Join us for #MuseumWeek on Twitter

Perth Museum and Art Gallery joins institutions across Europe for open discussions on Twitter during the first ever #MuseumWeek, 24-30 March.

The microblogging service will launch the initiative to open up conversations between staff and museum visitors and supporters during a week of activities.

Participants are invited to join in using the #MuseumWeek hashtag, and various hashtags for themes that will change daily.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery will be participating throughout the week

Monday 24: #DayInTheLife: a conversation about the everyday workings of our museums,  Chat to Perth Museum and Art Gallery staff.

Tuesday 25: #MuseumMastermind: can you solve riddles about displays and collections? We will pose some questions throughout the day, can you solve the mysteries.

Wednesday 26: #MuseumMemories: share memories of your visits and your favourite specimens or exhibits from Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Thursday 27: #BehindTheArt:  chat about the personality of the Museum. What lies behind the exhibits, history and architecture?

Friday 28: #AskTheCurator: what have you always wanted to know about natural history curation?

Saturday 29: #MuseumSelfies: share your selfies taken in museums. A chance to stamp your style on our specimens and exhibits.

Sunday 30: #GetCreative: recreate the story behind an exhibit or specimen in a single photo, or in 140 characters.

Historic Busking

Tam Daw's Horn

If ever out walking the streets or passing a park and overhear some fine music coming your way it might be worth stopping to take a look. As many will know, street performance is not a comparatively new concept and its history is really quite vast and colourful. One of our favourite examples of this comes from our own collection.

Thomas Christie of Kinross lived in Mill Street in Perth during the 19^th century. Better known as Tam Daw to his friends and passers by he used to play on the streets of Kinross for the locals. In particular he would often spend time playing during market days or for the homecoming of newly married couples.

Tam Daw’s instrument of choice however was not the increasingly more common drum kit that springs up in all areas of Scotland, but instead was a horn. This rather elaborate looking instrument made Tam Daw popular amongst the locals not least for his theatrical personality. This is well noted in the words painted on the horn’s side:

“Notice: Any lady or gentleman. Pleased to give the horn player a piece of money it will be thankfully received T. Christie Bellman Kinross 1867.”

A rather lovely and well written message to pass on to the locals. Perhaps one that might just crop up again in the future of busking.

A Step Through Time

Eubrontes Footprint

When first discovered in the Connecticut Valley in the early 19^th century, these fossils, according to geologist Edward Hitchcock, were thought to have been left by giant birds.

However, rather than a somewhat tremendously oversized feathered friend, this particular specimen, donated to the Marshall Museum in Kinross in 1860, belongs to a dinosaur.

At just under 210mm long, the print signifies the owner being a kind of large two-legged carnivorous dinosaur. Certainly not one you’d like to stumble in to alone at night.

Due to its overwhelming stature and presence it’s no wonder that these creature’s  footprints are scientifically referred to as, ‘Eubrontes’ or ‘true thunder.’ Suddenly Jurassic Park is seemingly all too real…

Not Your Average Tooth Ache

Megalodon Tooth

With the refurbishment of our museum galleries coming along nicely, we’ve had a great opportunity to get a closer look at some of our collections.

Perhaps one of our favourites from the Natural History collection is the rather frightening Pliocene shark’s tooth.

The extinct shark, Megalodon, was estimated to be 13 metres long (over twice the length of the average great white shark) and so, not surprisingly, was one of the world’s largest predators.

Megalodon teeth would vary greatly in size but this specimen, which is over 120mm long, makes it around three times larger than that of a great white sharks. Never mind Jaws, this is the real marauder of the sea.

Its sharp serrated teeth were probably used to attack seals and other marine mammals.

With the last Megalodon shark dying out some 1.5 million years ago, it makes it that bit easier to go near the ocean again.

Glass at the Museum

John, Limited (North British Glassworks) Paul Ysart

With the refurbishment really taking shape at the moment, we are all excited to be able to show our glass in the Rotunda exhibition hall. We have had a look through some of our collection, there is so much beauty to be shared.

Paul Ysart's work remained relatively anonymous until 1955 when he came into contact with Paul Jokelson, President of the Paperweight Collectors' Association. Jokelson marketed Paul Ysart's weights in the USA. All those weights produced for the American market had a 'PY' cane to identify them. Paul Jokelson promoted the virtues of fine antique and modern weights alike. Paul Ysart's works were promoted both for their immediate delight and as 'antiques of the future'. One collector wrote that "the perfection of Ysart's work is evident and a joy to possess".

Caithness Glass Paperweight - Paul Ysart

Lampwork derives its name from an oil-fuelled lamp used in the 19th century by glassworkers, who used metal tweezers to manipulate coloured glass over a lamp. Nowadays coloured rods of glass are shaped into a representational subject over the heat of a gas burner or torch. The intricate craft of lampworking requires simple equipment and no working assistance, and therefore offered Paul Ysart autonomy. The task of creating his own intricate millefiori and filigree canes must have also proved rewarding. Both provided a break from the conformity of the factory floor where industrial glass was blown.

Strathearn Glass Paperweight

The design of weaving, coloured fronds was contained within a drop shaped weight. It was originally produced in four colours: yellow, red, blue and green. This type of weight is often called 'seaweed'. There is a Strathearn label on the base. In 1965 the Strathearn Glass factory opened in Crieff, Perthshire. Strathearn was the first glassworks in Europe to fire its furnaces with propane gas. It made vases, bowls, paperweights and lamps in the Vasart style, often with a raised pontil bearing an impressed seal of a leaping salmon.

