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Stop 4: Health Services for Women and Children - Agnes Thomson (1880-1952) Clementina Esslemont OBE (1864-1958) Fenella Paton (1901-1945) and Mary Esslemont (1891-1984)
2303 The first sick children's hospital on site of former Naval Surgeon's Dr Blaikie surgery on 6-8 Castle Terrace in 1877 extended to take in Castle Brae Chapel. An unsung heroine that worked on this site is Dr Agnes Thomson (nee Baxter) a graduate from Aberdeen University who served as an anaesthetist at the Sick Children's and Maternity Hospitals during the First World War. Agnes Thomson was instrumental in founding the Aberdeen Mother and Baby Home and volunteered her services to the Mother and Child Welfare Association, which was established to address the shockingly high death rate of babies and toddlers in the east end of Aberdeen.
Throughout her life, Clementina Esslemont OBE was a champion of liberal ideas and good causes and well known for her no-nonsense approach to social service provision. One of her principal achievements was the foundation of the Aberdeen Mother and Child Welfare Association in 1909, which played an important role in social service and public health provision in the City of Aberdeen until the creation of the Public Health Department in 1949. She was also involved in the establishment of a model block of tenements on the Spital, Aberdeen, in the formation of Aberdeen Lads' Club, St Katherine's Club, and the nursery school movement.
Dr Mary Esslemont, one of Clementina Esslemont's daughters, worked as a Gynaecologist at the hospital. Mary did much to improve the care and wellbeing for mothers and babies with her determination and hard work. As well as being the Gynaecologist she also ran prenatal and family planning clinics. Mary was an advocate of women's rights, health education and family planning. She was the first female president of the Student University Council and the first woman to be president of Aberdeen Liberal Association in 1954. Awarded the CBE in 1955, Aberdeen City Council bestowed the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen in 1981.
Aberdeen has also led the way in family planning with a remarkable woman at the forefront of fertility control. Pioneer Fenella Paton opened Aberdeen's first family planning clinic in 1926 at Gerrard street. The clinic, the first of its kind in Scotland, moved to new premises in Castle Street in 1948. But prior to these clinics and innovations in family planning there were large families and mothers that needed to go out to work and at our next stop an initiative was put in place to help these working women.
Memories:
Norma Michie speaking about Mary Esslemont
Audrey's memories of the Family Planning Clinic
Denise's memory of the Family Planning Clinic
Heather's memories of Ina Lawrence and the Children's Hospital
Alma Duncan's memories of Cocky Hunters Acknowledgments
2364 How Aberdeen Women's Alliance City Centre Heritage Walk developed:
Following the group's involvement with Women of Scotland's Mapping Memorials to Women website (http://www.womenofscotland.org.uk/), with our partners at Glasgow Women's Library (http://www.womenslibrary.org.uk/),
at the Central Library in February 2013, we felt there was a number of women in Aberdeen who have made an important and significant contribution to the life of our city that we rarely ever hear about.
This inspired a group of volunteers to develop the Aberdeen City Centre Women's Heritage Walk.
By creating this virtual version of the walk we aim to share the many stories of these wonderful women and their achievements with as many people as possible. We also aimed to enrich the account of these women by recording, and making available, the fascinating memories of members from community members.
How to get involved:
Aberdeen women's history is still largely unwritten and not visible to the public. There are many ways women can get involved with us to address this. You are welcome help us with research or join our tour guide teams. If you have information that can be added to this walk, suggestions of how it can be improved, or memories you would like to share - we want to hear from you!
How to contact us:
Email: awainfo@btinternet.com
Postal address:
Aberdeen Women's Alliance
c/o Equalities team
Aberdeen City Council
Marischal College
Broad Street
Aberdeen
AB10 1AB
Many thanks to our virtual tour partners:
Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeen City Libraries
And special thanks to:
Aberdeen Local Studies Guest treasure: Aberdeen Journals' Photographic Collections
2435 The photographic collections of Aberdeen Journal Ltd span over a century. The photographs were taken to support stories and features in The Press & Journal and Evening Express newspapers - a picture speaks a thousand words after all. However, the accumulated photography has created a historical resource documenting life in the north east and Highlands during a century of change and development. The collection covers everything from the changing landscapes of our towns and cities through to global news events. But it's personal, too. People and their images are at the heart of our stories, be it the children on their first day in a new school through to community events and individual achievements. Your image is probably in the archive somewhere if you look hard enough.
