We’re delighted to welcome back Emily, our Fergusson Collection Assistant, with another blog sharing more insights and discoveries from her work with the collection.
In my last blogpost (which can be found here: Photographing Fergusson – Digitising the JD Fergusson Archive – Culture Perth & Kinross) I talked about the digitisation project I am working on with the JD Fergusson archive. As that process is coming to an end, I have begun exploring other branches of the collection and thinking about how I can continue to expand public access through this project.
Dancers at the Margaret Morris Movement (MMM) Summer School in Devon
One way I have been doing this is through accessioning the parts of the archive which have not previously been catalogued. Unfortunately, archival collections rarely arrive neatly ordered and numbered, meaning it is easy for boxes to go unlabelled or their significance overlooked.
The process of accessioning involves going through these uncatalogued boxes, giving their contents unique object numbers, adding them to our accession registers, and creating new database entries. This means we have a clear record for both our staff and researchers to refer to going forward.
Margaret Morris Movement being used for boy’s physical education
As an additional step, I am digitising each box I accession so that all these new records are available on our public collections database (Axiell Internet Server 6 | Simple search) for anyone to access.
So far, I have uncovered a plethora of photographs pertaining to Margaret Morris – dancer, artist, and creative partner of JD Fergusson – her dancers, and the summer schools she ran in Devon. With her enthusiasm for movement extending to the medical world, it has been fascinating to uncover records of her techniques being used in hospitals and health centres to treat a number of physical challenges, such as scoliosis.
Each new box reveals more of the story, and I look forward to continuing to share it.
Margaret Morris assisting patients in Leysin, Switzerland
Lead image: Margaret Morris Movement techniques were taught to help patients with breathing, mobility, and balance