennifer Baker and Morag Ferguson).
The Document Archive is made up of 2 paper catalogues, updated to June 2024. This is accessible to the public in the Celm Library. Catalogue 1 has original documents; Catalogue 2 consists of copies of original documents, plus the archaeological archive, and books in the Archive Collection.
The Lismore Archive is For You
One of the original aims of CELM founders was “to collect, identify and preserve documents, artefacts, photographs, songs, stories and other oral material, moving images, and material of historical value for the benefit of the community”.
As well as recording a great deal about the lives of islanders over the last couple of centuries, and providing genealogical information, the CELM archive reveals many universal insights into how human beings deal with the challenges of life – some of them very poignant. To give one recent finding from our study of the weekly logs of the Lismore schools in the 19thC: on 17th November 1884, Baligarve School was closed “owing to the death and funeral of the teacher’s child”.
Our archive, collected over thirty years, is unique and precious, and we are working to conserve it for the future and, at the same time, to make its contents as widely accessible as possible.
Here is a small snapshot of the wide range of original documents that we hold:
- List of Communicants in Lismore Parish Church 1834.
- Emigrant letters from Cape Breton Island to Lismore, 1840s & 1850s
- Invoice from Duncan Turner, 13&15 Union Street, Glasgow to Mary Stewart for molasses per [steamer] Rob Roy; 1847
- Passenger list, including the Munro family (from Lismore), Liverpool to Melbourne on the Red Jacket, November 1865.
- Public notice/poster about the let of the meal mill at Balnagown. January 1874
- Diary of life of the MacColl family.at Balnagown 30 March 1875 to 7 July 1880.
- Enrolment certificate Highland Land Law Reform Association. John McDonald.
- Letter Scottish Land Court to Ann Campbell, Killean, setting a fair rent for her croft. 19 October 1917.
- 14 MacCormick family letters between Glasgow and Daisybank, 1917-18, including information about WW1 and the influenza epidemic.
- Receipt Captain McFadyen from Henry & Wright, Hemp & Rope Merchants, Ship Chandlers, Sailmakers and Riggers, Glasgow, for supplies to the Mary & Effie smack, 5 August, 1926
- Documents relating to the Building of Lismore Public Hall, 1928
- Photocopy of an original handwritten copy (1 page), and typed transcript (1 page) of An t’Eilean Liosach”. Composed by Tom Livingstone, Bachuil.
- Ministry of Food Ration Books, 1953-
- Accounts for the installation of Electrical Supply, Baligrundle 1. 1969-1987
- Letter from Oxshott Pottery, to Donald Black, 14 December 2004, with an associated archive of information on Archibald Knox.
Recent additions, purchased from the internet, include:
- A letter from the Duke of Wellington to General Colin Macaulay (born on Lismore). 8 December 1820.
- List of Farms in the Parish of Lesmoir and Appin from the Scheme of Teinds, including Proprietors’Names.
New donations of materials to the collections (objects as well as documents), are always welcome.
As many of these documents are very vulnerable, they are protected and stored according to national standards, and not easily accessible to the public. Because of this, CELM has had a policy of presenting a range of documents in the annual display in the museum, and many were included in “The Story of Lismore in Fifty Objects” in 2018. which is for sale in the centre’s shop and readable on the website.
The archive also has an ongoing programme of publishing as much as possible on the internet (through the Regional Ethnology of Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh and the CELM website) as well as articles in heritage publications:
The Lismore Agricultural Society Minute Book 1853 Hay, R K M. 2018. (Ed.)
The Diary of Mary Cameron MacGregor 1868. A Year in the Life of the Lismore Manse, Argyll Full text with commentary Hay, R K M, Bath, C & McDougall, B. 2019 (Eds.)
Current CELM webpages include:
The Cathedral Church of Lismore (currently being updated);
The Story of Achanard;
The Story of Baligrundle;
The Story of the North End parts 1-5.
Captain Hugh Anderson (1837-1909). A Lismore bard
John McIntyre (1811-1897). Lismore Crofter and Entrepreneur
General Colin Macaulay (1759-1836). Distinguished son of Lismore
The Isle of Lismore Lighthouse and its nineteenth century keepers
And there are published articles in History Scotland, the Appin Archive and the Review of Scottish Culture on:
Community Archaeology on Lismore
Dugald Carmichael. Naturalist and Island Explorer
Lismore Ground Officer Letters
Keeping the Peace on Lismore
Rev Gregor MacGregor, minister 1836-1885
The Lismore ladies and other stones
Rewriting History (Alexander Carmichael)
Copies of these articles are available from the Archive.
Current Projects include:
Exploring the log books from Kilandrist, Baligarve and Baligrundle Schools for details of island life in the 19th and 20thC
Providing access to the pre-1855 records of Births and Marriages recorded by Rev Gregor MacGregor
An Updated Catalogue of the Archive is available in the Library. We are currently considering how the following resources could be made more available:
Emigrant letters
The Daisybank Papers
The Campbell (Baligrundle) Papers
Hawthorn House/Stewart Archive
The MacColl Balnagown Archive
All of this recent work on the CELM archive has been done by Jennifer Baker, Douglas Breingan, Caroline Bath, Laura Gloag, and Robert Hay. We have a great need of an active member to curate and develop Gaelic archive resources.
This post had concentrated on the paper and electronic resources at the Centre but we must not forget the many objects and photographic images currently being catalogued and stored electronically using the eHive database system.
All of these resources are being looked after for you – please benefit from them.