Introduction to A Picture of a Celt

Curator Amy Waugh introduces the exhibition JD Fergusson : Picture of a Celt. Fergusson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Colourists school of painting, and was widely considered as an influential figure in modern British painting in the early 20th Century.
JD Fergusson : Picture of a Celt is on at the Fergusson Gallery, Perth, until the 15th June, 2014.
A partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh and The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council.

Trams in Perth



Busy street scene with horse-drawn carts and tram,
on the corner of South Methven Street and High Street,
Perth, about 1890

With the last Dundee tram discovered as summer house in Perth garden, we thought we would look through our photographic collections for photos of the bygone age of trams in the street of Perth.

The first horse drawn buses arrived in Scone during the second half of the 19th century. Using two or three horses, they worked between Scone and Cherrybank, Perth. They were taken over by the Perth and District Tramways Company in the 1890's.

In October 1903 the horse tramways of the Perth and District Tramways were taken over by Perth Corporation with the main route running from Scone to Cherrybank and with branches to Craigie and to Dunkeld Road. The depot was beyond the terminus at Scone. The tramway closed on 19 January 1929 and was

South Methven Street, Perth, about 1904

South Methven Street, Perth, about 1904

replaced by bus services.

On the second photograph we are looking down South Methven Street with County Place on the left and South Street on the right. The Central Bar, selling Allsopp's Real Ale, stands on the right. In spite of the tram lines running beneath their feet, children crowd the centre of the road in an era when traffic ran at a slower pace than today.

The negative for the second photo was originally acquired by Wood and Sons, Printers, Perth, with a view to producing postcards. Wood and Son were first established in the High Street, Perth, in 1830. They moved to Mill Street, Perth, about 1900 and then to Glover Street, Perth in 2000.

Beatrix Potter: Fungi Drawings (1866-1943)

Studies of Perthshire fungi by the creator of the Tale of Peter Rabbit

Lactarius helvus

Lactarius helvus

As reported by The Scotsman January 13 2014: Rare fungus drawn by Beatrix Potter discovered.
A rare fungus seen only a handful of times in Britain since it was first documented by children’s author Beatrix Potter over a century ago, has been found growing on a Scottish estate.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery has a collection of 25 fungi studies by Beatrix Potter, the well known creator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Painted in watercolours in the 1880s and 1890s, these detailed studies give an insight into Potter's skills in observing the natural world. This understanding of nature was to give a solid base to her illustrations for her Little Books for children.



Potter's study of fungi (known as mycology) developed through her friendship with the Perthshire naturalist Charles McIntosh. Potter had spent many childhood summers in and around Dunkeld and Dalguise, Perthshire between 1871 and 1882. These holidays were some of the happiest days of her life and first awakened the interest of the young girl in the delights of wildlife and nature. She returned again in 1892, when she plucked up the courage to make contact with Charlie McIntosh.



The studies, beautifully executed in watercolour on paper, with some ink embellishments, date from 1888 to 1897. Most of them feature specimens either seen at first hand by Beatrix on her last trip to Perthshire, or are of specimens collected by Charlie and posted to Beatrix in London for her to paint. By way of thanks Beatrix appears to have sent the watercolours to Charlie. The majority entered the collection as Charlie McIntosh's bequest in 1922. Over the years the data became separated from the works, and the true authorship of the studies was not officially recognised until the late Dr Mary Noble, a leading Scottish mycologist, identified them as the work of Beatrix Potter in 1978.  



The story of the Perthshire watercolours, all illustrated in full colour, is available in the booklet A Fascinating Acquaintance, Charles McIntosh and Beatrix Potter their common bond in the Natural History of the Dunkeld area (3rd edition , 2003), which is available from Perth Museum and Art Gallery, priced £4.00 (excl. p&p). contact: museum@pkc.gov.uk

The collection will form part of the exhibition at Birnam in June 2014

Follow Perth and Kinross Museum and Galleries's board Beatrix Potter on Pinterest.

A Unique Feathered Headdress

Headdress from Tubuai, Austral Islands.
The original Perth Museum register
records this as ‘Cap worn by Tomatoa,
Principle Chief of the Island of Tuhuca
in the Australia group of the South Sea Islands’.

In our collection we have some incredible artefacts, some of which you would not necessarily associate with a Museum in the highlands of Scotland, one of these is the unique feathered headdress pictured here.

Mark Hall, History Officer at Perth Museum & Art Gallery hosted the Perth leg of a  project review for two weeks, with visits from Eve, Chantal and also Christofili Kefalas (Researcher of Maori material and British Museum Future Curators trainee). One of the most exciting discoveries has been the full recognition of the importance of the unique head-dress from the Austral Islands in the Perth collection.
For more details see Eves Blog

Virtual tour: Magic Carpet Exhibition

This art news clip comes from Art in Scotland TV

Curator Amy Waugh introduces artist Debbie Lawson’s exhibition ‘Magic Carpet’, featuring sculptural works of flora and fauna, a fox, bear and a flock of seagulls, covered in patterned carpet. Lawson’s inspiration for this exhibition is drawn from the literary classic, Arabian Nights.
Magic Carpet is on at the Fergusson Gallery, Perth, until the 15th March, 2014.