To celebrate the opening of a new exhibition at the Gateway Galleries, St Andrews, we thought it would be interesting to prepare a ‘behind the scenes’ insight into curating an exhibition! The exhibition was created by curators from the Museum Collections Unit at the University of St Andrews, in partnership with the Museum Services department at the University of Dundee – http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/ .

The new exhibition is called Mathematical Beauty: the Science & Art of Form and features works of contemporary art inspired by the work of the pioneering scientist, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948). Thompson was a gifted biologist, mathematician and classical scholar who was Professor at Dundee and St Andrews. His landmark work, On Growth and Form (1917), proposed ground-breaking ideas on the study of natural form, which continue to inspire artists to the present day.

From the outset of the exhibition, we were keen to make sure that the exhibition space had a sleek, contemporary feel that was sympathetic to the art works on display.

A blank canvas! The exhibition space at the Gateway Galleries before the installation of objects and art works for the exhibition.

Many of the art works in the exhibition were purchased by Museum Services at the University of Dundee with the assistance of a grant from the Art Fund – http://www.artfund.org/news/2011/09/11/six-successful-renew-projects-to-gain-funding-for-new-collections . These were kindly lent to us for the exhibition. After filling out lots of loan forms and paperwork, all of the art works and also some objects were carefully wrapped and transported to the Gateway Galleries in St Andrews by a courier company. We are very relieved to say that everything arrived in one piece! With all of the exhibits present in the gallery, we could start the exciting task of unpacking and displaying items on the walls (with the invaluable assistance of our Estates Department) and in the four display cases in the gallery.

The exhibition starts to take shape! We got to work displaying objects in display cases in the gallery. If you look closely, you can see the joiners helping to hang art works!

Andy, one of the University’s joiners, doing a great job hanging art works!

One of the greatest challenges of the exhibition was the installation of a large TV screen in the gallery space. We needed a screen in the gallery to show a visual installation called ‘Flowers’ by the cutting-edge digital artist, Daniel Brown – http://www.danielbrowns.com/ . This was something that we had never done before in any of our museum venues so it was a big learning experience! At the outset of the planning process, we thought that it would be a good idea to mount the screen in the middle of a free-standing wall, which would be built and located in the centre of the gallery. This was a display method that we had seen used in other galleries and we thought it would look good in the exhibition space at the Gateway Galleries. However, after doing some research into building a wall (and looking at our budget!), we decided that it would be easier to attach the screen to the wall at the back of the gallery space. We were kindly able to borrow a screen from the University’s Media Services department who also performed lots of clever techno-wizardry! The University joiners were a fantastic support and securely installed the screen in the gallery for the exhibition. Result!

Visual installation by the artist, Daniel Brown

We had to work out where we would store the laptop computer that is used to play Daniel Brown’s video installation. The joiners solved our problems by building this handy cabinet!

During the planning stages of the exhibition, we visited lots of contemporary art galleries and decided that a good way to achieve a modern feel in the gallery was to provide interpretation for the exhibition using self-adhesive vinyl lettering on the gallery walls. The lettering was produced by a local company and installed in the final stages of set-up once we had made sure that we were happy with the layout of the exhibition. The use of vinyl lettering was a big change for us (we normally use printed cardboard panels) but we think it looks great!

An exciting moment! Information about the exhibition was produced used Vinyl lettering, which was attached to the gallery walls

After adding the finishing touches to the gallery and getting the dusters out one last time to polish the display cases, the exhibition opened to the public on the 17th January! Come along to the Gateway Galleries to see the finished result! What is your favourite art work or object on display in the exhibition? As always, we’re happy to hear any feedback about the exhibition and answer any questions!

Claire (Collections Curator) and Naomi (Learning and Access Trainee Curator)

Mathematical Beauty: the Science & Art of Form takes place at the Gateway Galleries, North Haugh, St Andrews from 17 January to 2 March 2013. Opening times are Monday to Friday: 9am-3.45pm, Saturday 12-4pm. Free admission. 