The collection is actively used by our journalists. It provides content for favourites like The Aberdonian and Past Lives features in the Evening Express and historical context and background to stories in The Press & Journal. The collection is also used by external researchers looking for copies of images in which they or their family featured, supporting charities and associations celebrating anniversaries and even to supplement content as featured in The Silver City Vault!
archives@ajl.co.uk
View all the Christmas images from the archive in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the library touchscreens. Union Street, Aberdeen
2775 A Davidson Bros. "Real Photographic" Series postcard looking east up Union Street. The image likely dates from the early 20th century. Before the junction with Back Wynd can be seen the Queen's Restaurant at 120 Union Street and R. Hunter, Chemist at 118.
The building at the junction of Union Street and Back Wynd was initially built in 1837 to a design by John Smith. It was the first purpose built home of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen.
Doreathea Bruce, in her history of the Society, explains that they sold the building in 1870 after construction of the the new, James Matthew designed, Advocates' Hall in Concert Court.
The old hall was bought by Lockhart & Salmond, confectioners, and later functioned as a restaurant and as a cinema. Bruce suggests the building became known as Queen's after it was decorated by City Architect John Smith shortly after Victoria's wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.
Her full history of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen can be read in Aberdeen University Review, LVI, no. 195, Spring 1996. Aberdeen Cinemas: Picture House / Gaumont
3404 Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson explains that by 1950 the Picture House was owned by the Rank Organisation. The British entertainment conglomerate had acquired various cinema exhibition companies: British-Gaumont, Odeon, and the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres (successor company to Associated Provincial Picture Houses). As part of business rationalisation, on 22nd March 1950 the Picture House was rebranded as The Gaumont.
Thomson's Silver Screen indicates that the Gaumont's vertical neon sign dates from the time of the rebranding. In 1956 the design of the cinema was further updated. This saw the introduction of the illuminated canopy and use of the beech design shown here in the redeveloped interior and exterior, replacing the pillars of the Picture House era. A new marble backed fireplace replaced the old one that had been a well-known feature of the cinema since its opening in 1914. The projection equipment and seating were also modernised. This night-time image from the Aberdeen Journals Archive accompanied an article about the Gaumont's new look in the Evening Express of 19th April 1956.
The image shows promotion for a number of films on the cinema's updated exterior: The Rose Tattoo with Burt Lancaster and Anna Magnani, Flight from Vienna and Aberdeen Photographic Service's presentation of A Photographic Review of the Royal Tour of Nigeria.
The manager at the time of the Gaumont's redesign was Mr. R. E. Miller. He had managed the cinema since January 1948. In early 1951 Miller converted the upstairs restaurant area, which had laid empty since 1928, into a gallery space. Known as the Gaumont Gallery, it was ideal for photographic exhibitions and was in frequent use well into the 1960s.
Thomson states that during this period Mary Garden, the retired opera singer who returned to Aberdeen in 1939, was something of a regular at the Gaumont. This well-known and much-loved figure would be escorted to her seat by the cinema's commissionaire George Repper, who was also a popular and familiar figure. Repper worked at the Gaumont from 1940 to 1964 and his job was to shepherd queues, attend to patrons and ensure all progressed smoothly.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. HMT Programme
253 The front cover of a programme for His Majesty's Theatre from 21st April 1930. The cover is typical of programmes for the Rosemount theatre at this time. This featured show is the Aberdeen Student's annual review, Northern Lights. The proceeds from the performances went to the Aberdeen hospitals. The programme was printed by the Aberdeen University Press. Treasure 86: Bon Accord Christmas Annuals
298 Aberdonians of yesteryear would have been delighted to receive this particular treasure as a Christmas gift. The Bon Accord Annual was produced just before Christmas each year for over 30 years. Linked to the well-known local newspaper the Bon Accord and Northern Pictorial, it was packed full of seasonal treats in the form of photographs, adverts, short stories, poems, recipes and articles.
