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News: March/April 2008 NEWS THE JANET ALLAN ESSAY PRIZE The editors of the Review of Scottish Culture are pleased to announce the Janet Allan Essay Prize. This biennial prize will be awarded for an essay on a topic relating to the cultural or social history or ethnology of agriculture or rural life in Scotland. Applications for the 2009 Prize are now being invited. For entry details and an application form, please write to: The Editors, Review of Scottish Culture, Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, 27 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD. ____________ The Edinburgh Antiquarian Book Fair The Pre-History of the Motor Car, 1550-1850 The Edinburgh Antiquarian Book Fair is on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th March 2008, in the Assembly Rooms Edinburgh. Over 35 members of the ABA will be exhibiting in the Music Hall, and over 40 members of the PBFA in the Edinburgh Suite: the event therefore brings some 80 booksellers under one roof, offering a wide range of material to suit all tastes and budgets. As befitting a fair in the first UNESCO World City of Literature, great Scottish writers, scientists, engineers, philosophers, artists and travellers will be represented, but this is by no means a purely Scottish event. Our exhibitors come from all over the United Kingdom, bringing material from all over the world: maps and atlases, children's literature, gardening, military, sporting and cookery books, from ancient and modern times, and at prices ranging from a few pounds to tens of thousands. Last year's event attracted over 2,000 visitors, a figure we hope to improve upon in 2008. A consistent feature of the Fair is an exhibition of books and related material: last year's was a display of books, maps and manuscripts commemorating 300 years of parliamentary union, drawing upon material loaned by exhibitors. This year, ABA exhibitor Keith Fletcher will be displaying a large selection from his museum-quality collection of books, prints and models illustrating The Pre-History of the Motor Car, 1550-1850. The display will show the prehistoric monsters that preceded cars and which moved by crank and lever, cog and pedal, wind or steam. One need not be interested in books or even transport to be charmed, impressed and informed by this delightful exhibition. For further details, visit www.edinburghbookfair.com or www.ABAinternational.com __________ The Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright Black Heritage Award for Transatlantic Slave Trade Exhibition An exhibition commissioned by Dumfries and Galloway Council Museums has won a national award for making the most outstanding contribution to Black Heritage in Scotland in 2007. The award was for the 'Dumfries and Galloway and the Transatlantic Slave Trade' exhibition, which was commissioned from social historian Frances Wilkins and her company Franscript. Frances collected the award at a prestigious ceremony at the Black Heritage Fair at the ThinkTank, Millennium Point, Birmingham on Saturday, December 8th. The project was judged the best of several nominations from Scotland. It was one of 12 regional awards made across the UK by the Black History Foundation. The exhibition aimed to enhance the public's understanding of Scotland's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade by taking one area and looking at all the different aspects of the trade from sending ships on the triangular voyage to owning plantations in the Americas, exporting their produce to Britain and becoming part of the abolition movement. The 14 panels were based on contemporary 18th and 19th century information. They emphasised the fact that although a few slave trading voyages sailed directly from Dumfries and Kirkcudbright, merchants from the area went to both Liverpool and London, where they were deeply involved in the trade. Ship captains and crew from the area also sailed on Guinea ships from Liverpool and London. Local families owned plantations in Virginia (where there is a town called Dumfries), the Carolinas and the West Indian islands. Sugar, rum and cotton from Grenada were imported into Kirkcudbright. William Dickson from Moffat was part of the abolition movement, in 1792 journeying from Inverness to Kirkcudbright with pamphlets to make people aware of the slave trade and encourage them to petition their Members of Parliament to discuss abolition. The panels were supported by a display of original documents which added further information. A book was published to support the exhibition and there were public lectures at each of the venues: Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Stranraer. The glass award will be on display in The Stewartry Museum in late January. The book, 'Dumfries and Galloway and the Transatlantic Slave Trade' by Frances Wilkins is currently available from The Stewartry Museum. |
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