An exciting events programme is taking place in the Gateway Galleries and Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History to accompany the exhibition – http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/museum/gateway/whatson/

The University of Dundee is hosting two related exhibitions as part of the Art Fund’s RENEW scheme in the Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries, Dundee.

Harr, Christmas might be just around the corner, but here at the Good Ship MUSA we’re looking forward to something else!  Once the tinsel’s down, the cards are in the recycling and the poop’s swabbed we’re hoisting the mainstay and setting sail for Museum Island ready for the Young Artist Award 2013.

I couldn’t afford a parrot, so I’ve got meself a duck instead

We (that’s meself, Bosun Naomi and First Mate Jean) will be welcoming new crews throughout February and March from schools around Fife to join us in search of TREASURE!  Harr, we’ve heard that some of these children are landlubbers to be sure, but we’ve also been told that they’re mighty intelligent and intelligence is what we need in the quest that awaits us.  For this reason, we’re going to make them into salty old seadogs like us.  

Why do we need them?  We were left a series of riddles, you see, leading to hoards hidden on Museum Island and we’re nay good at solving things like this.  If you’ve been to MUSA, have a look and see if you can work out the answer…

My head is not just in the clouds

It’s far above the moon.

If you find out what my job was

Then  you’ll have your first clue soon.

Well, there’s more riddles that follow and we’ve been scratching our navels (as opposed to our navals) for weeks and still can’t get it.  We’ve sailed the seven seas right enough, but we need crews with wits sharper than Long John Silver’s cutlass to solve this one.  

But we’re not all about the taking, ye knows. While hunting out the hidden cache we’ll make sure our young crews learn how to follow clues, use adjectives, look at treasure to find out what the cultures that made them want to tell us and make fascinating treasures of their own.  Our crews will gain skills that’ll wow the fins off a shark, like embossing and sculpture. I’d keel haul me own mother to learn things like that!

That’s all for now. I’ll be keepin’ ye posted on our adventures. If you do fancy joining us get your teachers to look at the Young Artist Award website.  I hope to see ye aboard the Good Ship MUSA soon.

Yours,

Cap’n Matt

*We’ll nay be giving our young crews any rum. That’s strictly for the Bosun!

After a little break we thought that we would update you with a very special joint Object of the Month and conservation feature! This month’s object is a bronze statue of Peter Pan, the character from Sir J. M. Barrie’s classic children’s story, which was made by the sculptor Sir George Frampton.

The statue was presented to the students of University Hall by the author, J. M. Barrie, on the 3 May 1922. Barrie was Rector of the University of St Andrews from 1919 until 1922. The statue was made by George Frampton in 1913 and is a smaller version of the famous statue of Peter Pan that stands in Kensington Gardens in London.

Peter Pan has recently returned to the University after conservation treatment. Members of the Collections team hit the road to collect Peter and bring him back to St Andrews. Specialist Conservators at Graciela Ainsworth’s Sculpture Conservation and Restoration Studio in Edinburgh had worked on Peter to re-attach his pipes and also to make some small patches of damage less visible.

Every museum object has its own personal history and conservation treatment represents an important life milestone! By taking photographs and making notes, conservators carefully recorded the conservation process so that we have a detailed record of all the techniques and materials that were used to conserve the statue. This is very useful information for the Collections team here today and also future Curators!

Peter is back on display and now lives in gallery 3 in MUSA: Museum of the University of St Andrews! Come along to MUSA and have a look for yourself! Check out our website for opening times: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/musa/visitors/openingtimes/

Claire Robinson

The new Handy Guides allow you to see objects that aren’t usually on display.

From St Andrew’s Day onwards all visitors will have the chance to borrow one of the guides free of charge and be shown around 600 years of history, innovation and student pranks by the former New Avenger and honorary graduate of the University.

The idea behind the guides, which were generously funded by a grant from Museums Galleries Scotland, is to bring life to the objects behind glass. No more will museums be considered dull and dusty!  The guide allows you to experience stained glass through music, ridiculous traditions though the eyes of those who took part and shows some of those who used and invented the items on display.  Our little handy helpers also include footage of the University’s more bizarre rituals, such as the May Dip, and of objects in use, including the birretum being used to cap graduands at graduation.

