Volunteer Week 2024: My Favourite Object
At Dundee Heritage Trust, we are fortunate to be supported by a dedicated team of volunteers; who generously donated 1,200 hours of their time to Verdant Works and Discovery Point in 2023 alone!
For many, their time is spent greeting visitors at our five star attractions, whether beginning tours, demonstrating inspiring machinery or bringing stories to life. Others assist in dictation, research, illustration and more.
This #VolunteersWeek, June, a guide at Verdant Works Museum shares with us her story of volunteering as well as telling us all about the wonders of her favourite object in the museum. Enjoy!
“My name is June and I have been a volunteer guide at Verdant Works Museum for just over a year now, following a career in local government. I greet visitors in the courtyard, give them an introduction to the history of Verdant Works and the significance of the textile industry to the history of Dundee and, provide information about the many things there are to see and do in the museum. I really enjoy this opportunity because I have always been interested in history – particularly our rich industrial heritage – and I like talking to people!”
“My favourite object in the museum is the old Victorian copying press which sits in splendour on a wooden table in the Period Office.
The Period Office is set almost exactly as it was in 1900; when orders for goods and invoices were handwritten on headed notepaper by the clerks at their standing up desks and then placed between the metal plates of the copying press with one or more flimsy paper sheets on top. The handle of the press was then spun round to close the plates and the ink seeped through from the headed paper to the copies. This was how copying was done before carbon copy paper, photocopiers or modern scanners. Simple really!”
“I have found that the copying press is an ideal item to use to engage with visitors. I like to ask visitors to guess what the device was used for and then demonstrate it to them.
“I then show visitors the actual copies of the handwritten orders and invoices which were made in the press right up to the late 1950s. These copies were bound in to a large book now kept on top of a wooden filing cabinet next to the press. This was the office filing system; the forerunner to today’s databases and digital files.
“I particularly like that visitors can touch the press and leaf through the book to see the original sales records from Verdant Works.”
“We live in a time now of instant communications, where copying can be done simply by holding a mobile phone to the item, then immediately sending the image to multiple recipients anywhere in the world. It is lovely therefore to be able to show visitors young and old how previous generations carried out the same functions at a slower pace before today’s amazing technology was around. Who now can write in the beautiful copperplate handwriting like the clerks in the Period Office did?
“Demonstrating the copying press and letting visitors see the actual copies – detailing the goods sold from Verdant Works – tends to lead to a lot of conversations. There are often discussions between generations about the great advances in technology since 1900. Many visitors remark about the ‘old money‘, the pounds shillings and pence written on the copies, and who can still convert the amounts to the ‘new‘ decimal currency.
“Other visitors remark about the addresses on the copies – pointing out old streets in Dundee such as Tally Street or Wellgate which are no longer here. I have been lucky to hear lots of visitors’ stories of how things were done in their day when they worked in an office.”
“For me, it is particularly important that a museum engages with its visitors. Verdant Works Museum does that in many ways and my favourite object, the Victorian copying press, certainly helps me as a volunteer guide to do that.”
You might also like…
-
Stories19/01/2023Verdant Works Museum
Volunteer Interview: John
Dundee connections, teaching and sell-out plays are at the heart of John’s volunteering story. -
Stories19/02/2023Verdant Works Museum
A Brief History of Verdant Works
Look back at the history of our 1833 mill, and reflect on a green future. -
Stories19/01/2023Discovery Point
Volunteer Interview: Alastair
Alastair shares his experience of sharing Discovery’s incredible stories to visitors from all over the world.
Keep in touch!
You’ll receive exclusive insights into our work behind-the-scenes at Discovery Point and Verdant Works Museum, be first to know about upcoming events and exhibitions and, discover how you can help support Dundee Heritage Trust. You can unsubscribe at any time.