Caring for Industrial Heritage: Preserving Demonstrator Knowledge

Dundee Heritage Trust is the only independent charity in Scotland that cares for two Recognised Collections of National Significance (our Jute and Polar Collections), whilst operating two five-star visitor attractions. We are custodians of over 9,000 inspiring objects at both Discovery Point and Verdant Works Museum.

At Verdant Works Museum, part of our collection comprises working objects, including machines that show the 12 stages undertaken in Dundee to process jute from a plant fibre to a woven fabric. These working machines are all on display in our machine hall, where visitors can see each stage of the process. This collection comes from the Dundee Technical College. In the mid 1980s, the College stopped teaching textiles and it was decided by Dundee Heritage Trust and the National Museum of Scotland to purchase these working machines, in order to preserve them at Verdant Works Museum, so that future generations could learn about Dundee’s jute industry.

In today’s blog, our Collections Curator shares her experience with preserving the valued expertise of our machine hall demonstrators, with our working machines. Enjoy!

So, what makes working objects special? 

Well, they can tell a visitor more stories than an object that is no longer in use. By showing these machines operating, visitors hear how loud they are; begin to understand the job the worker undertook; see how the jute is transformed; and feel the heritage of the city.

This experience is something special that we give our visitors at Verdant Works Museum. The more exciting an object is for the visitor, the more exciting it is to look after – a privilege for myself as the Trust’s Collections Curator.

What have we been doing to look after these amazing objects? 

Over a couple of blogs I will outline the work which is done behind the scenes to care for our working machines at Verdant Works Museum.

The first thing we need to know is how they work, and then, to preserve this information.

To do this, I spoke to our amazing volunteers, to learn from them.  I listened to the way that they each ran the machines and from this, we know how each works. To preserve this knowledge I created modern instruction manuals; these are in-depth instructions complete with colour images (something that previously did not exist). Alongside these thorough manuals, I created a cheat sheet for our demonstrators, should they need a quick reminder.

One of the great advances in technology comes with how easy it is to make and watch films nowadays. I took advantage of this and created YouTube-style instruction videos with a local production company. These can be watched by the operators on their own device at their own leisure.