Joanna Lumley is joined on the headset by students, alumni and staff.  International Relations student Tom Emslie-Smith demonstrates the art of wearing a red gown, alumna Elaine Kilgour shares her memories of Raisin Weekend and lecturer Martin Milner describes some of the colourful characters who have taught biology, including a dancing professor with a great love of parrots.

St Andrew really enjoyed the guide.

You ask yourself a lot of questions when creating a guide like this.  ”What objects should we include?”, “Why does everyone think a ten minute section on Thomas Chalmers is a bad idea?”, “Will this project ever end?” and “How do  you pronounce ‘mascle’?”  were just a few of those I encountered.

The biggest worry, of course, was whether the British icon who would narrate the guide would like the script.  I’ll leave you with her words and let you decide:

“To be ‘capped’ by Sir Menzies Campbell at St Andrews with Gaudeamus Igitur ringing in the air is one thing: to be asked to record the commentary for the University’s excellent museum, MUSA, is another honour so great that I am still scarlet with pleasure.

“Because it was so beautifully written and prepared, I was able to record it in one take: and as I sat in the dark of a Soho recording studio I found myself yearning to be in the Museum, following my own instructions, as it were, unravelling the history of the marvels contained in every room and cabinet and case. One thing is sure: as soon as I possibly can, I shall visit what is now my alma mater, pick up a headset and dream my way through the treasures this ancient and glorious establishment guards for Scotland and for future generations.”

Why not pop down to MUSA and dream your way around with Joanna?

An inscription reading “Madman Vilant” above a drawing of a straitjacketed figure, inscribed in a copy of James Balfour’s Philosophical Essays (see inset). This is not the only annotation to a book to question Vilant’s sanity: for example, a sentence in George Dixon’s Voyage round the World stating that the Sandwich Islands were discovered “by the late Captain Cook” was amended by hand to read “the present mad Captain Vilant”.

Inset above is the inscription “Punctum Vilant Buffoon is a son of a Bitch” from the inside back cover of the first volume of John Mair’s A brief survey of the terraqueous globe. The larger image of the endpaper shows more clearly that someone, possibly Vilant himself, has attempted to erase this scurrilous assertion. The fact that so many of these unedifying inscriptions survive suggests that Vilant was not always so scrupulous in checking the condition that books were returned in, something that had previously been a key duty of the library keeper.

Up to the nineteenth century, with scrap paper in short supply, it was not uncommon for people to scrawl over books. The following example (adorning a copy of Henry Fielding’s Miscellanies) shows how aimless a lot of the writing in library books could be.

The text here displays some typical features:

1 The student author, James Duncan, practicising his signature (also variously rendered as “James Lones” and “James Mankyster B”)

2 Following some pious thoughts (“Dear God as creator of world [...]”) there are a few lines regarding Vilant, on this occasion surprisingly respectful (although perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek): “Many People think I speak disrespectfully of Mr Vilant but I am none of these, for if you Insure to bring a line for a Book not Veted, he will Certainly give you it if it be in the Library.” [The word “Veted” may refer to vetoed books, i.e. titles which the University authorities deemed unsuitable for undergraduate eyes. This included literature such as novels that might distract students from their studies, but also certain titles deemed ‘improper’ – such as The Memoirs of Sally Salisbury (an account of the life of a famous eighteenth-century prostitute) which it was decided should be removed from stock, the catalogue entry being amended to read “Infamous book destroyed”.]

3 The text continues “N.B. remember always to get your line signed, a Circumstance frequently not attended to.” [This alludes to another practice which had been introduced to control student access to books: students were required to produce a slip of paper signed by a lecturer testifying that they were fit to borrow the book listed.]

