In the 19th century Lochee was home to the huge Camperdown Works, the heart of the Cox family’s jute empire. The family had been involved in the manufacture of linen in the area in the 18th century and moved into jute the following century. Camperdown Works was begun in 1849 and at one point covered…Continue Reading Camperdown Works: The World’s Largest Jute Factory
For centuries Dundee has had close links with communities on the south bank of the Tay and travel between Dundee and Fife has always been important. Today, traffic and weather conditions allowing, getting across the Tay is a relatively simple task, but things have not always been that way. Historically a trip to Fife from…Continue Reading Then and now – changing Dundee: Crossing the Tay
Last week saw the launch of a two year Royal Society of Edinburgh project ‘Curating the Digital Attic Archive: A Case Study For Open-Source Approaches To Artists’ Archives’. Led by Dr Judit Bodor (DJCAD) and Dr Roddy Hunter (The Glasgow School of Art) the project has established an international research network to develop an open-source…Continue Reading Curating the Digital Attic Archive
It may sound barking mad, but the pooches of Dundee are just one of the sources of inspiration for an artistic celebration of the city’s history. Students at the University of Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) will deserve a round of a-paws from visitors to this year’s Archive Exhibition project,…Continue Reading History in the Making!
3rd March 2024 sees a special service at the University Chaplaincy Centre to mark the fiftieth anniversary of its opening. While the building dates to 1974, the role of religion and faith at the University has a much longer history. There was no chaplaincy facility at University College. This almost certainly was a direct consequence…Continue Reading Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Chaplaincy
In 2021 the University commissioned a report to investigate early founders and their links with colonialism and slavery. The report focused on the Baxter family who supported the establishment of what was then University College Dundee and made some recommendations for future actions and research. To mark Race Equality week this year we have launched…Continue Reading Founders Report
To mark the 60th anniversary of Dr Who Kenneth from the University Archives explores Who related material in the collections. He looks at Daleks appearing in DJCAD. Police boxes in Dundee. Patrick Troughton in the Michael Peto photography collection. And David Tennant and others in the Rep collection. Find out more at…Continue Reading Dr Who in the University Archives
This month marks the 140th anniversary of the official opening of, and the start of teaching at, University College, Dundee (now the University of Dundee). Kenneth from Archive Services gives us a brief overview of the genesis of the University. There had long been interest in Dundee having an institution that provided University education, but…Continue Reading 140 years of Higher Education in Dundee
Relive the University’s recent successful Culture Day, part of its Festival of the Future. Here we give you a summary of the great presentations. Films of some of them will be available soon. Jan Merchant, Senior Archivist, started the day with an overview of the University Archives and the role they play in caring for…Continue Reading Caring and Culture
Dr Kenneth Baxter examines a map from the University of Dundee Archive Services belonging to Peter Carmichael. Carmichael was a notable figure in Dundee, in the second half of the 19th century he was manager of Dens Works (owned by Baxter Brothers) and was responsible for many of the technological improvements in the textile industry…Continue Reading Dundee in the mid 19th century
Kelsey Williams from the University of Stirling explores the treasures he found in the University of Dundee Archives’ rare book collections. When printed books first arrived on the scene in fifteenth-century Europe they didn’t come into a vacuum. Far from it. While printing dramatically multiplied the number of texts available to Europeans, the continent was…Continue Reading Hidden Manuscripts in Dundee Special Collections
The Murraygate is undoubtedly one of Dundee’s best-known streets and also one of its most historic, dating back to the medieval period. This blog by Kenneth from the University Archives takes us back in time to explore the street and its history. As can be seen on Crawford’s map of 1776 it was one of…Continue Reading Delving into the history of the Murraygate