Michael Taylor ([log in to unmask]) and Lyall Anderson ([log in to unmask]) are writing an account of the dispersal, curation, and display of the collections of Hugh Miller. Miller was of course author of The Old Red Sandstone and much else, besides his work as an important newspaper editor, helping to found the Free Church of Scotland, banging the drum for self-help and hard work, and generally being one of the great Scots of his time.
Thanks to the British Geological Survey’s library and curatorial staff, we have been able to obtain copies of (a) the leaflet for the second phase of the public appeal, c. 1858, to buy his collection for what is now National Museums Scotland (http://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edingeologist/z_40_04.html ), and (b) the little guide by James G. Goodchild (1844-1906) to the geological displays in the Birthplace Cottage at Cromarty, for the 1902 centenary of Miller’s birth.
However, we have so far been unable to locate
1. Any other copies of the above, especially if annotated
2. Any other circulars for the collection appeal
3. Circulars for the appeal to build Hugh Miller’s Monument at Cromarty, c. 1858-9
4. Circulars, etc., for the 1902 centenary celebrations at Cromarty
5. Any other guide leaflets, etc., for Hugh Miller’s Cottage/Museum etc. at Cromarty, before the 1950s redisplay by Charles Waterston and his booklet Hugh Miller: the Cromarty Stonemason (1961)
We are also keen to learn of published or unpublished accounts of visits to the Miller displays in the museum at Edinburgh and to the birthplace cottage in Cromarty up to about 1950, including securely dated photographs. We already have a few general tourist reports from David Alston’s local history My little town of Cromarty (2006).
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