Friends of Aberdeen University Library Research Awards

'Magic Metals made in Scotland'. The earliest Bronze Age was a period of great social change in Britain, typified by the emergence of the so-called ‘Beaker phenomenon’ across the British Isles, with a distinctive ‘package’ of metal artefacts. At the heart of this metalworking revolution was Northeast Scotland and this project aims to chart this new dawn in metallurgy. This project will analyse the chemical composition of metal artefacts and mould residues to reveal where the metals came from and how metallurgy evolved during its formative years in Britain. This will provide insights into the development of networks of exchange, technological development and societal change.

'Beyond the Emigrant: The Story of the Turner Family in Aberdeenshire'. In the study of Scottish emigration to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, emphasis typically lies on the settlers’ new lives – both individuals and entire families could move here. Yet, what happened to families when only one member ventured abroad while the rest stayed in Scotland? My project aims to address this, using the Turner family as a case study. Its member, John Turner, passed away in Danzig, while his relatives stayed in Aberdeenshire. My research on Scottish migrants to the Ukrainian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth have unearthed hitherto untapped resources in the National Archives in Lviv, which need to be put in context by parallel manuscript and printed sources that are contained in the University of Aberdeen’s MSC and Sir Duncan Rice Library, without which my own research would not be complete.

'Jacobite Networks and Jacobite Cultural Memory in Aberdeen and North East Scotland' With a Friends of the University of Aberdeen Library Research Award, I will conduct research on two projects related to Jacobite activity in Aberdeen and North East Scotland. First, I seek information related to the Aberdonian connections in the eighteenth-century Jacobite manuscript, “The Lyon in Mourning,” that is the focus of a Digital Humanities project for which I am Principal Investigator. The compiler of “The Lyon in Mourning,” an Episcopalian minister named Robert Forbes, was born in Rayne, attended Marischal College and was elected Bishop of Aberdeen in 1765. His manuscript, which was written between 1747 and 1775 with the intent to preserve Jacobite cultural memory, was kept hidden until the early nineteenth century, and contains numerous references to his Aberdeen connections. Using unique items in special collections and archives at Aberdeen University Library, I will research Forbes’s early life and education and contextualize his references to Aberdeen in “The Lyon in Mourning.” This project relates to my wider current interest in the creation of the cultural memory of Jacobitism. By examining the unique resources at AUL, I will be able to expand my research in this area to include more Aberdonian and North East Scotland perspectives.