GALLERIES EXHIBITIONS - 1979

 

Quite an interesting variety of exhibitions going on at the museum art galleries back in June/July 1979.
Punk photos by well known photographer Roger Perry.
Crazy surreal drawings & patterns by tessellation genius MC Escher.
Greetings card artwork by Valentines.

A VISIT TO ST. COLUMBA'S - 1970'S

This image is of a travelling museum visiting St. Columba's in Kirkton. I'm guessing it must have been some kind of trailer that toured the local schools. It appears to be displaying items about Scottish history.
The photo was taken around the mid/late 70's.
So those of you who have good memories - feel free to fill in a few details about it.

OBSERVATION BEE HIVE

A display that was introduced into the museum in the 60's, as a few of you have mentioned, was the Observation Bee Hive.
The hive was behind a pane of glass allowing you to have a wee keek inside and watch all the bees in action, going about their daily routine.
You can read about the idea behind it in more detail, above.
What I can remember about it was that they dabbed a bit of red paint onto the queen, to differentiate it from the workers, and it would take ages sometimes to try and spot it in amongst the hundreds of bees buzzing about.
It was like playing Where's Wally..!!

MUSEUM'S OLD DUNDEE TOWN MODEL

Another display in the museum from the 60's/70's era was this model of the old Dundee town centre, a very impressive piece of work laid out on a large table.
The problem I had with it back then however, when I was school age, was trying to figure out where it was. Everything South of Reform Street just looked completely alien. Of course that was pretty understandable as most of what was in the model had disappeared from the town centre. So the Overgate didn't resemble how it was , and the city square wasn't in the model either! Now that I am quite familiar with images of how Dundee looked way back in these very old days, I'd get on a bit better I reckon.
Having said that, you'll notice that the model has numbers on the roofs, well they had an identification index on the side of the display so you could match them up and read about the details of each individual building.
To help you make sense of the photo, the corner area, top right, is Boots/Reform St corner, which means the buildings to the left of it are the Overgate/High St area. The main building with #1 on the roof is the Town House - where the city square now is.
The superb model was made by C.G.L. Phillips & Alexander R Fair.

OLD MUSEUM ROOMS

You may remember in the old layout of the Museum in the 1960's & 70's, they had 2 house interiors from the late 19th century on display. They were next to each other to show the contrast in living conditions between the poor and the rich.

The image on top is the example of the grubby poor hoose which was called the Dundee Kitchen, the decor dating from around the 1870's. Although it's not shown in the illustration, I can recall this room also had a mouse running across the floor.

Next door to it was the shiny posh hoose called the Victorian Parlour, with decor dating from the 1890's. Again, not shown in the drawing but I remember in the room there was also a pedal organ.

Although the difference in the two lifestyles was plain to see, they did have something in common on display - the Wally Dugs on the mantelpiece!

The illustrations were done by Margaret J Webb in 1970.

NEW MUSEUM EXHIBITS - 1980'S

When the old Museum (Albert Institute) was modernised in the late 70's, the main entrance moved from the corner of Meadowside to the area facing Panmure Street.
Also during the renovation, the Central Library moved out of the Museum building in 1979 to the Wellgate, and the Victoria Galleries were renamed the McManus Galleries.
The Museum introduced a new "local history" room which displayed things like Blind Mattie's squeeze box, Tay Bridge disaster relics and so on.
A quirky story from October 1983 was when the Museum put on a football exhibition with all sorts of memorabilia on display. A match programme dated 1925 from the Dundee v Celtic Scottish Cup final was stolen. The police eventually tracked it down and returned it. Bizarrely, it was found inside Tannadice!
The McManus Galleries created a larger space for showing temporary art exhibitions. These changed on a regular basis, sometimes they were big name touring exhibitions and sometimes shows by local artists. I used to visit them quite a lot because they kept varying...from Eduardo Paolozzi to Ansel Adams.
The photo above was taken in 1983 and shows a corner of one of their temporary exhibitions. I think the yellow & black one, 2nd from the left, could be a Sutherland crucifixion.

OLD MUSEUM EXHIBIT #3 - DUG-OUT CANOES

Although these are as well known to Dundonians as the Discovery, Unicorn & Fifies, the Museum's dug-out canoes are hardly ever seen in photos, so here is a picture for posterity.
The top one was found at the river Tay near Errol, and the bottom one is from Kinnordy Loch.
As regards how old they are, well let's just say they predate Robb Caledon!

OLD MUSEUM EXHIBIT #2 - THE CIST

The technical term for a stone burial box such as this is a cist. The photo above was the one that was on display in the middle of one of the floors in the Museum in the 60's.
I remember having to be lifted up to see inside it when I was about 5. I then progressed a couple of years later to viewing it standing on my tip toes, and a couple of years after that it was just a matter of catching sight of it in the passing.
This cist was unearthed near Brechin. It belonged to a group of settlers called the Beaker People, who lived around the East coast of Scotland from about 2,500 BC.

OLD MUSEUM EXHIBIT #1 - SHRUNKEN HEAD

Back in the 60's when the Museum entrance was on the corner of Meadowside, opposite Commercial Street, they used to have a doorman in uniform who would open the door for you then give directions to the various rooms. Well near to that corner reception area where he stood, they had a shrunken head on display. This very one above as a matter of fact.
I remember a few folk considered it to be a model, because, being the size of a tennis ball, it looked like a doll.
So if there are still any doubters out there, I can confirm it was indeed a real human head.
Information from the original Dundee Museum catalogue is that it comes from Ecuador, the Jivarro tribe to be exact, and dates back to the late 19th/early 20th Century. Similar details on the net backs this up.
Not knowing what was involved, I checked Wikipedia to find out what the shrinking process entailed and apparently the skull is removed along with all the fatty tissue, then the skin is boiled in water & tannin, finally once the shrivelled flesh is dried & prepared, it is stuffed and remoulded back into shape.
Don't go trying that at home now!!
On a lighter note, this chap wouldn't have been too out of place in the late 60's with a hairstyle like his!

THE MUSEUM IN THE 60's

When in town in the 60's, I used to like to pop into the Albert Museum (as it was called then) before jumping on a #26 bus back home.

The entrance was on the corner of the Museum nearest to Commercial Street.

Some of the exhibits on show were, McIntosh Patrick's famous "Tay bridge from studio" painting, a weird ethnic shrunken head, lots of stuffed animals & birds, dugout canoes, a mock up of 2 old Victorian house interiors, a scale model of the old city centre/Overgate area, crystals & rocks ( with ultra violet light ), and of course, the Tay Whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.