4 The text here shifts to humour: “N.B. Cukus’ history of the Carthaginians wrote originally in French by Alexander the Great, translated into Latin by Dr Johnson & from that into English by Cicero with notes by Aristotle is reserved for Mr Gressty’s[?] own particular use.” [“Cukus” here might possibly refer to John Cook, Professor of Humanity and Moral Philosophy. As there wasn’t anything like a university magazine at the time, writing in books became one of the main means of self-expression for students, much of this taking the form of humorous or ribald remarks about their studies and environment. Given that most of the students at the time were adolescents however, the humour isn’t always very well developed.]

5 [Upside down] The comment “I fancy you are not very right” suggests the author is conducting a written conversation with another student. The other half of the conversation is quite possibly recorded on a different library book!

Note: a fascinating examination of student marginalia from this period can be found in the PhD thesis “St Andrews University Library in the eighteenth century: Scottish education and print-culture” by Matthew Simpson (1999).

Vilant’s successor as Librarian had some success in curbing this kind of behaviour by requiring students to pay a deposit to ensure books were returned on time and in good condition. Despite this, the tendency over this period was for the University authorities to seek to reduce student access to books, quite likely with the aim of thereby preventing theft and damage. Most strikingly, library opening hours were reduced bit by bit over the centuries, from around 24 hours per week in 1642 to an all-time low of around 6 per week in the 1820s. (Compare this with the 118 hours of regular term-time opening of the Main Library today.)

Like the measures that preceded it, this reduction in access was not uncircumventible. Professors had been in the habit of borrowing keys in order to enter the library out of hours, and some more indulgent librarians were persuaded to extend the privilege to students. In 1817 Principal Hill, conducting an investigation into why so many books had gone missing, noted that “The Librarian [...] did not exercise a very strict vigilance over those who had [the keys]; and there is reason to think that many persons availed themselves of this indulgence to pocket small books.” He went on to remark, “The evil of this abuse was strongly felt by the University, and it is now effectually prevented” – this refers to a security measure implemented as a result of the investigation: the locking of the presses the books were kept in.

In the early nineteenth century, students not only had to cope with severely reduced opportunities for borrowing (or indeed stealing) books; on the few occasions when the Library did open each week they were not permitted to use it to study in. A commission conducting a review of the University in 1827 clearly thought this state of affairs unsatisfactory, as evidenced by this remarkable (by today’s standards) exchange with Thomas Chalmers, who was at this time Professor of Moral Philosophy:

Commissioner: Do you consider that it is a proper arrangement in a University that the Public Library should only be open for two or three hours on two or three days a week so as to prevent the possibility of any system of reading going on within the Library?

Chalmers: I think it were well that the number of hours was increased.

Commissioner: The question particularly alluded to the purpose of affording Students an opportunity of reading in the Library.

Chalmers: I do not know that I would altogether approve of that arrangement.

[from Commission for Visiting the Universities and Colleges of Scotland, vol. III: University of St Andrews]

Very likely the difficulty of accessing books made students covet them all the more, for when borrowing regulations were relaxed round about the start of the twentieth century the numbers of thefts diminished substantially. Challenging behaviour of the kind we’ve been looking at didn’t disappear from the Library altogether however. Today, no matter how sophisticated our book security systems have become they probably won’t deter all attempts at theft, and despite this being the electronic age students continue to feel the need to write on printed books – multi-coloured highlighting of text being a particular curse just now. Perhaps though as we move to a point where more and more books are available electronically both problems will diminish markedly.

All the same, while abuse of books can be very trying for most of us, the whole point of libraries is that people use them – otherwise they become little more than book museums. If coping with the chaos that readers bring in with them is the price the Library has to pay for continuing to be the beating heart of the University’s intellectual endeavour, then let chaos reign (but not too much – please).

Colin Bovaird

Academic Liaison Officer and King James Library observer

A well used copy of John Mair’s Brief survey of the terraqueous globe (Edinburgh, 1762).

In every working library, each day sees a struggle played out between order and chaos. It’s a fact of life that however hard librarians work to impose order, opening the doors to users inevitably means that a measure of chaos enters in their wake. Often this is chaos at a fairly low-level: a book being absent-mindedly left on a train; the quiet of a study area being shattered by a phone ringing – that kind of thing. Sometimes though, the chaos that users bring in is a bit more of a problem than this.

