Kirkwall Tailors Project

Thanks for your contributions!

'Kirkwall Fair.' (1888) Although Arthur Melville was not regarded as one of the Glasgow Boys, he was seen by them to be a kindred spirit. A year after painting this work on Orkney, he left Edinburgh and settled in London, although he often returned to Scotland to paint.

Very excited to have the first of our online meetings with some of the co-editors of the Kirkwall Tailors Project tonight! We'll start working our way through, word-by-word, glyph-by-glyph, checking the transcription with as many eyes as possible. [London Museum c.1780 'Interior of a Tailor's Shop']

You never know!

Help with #medieval #palaeography please! A 1497 purchase of a mort cloth by the Edinburgh Hammermen included three score ‘so[ri]nis’? Soriws? Note the ‘ri’ carrot glyph as in ‘w[ri]ttin’ several lines above.

Thank you Guy! And Merry Christmas to you as well!

Read that more carefully! Sounds like a jewel in the making!

Well if it’s too repetitive we can just take a look at it in the new year! Thanks for working on it though!

Fantastic - some of the published literature is a good source for surnames as well when Black doesn’t list it. Let me know if you get stuck.

Tales of True Crime, Orkney : Fraud By Fiona Grahame. This is a tale of true Crime which took place on the Melsetter Estate, Walls, in the Township of Osmondwall, 1816. James Moodie was the 9th Laird of the Melsetter Estate. It was t…

Tales of True Crime, Orkney : Fraud theorkneynews.scot/2025/12/11/t...

The Experience of Work in Early Modern England Cambridge Core - Economic History - The Experience of Work in Early Modern England

Delighted to share that my first book The Experience of Work in Early Modern England (co-written with the fantastic @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, and Hannah Robb) has been published and is available free and Open Access! doi.org/10.1017/9781...

#earlymodern #economic #history

2/2 Here we see a ‘Tailor’s Board’ from an old house in Victoria Street, Kirkwall. This early ironing board is 550mm in length and 160mm wide, with five circular indentations. Courtesy of Orkney Museum, Object No. OM-18703, Accession number 1977.016.

1/2 A key part of a tailor’s work was ironing fabric, as seen by ‘goose irons’ in Tailors’ arms across Scotland. But what did they do their ironing on? Images: Pencaitland tailor's stone; Dutch iron; Detail from van Brekelenkam, ‘The Tailor’s Workshop’ (c.1661), Rijksmuseum, NL, Public Domain.

A poster advertising my talk on Monday 3 November for the Costume Society of Scotland about late medieval men's clothing in Scotland

Interested in men's clothing in late Medieval Scotland ?
Come and hear me talk on Monday 3 November at Augustine United Church, Edinburgh

Made a site for exploring Bob Henery's transcription of Blaeu's 1654 Atlas of Scotland. You can browse, search and filter 28,394 features across 47 maps:
dgplacenames.github.io/blaeu/

14 Oct 1559: Adam Bothwell having been papally provided as bishop of #Orkney is consecrated #otd (British Armorial Bindings © University of Toronto).

He later conducted the marriage of Mary Queen of #Scots to the Earl of Bothwell & crowned James VI.

Woman sewing, c. 1650-55

Attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (British Museum)

Shaping Jacobitism, 1688 to the Present Shaping Jacobitism, 1688 to the Present

30% DISCOUNT with code NEW30! Shaping Jacobitism: Memory, Culture, Networks is a multi-disciplinary exploration of Jacobitism and its cultural legacy with chapters considering #Jacobites from the 1688 Revolution to #Outlander.
@EdinburghUP
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-shaping...

Revealing Life in a 13thC Scottish Castle Objects including brooches and dress pins were excavated alongside animal bones and crucibles – small ceramic cups used to melt copper alloy, silver and gold. Traces of precious metals found in the…

Revealing Life in a 13thC Scottish Castle theorkneynews.scot/2025/10/02/r...

SCA ANNUAL CONFERENCE OPEN FOR BOOKINGS! - Scottish Council on Archives 01 October 2025

SCOTLAND’S ARCHIVES AND RECORDS: CELEBRATING SUCCESS

SCA is excited to open bookings for its next annual conference on Thursday 20th November in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

Find out more and book via: www.scottisharchives.org.uk/latest/sca-a...

The final talk in the second of Royal Marriages Summit series bit.ly/4lifqMO will be delivered by Dr Michael Pearce who will be discussing the marriage of James V of Scotland to Marie of Guise – an important part of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France.

Fantastic! Thank you!

Amazing for both! Where is the painting from?

So I bought an old pitcher, and discover two authentic storage options; suspended, or upside-down on a shelf, from the 'Augsburger Klebealbum', heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/view...

Amen to that!

(2/2) But – it appears our Kirkwall tailor also was selling (?) a golf club and two balls; a ream of paper; and books: 6 copies of Proverbs and 2 copies of the Psalms. His inventory was worth over £102 Scots. #KirkwallTailorsProject

(1/2) The inventory of one of our Kirkwall tailors in 1650: inter alia, 3 kistis; a pint stoup; a chair; a furnished bed; lint & woollen spinning wheels; silk; French ribbons; cloth, including buckram; papers of pins; thimbles and lots of buttons… #KirkwallTailorsProject

#palaeography help please! Is this an ampersand squeezed it with the ‘||’ insertion mark? ‘& ane’?

Step Back in Time at Kirbuster Farm Museum Kirbuster Farm Museum is run by Orkney Islands Council and is free to visit, however, if you want to make a contribution towards its upkeep you can make a donation. Kirbuster Museum was opened to t…

Step Back in Time at Kirbuster Farm Museum theorkneynews.scot/2025/09/23/s...

Tailor’s ‘goose’ iron from Gouda, Netherlands.