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Treasure 56: Cooke's Royal Circus Programme, 1880s
232 A world-famous equestrian establishment, the Cooke's Royal Circus provided family entertainment in Aberdeen for 125 years. One of the stars of the show, John Henry Cooke, was born in New York 180 years ago this month.
Part of the fifth generation of the family, John Henry Cooke began acting at the age of four and was an expert tightrope walker by the time he was five years old. At 18, he was known as the "champion equestrian of the universe". When he was young, John Henry Cooke moved with his family to Aberdeen, where he would grow up to entertain and amuse the public with his equestrian and gymnastic skills.
To mark the anniversary of his birth, this month's treasures include our collection of Cooke's Royal Circus programmes, which advertised equestrian acts and performances in Aberdeen from around 1880.
Read more about the circus and the many stars of the show - including Little Pickles and the Leotard Family - in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the touchscreens in Central, Airyhall, Tillydrone and Mastrick libraries. Treasure 57: James Scott Skinner Collection
233 James Scott Skinner (5 August 1843 - 17 March 1927) was a Scottish dancing master, violinist, fiddler, and composer.
Born in Arbeadie village in Banchory-Ternan on 5 August 1843, Skinner was taught to play cello and violin by his father and brother at a young age and went on to become a successful musician, composer and dancer. He published more than 600 musical compositions, toured the United States and Canada and taught dancing at Balmoral Castle, Queen Victoria's Scottish retreat.
Aberdeen City Libraries hold many copies of Skinner's published work - including his Elgin and Logie Collections - and in 2001 we produced facsimile publications of some of Skinner's works to share with a new generation of readers.
One of our treasures this month is the Skinner collection editions which have been signed by J. Scott Skinner himself. A favourite of our signed collection is the frontispiece to the second edition of the Elgin Collection in which Skinner writes a passage to the father of the first City Librarian, George Milne Fraser.
The dedication reads:
To Joseph Fraser,
"Talent does what it can,
Genius does what it must!"
Patriotically yours,
J. Scott Skinner
Bon Accord,
9th Feb 1914
Find out more about James Scott Skinner and George Milne Fraser in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on our touchscreens.
Treasure 58: Princess Mary's Gift Book, 1914
234 One of our treasures this month was a wartime endeavour of Princess Mary (25 April 1897 - 28 March 1965), the third child and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary.
Princess Mary's Gift Book was a fundraising volume published on 27 November 1914 by Hodder & Stoughton. All profits from its sale went to the Queen's 'Work For Women' Fund, which was created to secure paid employment for women whose livelihood was threatened by the war.
The volume features stories and poems by some of the most popular authors of the day such as J. M. Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. The stories are accompanied by black and white illustrations and colour paintings by famous artists like Arthur Rackham and all the artwork was created specifically for the book.
Princess Mary's Gift Book was designed to appeal to all members of the family. It opens with a piece by J. M. Barrie on how best to enjoy a holiday in bed and includes many other stories and poems including Magepa the Buck and Out of the Jaws of Death: A Pimpernel by H. Rider Haggard and Baroness Orczy.
The gift book was sold for 2s. 6d. and half a million copies were sold within a month of its publication.
View the Treasures from our Collection interactive exhibition on the touchscreen to find out more about Princess Mary and her gift book - and discover the coincidence linking the book to one of the biggest supernatural scandals of the 20th Century.
Treasure 59: City of Aberdeen Coronation Celebrations Programme, 1953
235 This month we pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who became the longest ever reigning British monarch on 10 September 2015.
On 21 April this year Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th birthday and on 11 June will take part in the Trooping The Colour ceremony to commemorate her official birthday.
We feature a selection of local material celebrating her Coronation which took place in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. Aberdeen celebrated the Coronation with a full programme of events designed to interest the whole community including inter-city sports meetings, a grand procession, historical pageant, youth festival and many more.
Find out more about these events in our interactive exhibition on touchscreens in Central, Airyhall, Tillydrone and Mastrick libraries.
Treasure 60: Library bindery
236 This month we pay tribute to a number of craftsmen whose daily work was seen as essential to the maintenance of the book stock in the library service. These were the library bookbinders who, with their assistants, ensured that the library books were in as good condition as possible.
The Library Bindery was based in the basement of the Central Library and bookbinders would spend their working day there rebinding and repairing damaged books, in addition to numbering and labelling new stock.
This photo dates from around 1950, and shows bookbinder Joseph T. Duncan and his assistant Ruth Chalmers in the bindery. He is applying gold lettering to the spine of a volume using the tools laid out on the rack beside him.
Find out more about Mr Duncan and the library service's bookbinders over the years in our interactive exhibition on touchscreens.
Guest treasure - Central Library Spiral Staircase
237 Did you know there was once a spiral staircase which ran from the Information Centre down to the basement of Central Library?
The spiral staircase allowed staff to move between public departments and the reserve stock area in the basement without being seen. It can be seen on a plan of the Reference Library (now the Information Centre) from when the building opened in July 1892.
It was dismantled during the extensive modernisation programme of 1978-1982 and acquired by Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums (AAGM). The staircase has been in store since then but this month AAGM are helping us celebrate the history of the Central Library by providing a sectional tread of the staircase as a guest treasure.
View the touchscreen in the Information Desk to find out more about the Victorian staircase and library staff's experiences of the "rickety and creaky" stairs. |