What follows is a look at some of the ways that users of the King James Library have interacted with books with rather less uplifting results than their authors might have hoped for.

Barely had the Library opened its doors than it was embroiled in a notorious case of book theft. When a session of the Scottish Parliament was held in the building in 1645-46, part of its proceedings were given over to the trial of Sir Robert Spottiswood, son of the Archbishop of St Andrews, on a charge of high treason. Having been a prominent supporter of Charles I during the Civil War, he was found guilty by a Parliament largely comprised of the king’s opponents and was condemned to death. It was n’t only the victorious side in the war who sought vengeance against him however: hardly had Sir Robert met his grim end (he was beheaded on Market Street) than the University presented a petition to Parliament requesting that his books be acquired for the Library, the record stating it was well known that both he and his father “did wrong the university in borrowing books out of their library and not restoring thereof and otherwise retaining many books from the same”. Parliament approved this request and the books were duly added (or restored) to the Library. (You can read the transcript of the proceedings on the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 website).

Harsh retribution of this kind against thieves did not prove a sufficient deterrent to others however, as evidenced by the fact that in the years that followed Library regulations were increasingly concerned with measures designed to prevent students making off with books. For example, in 1734, a notice listing ten ‘Laws’ governing use of the Library was posted in the King James Library by order of the University, including one stating that

[...] no student shall take or move any book out of its place in any press or shelf in the Library, but shall demand what book he may want from the Library Keeper, and wait until he receives it at his hands. Every student who becomes guilty in this article [...] shall be reprimanded publickly [or] fined for intrusion and ill manners. [...] the Library Keeper is hereby required to take particular note of all students who shall be thus guilty and to give up their names to the University.

The threat of fines and naming and shaming does n’t seem to have been an entirely successful deterrent however. Students sought to circumvent this regulation using a tactic nowadays associated with light-fingered school kids in a sweetshop: all pile in at once and grab what you can. The Senate Minutes for 1743 record a complaint made by the Librarian, James Angus:

[...] several students, notwithstanding of laws to the contrary, came in together, went to several presses at the same time and took out books, and [...] he had reason to suspect some were clandestinely carried away.

The years that followed saw progressively tighter rules, seemingly principally designed to prevent students from getting their hands on books. The Library regulations of 1753, for example, included a long list of books which were not to be lent to students:

[...] dictionaries and grammars of any kind, folio systems of geography, manuscripts, large anatomical books, Mr Hutcheson’s present of books, commentaries and criticks on the Bible, except to students of divinity, books that are taught in any of the classes, nor the best copie or edition of a book, if there be other copies in the Library; and this beside what other particular books the several classes of the Curatores shall order from time to time not to be lent out.

Rather more drastically, it was made certain that particularly prized books did not leave the library at all – by chaining them to lecterns. An example of one such, the Foundation Bible of St Leonard’s College, can be seen on display in the Gateway Galleries exhibition. This is an older image of the Bible attached to a lecturn (Photo by G M Cowie)

Perhaps it was understandable that such extreme measures were taken – if one remarkable case of kleptomania inflicted on the University bookseller in 1762 is anything to go by. Patrick Bower, the bookseller in question, reported to University authorities that a number of his books had gone missing and that he had suspicions that students may have been responsible. A minute of a University meeting recorded how a raid on student rooms was conducted in search of the culprits:

[T]he Hebdomadar, with another Master, [...] went to the College between 7 and 8 last night, and having gone thro’ several rooms came in course to the room possess’d by David Rattray and his brother Henry, and when the Masters asked access to see their books David Rattray told them his books were in a chest, and that John Hog, the porter, had the key of it. When the porter was order’d to be call’d, David Rattray confess’d that in his chest were several books which he had taken out of Mr. Bower’s shop, and the chest being open’d, the books [...] were found in it, all which the lad own’d to have been taken by him out of Mr. Bower’s shop, and that he had written his own name upon them all.

