Tag: Collections

Highlights of the OneHealth Project

diuadm/ / Cultural Heritage Digitisation

This spring the short but broad digitisation project, OneHealth, reached its end. The OneHealth project was focused on early animal welfare history, utilising new material brought in from a trio of organisations: Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, and the animal welfare charity OneKind. During those 6 months, we had a vast and diverse materials pass through our studios. From the historically rich early records of Edinburgh Zoo to morbidly curious Veterinary School implements to the delightfully pet centric magazines of the OneKind charity, the project spanned a wide range of items.

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Documenting I.C.28

diuadm/ / Cultural Heritage Digitisation, Edinburgh Medical School

Black and white composite image of the death mask of William Burke, overlayed with the image of his skull, matching up eyes to eye sockets, teeth to mouth etc.

Last summer, I spent five days photographing the skeleton of William Burke to document recent conservation as a record for future collection care. The remains had been conserved and cleaned for the first time since the 1800s and the skeleton was going on display at the National Museum of Scotland for their 2022 exhibition “A Matter Of Death and Life“. I also photographed the life and death masks of Burke, Hare and Robert Knox (“the man who buys the beef”).

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Colophon and Logotype

diuadm/ / Book Collections, Business School, Edinburgh College of Art, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

Having a background in Fine Art through study at Glasgow School of Art I am very aware of the striking visual content that passes through the Digital Imaging Unit on a daily basis. Of particular interest to me over the years of working with rare books is Colophon and Logotype. “This originated in Renaissance printing shops, where a title page would feature the printer’s mark (colophon) near the bottom of the page, usually above the printer’s name and city.” This early form of branding is fascinating in its use of imagery and the expert hand skills used to convey a meaningful message. The tree of knowledge is a popular symbol often appearing with broken branches. The level of thought over the imagery and the care taken over the execution is a remarkable investment in brand and product. The Colophon was eventually replaced by printers statements in a more legal and business like text form. Colophon have begun to re-appear for websites and online content publishing, this is a nice nod of the head over centuries of time to the continuation of a craft persons expertise and skill set.

Malcolm Brown, Deputy Photographer.

0055940d0002040d0004078d0018571d0025143dClement Litil stamp