Scotland A Changing Nation
No period witnessed greater human progress nor greater human carnage than the twentieth century. It both opened and closed with massive hopes and expectations for the future. A future free of poverty and disease. A future free of conflict and turmoil. A future where, as Robert Burns foresaw, “Man to man the world o’er shall brothers be, for a’ that”.
The speed of change from 1900 to 1999 was unprecedented and breathtaking. The effect on Scotland and its people can be seen in Scotland: A Changing Nation, a new gallery opening in July at the National Museum of Scotland.
Putting together a contemporary exhibition which investigates what shaped our nation over the past 100 years provided a number of challenges – not least because as a country continues to evolve, so must the gallery. This was the dilemma facing David Forsyth, Senior Curator of Scottish Social History, and his team.
“It would be impossible to examine every aspect of Scottish life since the early 20th century,” says David. “So the way we approached the challenge was to look at distinct areas which have impacted upon people living and working across Scotland.”
One of the first things visitors will see is a large howitzer shell which was previously used as a collecting box for the Glasgow Hospitals Association at the city’s Central Railway Station. It was produced during the First World War by armaments manufacturer Beardmore. As David says, “It might seem an unusual place to begin, but no other single factor affects social change as war.”
It was in 1900, at the very start of the gallery’s journey, that William Beardmore identified a base at Dalmuir on the north side of the Clyde for one of the largest shipyards and engine works in Britain. During the Great War more than 13,000 people worked in the yard, producing a vast range of weaponry including ships, aircraft, airships, tanks, guns, and the howitzer shell which became a curiosity as well as a collecting box at a Glasgow Central Railway Station.
Beardmore’s yard struggled when peace came and closed in 1930. However, many of the buildings survived for a further fifty years, being used in a variety of roles including the production of asbestos sheets.
In a remarkable irony, the site conceived at the start of the twentieth century as a manufacturer of weapons of war, was finally cleared at the very end of the century to make way for the Golden Jubilee Hospital, where life is nurtured and saved. Little remains to remind visitors that they are standing on the ground where once great ships were launched and huge shells dispatched to Flanders’s Fields.
Beyond anything else, Scotland: A Changing Nation is a people’s story. The experiences of ordinary and sometimes extraordinary individuals are woven through the exhibition and across the decades. One such is Rose McDougall.
While Scottish soldiers from units such as the renowned 51st Highland Division distinguished themselves during the First World War women like Rose also had their part to play. She drove ambulances on the little known but strategically vital Salonika Front in Greece. For all her heroism under fire and the horrors that she must have witnessed, Rose returned to a world where many still clung to the old-ways. Her father even refused her permission to use the family car. But Scotland was changing, and it was not long before women were not only free to drive but free to vote.
Case studies and audio-visual displays in the new gallery also chart the peaks and troughs of traditional Scottish industry. From the start of the period where the plough was prominent and agriculture dominant, through the years of quickening industrial change when coal mining, shipbuilding and engineering made Scotland the workshop of the world, punctuated by the depression of the 1930’s and by the recession of the 1980’s.
Even whisky, one of the most iconic Scottish products, has suffered at times, no more so than during the imposition of prohibition in America. As David Forsyth says, “It might surprise many visitors to learn that today 90 per cent of all Scotch whisky is exported and Scotland itself only accounts for around 15 per cent of all UK whisky consumption.”
After the depressed days of the eighties, Phoenix like, Scotland’s industry was reborn with the rise of Silicon Glen and computer-based technology in the 1990’s.
Later, Phoenix was the name chosen for the retail park at Linwood near Glasgow where a car assembly line once stood. Opened in the 1950’s, the factory was to provide work for thousands and produce tens of thousands of vehicles every year. But it faced difficulties from the beginning. Production and transportation costs were high and the death knell was finally sounded for Linwood car production when it closed for good in 1981.
The displays at the National Museum will include vivid reminders of the vehicles that emerged from Linwood, like the Hillman Imp and the Sunbeam Talbot. And the gallery also focuses on an even more iconic part of the nation’s past – Ravenscraig. More than 5,000 people once earned their living at Ravenscraig. But after years of decline the steel mills finally shut in 1992. Fifteen years on and the largest brownfield development site in Europe could soon become Scotland’s first new town in half a century. Plans are in hand for a new community at Ravenscraig with more than 10,000 people housed on an area twice the size of Monaco.
The new Ravenscraig points to a different future for the area and Scotland: A Changing Nation also ponders on the Scotland of tomorrow, through groundbreaking research that is going on into renewable energy, biotechnology and cancer research.
In a section of the gallery entitled Changing Lives, attitudes are examined on subjects as diverse as health, family, home, food and holidays. A personal account by Dr John MacLeod highlights the importance of medical provision in Scotland’s remote island communities, while the work of Professor Anna Dominiczak, Director of the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre in Glasgow, also features prominently.
But life is about more than work. And Scotland’s eclectic contribution to the arts over the past century finds a place in the gallery. Exhibits include Ian Rankin’s manuscript of his Inspector Rebus novel The Falls – which is partly set in the National Museum; Ewan McGregor’s script from the 1996 film Trainspotting and a costume donated by the Scottish singer Lulu.
Many of the items on display are drawn from the museum’s own collections. A significant number of them will be on public display for the first time. But the exhibition’s contents will be continually refreshed and updated to reflect major cultural events like the Commonwealth Games which are coming to Glasgow in 2014.
No discussion on Scottish social history would be complete without an in-depth look at how the country’s political landscape has changed over the past century. Here again the focus is on the experiences of ordinary Scots as well as the personal accounts of leading figures such as the late Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister, the SNP’s Winnie Ewing and Canon Kenyon Wright, who played an important role in the drive for devolution over the last twenty years. The original agreement which led to the formation of the first Scottish government since 1707 was signed in the National Museum in May 1999.
But as David Forsyth says, “The exhibition is not centred purely on the affairs of Holyrood – popular protests, such as those seen during the miners strike of the 1980s, have had as much influence on shaping Scotland’s future as any Act of Parliament and these are also highlighted in the gallery through personal accounts, photography and video.”
While the political and social makeup may have changed dramatically over the past 100 years, one factor – Scotland’s landscape – has remained consistent throughout that time and has had a central influence on the sense of national identity.
In a fitting close to Scotland: A Changing Nation a stark image taken by veteran astronaut John Young, himself of Scottish descent, perfectly frames the country’s coastline. Taken from the space shuttle and donated to the museum, the image graphically outlines the difference between the transient nature of Scottish society and the enduring robustness of the land itself.
Scotland: A Changing Nation opens at the National Museum of Scotland on 10 July. Admission is free.
Image supplied by National Musuems Scotland
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