Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Video on Politics)

    There was a video on Scottish politics showing at the National Museum of Scotland, covering primarily television coverage of major political events from over the last few decades. It seemed fair in its reporting, although it didn’t have all the politicians that I would have hoped it would have done.

    It’d have been hard to make a video about Scottish politics without mentioning John Smith, one of the best respected politicians from the country who sadly died mid-career.

    The community charge was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales in 1990. The idea to start the tax earlier in the country was at the behest of George Younger, the then Secretary of State for Scotland. Although the plan was more to trail-blaze the tax to show it worked, this didn’t prove to be the best of ideas…..

    Donald Dewar, the first holder of the First Minister of Scotland role, and I’ll imagine he’ll go down in history as one of the fathers of the nation.

    And Margaret Thatcher, when she gave a speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988. It was controversial to say the least, although that was probably its intention, and it sought to make the Christian case for capitalism and the importance of the market economy.

  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Signed Trainspotting Script)

    Another poor quality photo from Edinburgh, but I can’t keep typing that….. This item is in the collections of the National Museum of Scotland, although it doesn’t appear in their on-line database. Or at least it doesn’t for any search of “Trainspotting” or “McGregor”. Their database is one of the more challenging that I’ve used, most of the exhibits I’ve tried to hunt aren’t in it, although they clearly own them. Fortunately the museum has an entire separate page on their web-site about this script to confirm to me that they do actually own it.

    Trainspotting is an iconic film and it was filmed in Edinburgh, with this script being donated by the actor Ewan McGregor. He also donated the poster at the same time in 2007, both of them being displayed in the Scotland : A Changing Nation exhibition at the museum.

    The museum say about the book that the film was based on:

    “Irvine Welsh’s debut novel, Trainspotting, was released in 1993 and depicts an Edinburgh far-removed from the quaint, historic, picture postcard image familiar around the world, with stories of drug-addiction, sex, violence and poverty. Written with phonetic vernacular dialogue and located around the then gritty port of Leith and the estates of Muirhouse, the book drew on critical acclaim and word of mouth to become both hugely successful and highly influential.”

  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Sinclair ZX80)

    Another poor quality photo (as apologised for elsewhere), but this is a Sinclair ZX80 in the museum’s science collection. I hadn’t realised, or at least given any thought to, that these computers were actually manufactured by Timex in their Dundee factories. Hence why, or at least I assume why, there’s one of these at the National Museum of Scotland.

    The computer was manufactured in 1980 and was one of the first computers really designed for the home, with the sales of this and the ZX81 being substantial. The colour ZX81, later better known as the ZX Spectrum, was the first computer that I remember.

  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Girder from Tay Bridge)

    These photos are of a pretty dreadful quality unfortunately, I took them in December 2015 when I visited Edinburgh. A combination of an older phone and Google’s compression of the photos has rather limited any graphic impact which they might have once had.

    This is part of a wrought iron girder from the first Tay Bridge which was later discovered built into a residential property in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee in Scotland. This is the bridge which collapsed during a storm in December 1879, unfortunately carrying a train over it when it fell. Around 75 people were killed in the disaster, destroying the reputation of its designer Sir Thomas Bouch.

    Bouch had to make quick repairs to his other projects, including some changes at South Esk Viaduct. After he had finished making these amendments it was re-examined and it was decided that the whole thing should be knocked down and replaced. The girder on display at the museum still shows the damage caused to it when the structure collapsed on the night of the storm.

  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Lewis Chess Pieces)

    These chess pieces are part of a collection discovered in Lewis in 1831, dating from the twelfth century and being made from walrus ivory. There were 78 chess pieces, so enough for multiple sets, and it’s unknown how they managed to end up on the Outer Hebrides. The best guess it seems is that they were lost during transport from Norway to Ireland, so someone probably managed to lose them over the side of a ship.

    Of the 78 pieces, 67 were purchased by the British Museum and 10 were purchased by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, a Scottish antiquary. He was able to find another bishop piece and these 11 pieces were purchased by Lord Londesborough and later sold by him to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The Society donated them to Royal Scottish Museum and they’re now on display here. In total there were enough for four chess sets, with all of the other pieces still being on display in the British Museum in London.

  • Atlanta – Georgia State Capitol (John A. Treutlen Bust)

    The bust of John A. Treutlen in the Georgia State Capitol, a German born merchant who became the first post-British Governor in the state. His family’s trip to get to America was an eventful one, with the boat sailing from Gosport in the UK to Georgia. The crew died en route from illness, so another passenger with no sailing experience had to use his knowledge of geometry to get them there. That’s quite a story in itself.

    Treutlen became one of the early revolutionaries who was opposed to British rule over the Americas and he was involved in 1777 with drafting Georgia’s first state constitution. His governorship was a troubled one politically and he made many enemies within the state as factions started to fight each other. He was replaced by John Houstoun in 1778, who was one of the attendees at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Treutlen was killed by a mob in March 1782 and it’s thought that it happened in front of his family.

  • Atlanta – Georgia State Capitol (Jimmy Carter Portrait)

    Around the walls of the Georgia State Capitol are portraits of former state governors. One of the best known of all the governors of the state was number 76, Jimmy Carter, who was the democratic governor from 1971 until 1975. He was the 39th President of the United States, and the only governor from Georgia to go on to hold that role.

  • Atlanta – Georgia State Capitol (Gold on Rotunda)

    A slightly quirky exhibit in the Georgia State Capitol, which is the box which the rotunda’s gold travelled in. The gold was sent from Dahlonega and Lumpkin County in August 1958 and to add some theatre to the proceedings, it was carried in an 1830s train.

    The building’s rotunda wasn’t originally made from gold, it was made from the decidedly less impressive combination of tin and wood. This didn’t last that well and repairs were frequent, so someone had a marvellous idea to use gold instead. Actually, the arrangements weren’t great, as it wasn’t clear that the Governor knew that the gold was coming on an 1830s train and it got a little ignored.

    So, the story ends nicely. Well, it doesn’t quite. The state didn’t quite get the gold to adhere correctly to the rotunda and by the 1970s half of it was missing. In 1979, it was decided to repeat the whole collecting gold and sending by wagon train thing, which worked well. And today the rotunda is safe, with the gold adhering this time, so there might not be a wagon train carrying gold being sent to Atlanta again for some time…..

  • Atlanta – Replica of Liberty Bell

    This feels a little more relevant to me now that I’ve seen the actual Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. It’s a replica of the original bell and this is one of 55 replicas which were cast as part of the Liberty Bell Savings Bonds drive in 1950. The 55 that were made were for one each for the 48 states, one for the District of Columbia and several for the territories. Only one of the bells has gone missing (although goodness knows how you lose a bell like that) and there’s a list of their whereabouts at http://tomlovesthelibertybell.com/liberty-bell-replica-locations/.

  • Atlanta – Atlanta Zoo

    Some photos from my visit to Atlanta Zoo in October 2015. Unfortunately writing this over three years after means I’ve forgotten parts of the visit, but I do remember seeing the pandas close-up. It was all clean and organised, with plenty of space for the animals and I don’t recall there being that many other visitors there.