minutes

Old Glasgow Club

 

Minutes of ordinary meeting of Club held at Adelaide’s, 209 Bath Street on Thursday 13 December 2007 at 7.30pm

 

Attendance

69

 

Chair

Mrs Forrest (for President, see below).

 

Welcome

Mrs Forrest welcomed members and visitors to the meeting.

 

Apologies

There were apologies from Carol Thomson, Isabel Haddow, Janet Horne, Alison Clough and Dorothy Blair.

 

Minutes

The minutes of the last ordinary meeting held on 8 November, having been circulated, were approved, on the motion of Mr Cunningham, seconded by Miss Cairns. There were no matters arising.

 

President’s report

Mrs Forrest  advised those present that Mrs Thomson’s mother had died suddenly on 10 December, and was sure that all members would wish to convey their sympathy to Carol and her family ; flowers had been sent on behalf of the Club.

 

Mrs Forrest intimated the arrangements for the Members’ night on 10 January and gave some background history to the decision to admit women to the Club in 1907, when, after an initial “blackball”, 3 ladies were admitted in January 1908.  At the members’ night there would be a best hat prize, and a hot supper would be served.  Carriages would be at 9.30pm.

 

 

Secretary’s report

Mrs McNae reported that an invitation had been received to a discussion about the M74 extension and that it was hoped to take part in future discussions on the subject.

 

Tom Cunningham had spoken at Dennistoun Library on 16 November about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Scotland.  He would speak at a Club meeting in 2008/09.

 

Club minutes would appear on the website.

 

Projection arrangements for this evening were being provided by Mrs McNae’s son Ross, as Gavin had another engagement.

 

Speaker

Mrs Forrest introduced Dr Irene O’Brien, Senior Archivist at the Mitchell Library, who spoke on the topic of local history.

 

Although Glasgow City archives were first mentioned in 1636, it was not until 1964 that the city appointed its first archivist, with the function of managing, selecting, preserving and giving access to the records.  The archives dated from the 12th century and extended to 80,000 feet.  They consisted of the official records of Glasgow City, Strathclyde Region and Rutherglen burgh, as well as items in private collections, landed families, churches, merchants and businesses.

 

Drawing on and illustrating with Powerpoint slides examples of each of these categories,  Dr O’Brien gave an insight into the many and varied sources of information for the archivist, including the Poor Law records which were in use from 1845 to 1948, school records, police records (noting that Glasgow’s police force was founded in 1820 and thus predates the London Metropolitan Police), records from families such as the Maxwells of Pollok and the Colquhouns of Luss, shipbuilding companies and photographs of bygone days.

 

Anyone who is interested in pursuing  a study of archives may do so by contacting archives@csglasgow.org or at the Mitchell Library (287 2910 between 9am and 5pm (Tuesday and Thursday to 8pm).

 

Dr O’Brien then ably answered questions from the floor.

 

Vote of thanks

Mr Gibson thanked Dr O’Brien for her expert and enthusiastic presentation, which had engendered a real sense of excitement for the study of archive material.

 

Close

Mrs Forrest invited Dr O’Brien to draw the Christmas raffle and  then, after reminding members of the Members’ night on 10 January, wished all a safe journey home.

 

 

JN Gibson

Recording Secretary