Town House Charter Room
The Archive30 social media campaign in April has been a wonderful excuse for us to showcase items from the collections in our care ahead of the Archive reopening for public visits at the Town House this week.
Ordnance Survey image 1952 (collection reference DD638)
For #UnusualArchives we chose the Ordnance Survey Minor Control Point Albums. This series shows the Aberdeen of the early 1950s from an unusual perspective. These arrows are pointing at precise areas, like this one of the beach ‘796m east of junction of Esplanade and King Street and 538m south east of Royal Aberdeen Golf Club House’, and images of Crown Street and Ashgrove Road.
Ordnance Survey Image 1952 (collection reference DD638)
Ordnance Survey Image 1952 (collection reference DD638)
Easter Beltie Farm Account Book (reference PD5)
For #BusinessArchives we showed an account book by William and Robert Ross for their farm at Easter Beltie in Kincardine O’Neil. It contains early evidence of the practice of feeing - the process of hiring farm labour on six monthly verbal contracts at feeing markets - alongside information about births and deaths, local news about the church, recipes for medicine, and sales of crop harvests. There are records of around 140 feeing bargains made between 1682 and 1748, which record details of the money, clothes and shoes being provided to the labourer, and the dates and seasons they would work in return. In addition, the book contains a cure for wind in horses, absolutely vital in an economy that depended on them.
Aberdeen City School Board letters before repackaging (reference CA/25/2/11)
Our #SomethingBig was the celebration of our volunteers completing a large-scale listing project whilst helping with our move out of our Old Aberdeen House site. This mammoth task involved sorting and detailing over 120 files of correspondence, sent from teachers and Aberdeen residents to the Aberdeen School Board in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Detailed information on these letters is now recorded in our catalogue, including the lives of people in Aberdeen during the Great War.
We care for all sorts of records that can help you with a family history project, a school assignment or if you’re interested in local history. We look forward to welcoming you!
For visiting information click here. Please book in advance at archives@aberdeencity.gov.uk. You’ll find the Archives blog at aberdeenarchivesblogspot.com and catch up with this month’s Archive30 campaign on Facebook and Instagram.