In all, the ‘several books’ were found to number 63 stolen volumes, amongst them quite a few works of a religious nature.

Colin Bovaird, 

Academic Liaison Officer and King James Library observer

[Part II will follow next week and covers more vandalism on the books!]

The themes of the Symposium will reflect Ian’s dual roles in Museum and Gallery Studies and as the Director of the Museum Collections Unit, with talks on collections expertise and careers.  The speakers will be past students from the course, who will share their professional experiences since leaving St Andrews. Confirmed speakers include Neil Lebeter (2008-9), who has been working at the New Art Gallery, Walsall, and is moving to take up a new appointment at the Edinburgh College of Art; Amy Dale (2007-8), who has recently joined Museums Galleries Scotland as Digital Communications Development Manager ; Kristina Brown (2010-11), who is now working at the National Library of Scotland after having been one of the lucky 20 out of 3,000 applicants for the MGS internships in 2011; and Elsa Davidson (2003-4), now at National Museums Scotland, who was previously Curator at the South Georgia Heritage Trust.

The Symposium will take place on Saturday 27^th October at the Old Union Diner, Butts Wynd, St Andrews from 1.30-5.30pm. This will be followed by a reception at MUSA. If you would like to book a place, please go to: http://onlineshop.st-andrews.ac.uk/browse/product.asp?catid=173&modid=1&compid=1

Are you a Twitter user? If you can’t make it along to the Symposium in person but would like to leave a message for Ian, you can send Ian a tweet! We intend to display a live Twitter feed featuring messages for Ian during the reception in MUSA! If you would like to take part in this, please tweet your messages to @musa_standrews on Saturday 27^th October using the hashtag #ianssymposium . If you have any questions, please feel free to contact cr67@st-andrews.ac.uk. We look forward to reading your tweets!

Claire Robinson

If you have never used Aurasma Lite before I have some instructions below, the important thing to do is subscribe to the MUSA channel and you will be able to view the images you need to find to then make the AR work.

How to find the Auras:

1. Download Aurasma Lite to your smart phone/device, it’s free and links to operating system are on Aurasma website: www.aurasma.com/

2. The first time you open the app it will run through a demonstration of how you can load your own images, you will see what fun you can have!

3. Once you have completed the demonstration, select the Pylon icon, top left of screen, and it will give you the menu screen: 

My Aurasma menu

 4. Select ‘nearby’ icon and you will see ‘Nearby Channels’. If you are within 10km of St Andrews please select the ‘MUSA’ channel and tap ‘Subscribe’

 5. If you have not yet registered you will be asked to register for free:

  6. When you are within range of the venues MUSA or Gateway Galleries, you should now see the images you need to find to make the auras work

  7. Go to the exhibition at Gateway Galleries, start-up Aurasma Lite app and in the ‘camera viewer mode’ hold your phone over the image and you should see something appear on your phone.

Finding the Aura

  8. If it works – show your friends, tell the world.

  8.b. if it doesn’t work, drop me an email and I will try to help.

Do let us know if you get it working, tweet us @MUSA_StAndrews or comment below. We are keen to hear any ideas of where else we could use this in the galleries and or around town. It really is a simple process to upload the images, give it a go and share your locations with us.

Happy hunting.

We would love to see your snaps of some of our fascinating collections in our museums! The competition has been specially timed to take place during Doors Open Day, which will see the University’s Bell Pettigrew Museum, MUSA Collections Centre and MUSA: Museum of the University of St Andrews open to the public. For further details, please see http://www.doorsopendays.org.uk/opendays/

If you would like to enter a photograph into the competition, please send entries to fifemuseumsforum@yahoo.co.uk . This competition is open to all ages and is free to take part in. The competition closes on 30th September and all entries will be posted on our Flickr page: flickr.com/welovemuseumsinfife. The winning entries will also receive prizes and feature in an exhibition to be shown at several of Fife’s fantastic museums over the coming months. We look forward to seeing your entries!

Claire Robinson