The Bon Accord Annual provided a round-up of the year's happenings and included a multitude of striking photographs. We are given a revealing glimpse into all aspects of local life at the time. The annual was filled with photographs and text covering graduations, amateur drama events, the arts scene, visits from the Royal Family, council elections, personal achievements, obituaries of prominent citizens, the church, the cinema, clubs, societies and weddings. The impression gained from leafing through the annuals is that the coverage of local events was far ranging and no occurrence was too insignificant to be recorded.
Issues of the Bon Accord and Northern Pictorial from 1926-1952 are available to the public for searching on microfilm in the Central Library. Our Local Studies department also holds Bon-Accord and Northern Pictorial holiday numbers; Bon Accord Highland Show Souvenirs for 1928 and 1935 and the Bon Accord Silver Jubilee number from 1935.
Find out more about the annuals and the Bon Accord and Northern Pictorial in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the touchscreen. Sir John Anderson (1814-1886)
309 "John Anderson, as the phrase goes, was a self-made man; no one owed less than he to outside influence. Woodside may well be proud that one of its sons has achieved such distinction."
(The Aberdeen Journal, 29th July 1886).
Anderson is one of the most famous men to have been born and brought up in Woodside. His achievements in the field of engineering and public service have been recognised around the world, not just in Britain. Nevertheless, he never forgot about his beginnings growing up in Woodside, as evidenced by his gifting of the Anderson Free Library to Woodside in 1883.
Please see below to download more information about Sir John Anderson.
Treasure 110: A Tribute to Marcus Kelly Milne, City Librarian 1938 - 1968
331 By the time he retired in April 1968, Marcus Milne had been with the Library Service for 47 years and 10 months. In the Evening Express of 1 May 1968 he talked about what the library meant to him:
"I shall always regard meeting people and being able to help them as perhaps the most satisfying feature of my work".
Milne started out as a junior assistant on 8 July 1920 and for a long time was the only male assistant. This meant he often doubled as Reading Room Attendant and Janitor, cleaning out the furnace on a Saturday afternoon for which he said "I carried out this task with great gusto and lots of dust". In 1928 he was appointed Senior Assistant and acted as interim City Librarian during G.M. Fraser's illness. Upon Fraser's death he was unanimously appointed City Librarian from 18 October 1938 at the age of 35. Under his direction, the library service in the city expanded enormously, with new branch libraries being opened across the city (some of these achievements have featured in previous treasures from our collections). Outside of the Library, Marcus Milne was very much known as 'Mr Aberdeen' because of his omnipresence in civic life, and in our Local Studies Collections we have a variety of material reflecting this.
Marcus Milne is shown on the left, speaking with Library staff. The photograph dates from September 1963.
Find out more about the achievements of this notable Aberdonian in our Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition. Love on the Dole: a play in three acts
364 This is the reverse side of a promotional sheet designed in the format of a newspaper, entitled Theatre News, advertising the play Love on the Dole.
It was an adaptation of the influential 1932 novel by Walter Greenwood. It played at His Majesty's Theatre in the week commencing 23rd September 1935.
The front side features photographs of Greenwood and playwright, Ronald Gow, and a large number positive review excerpts. Tragedy of Douglas; or, The Noble Shepherd
488 This broadside advertises a play on Saturday 20th November 1813 at the Theatre Royal on Marischal Street. The play is Douglas; or, The Noble Shepherd. Printed locally by John Booth of North Street, the broadside modestly declares the play to be of equal quality to any production outside of London.
Accompanying the play were comical songs, a ballad, and a reworking of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew by David Garrick, titled Catharine & Petruchio.
The broadside indicates locations that tickets may be bought, the "Public Library" and the "Musical Repository", and other productions available for viewing. The play's cheapest ticket, for the gallery, cost 1 shilling. This was approximately half a shilling shy of the cost of a loaf of bread (Aberdeen Journal, 7th July 1813).
Douglas was a five-act tragedy authored by John Homes. Performed first in 1756 Edinburgh, it was a resounding success, with productions put on across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, travelling as far a field as North America. That being said, that week's edition of Aberdeen's Journal only gave the announcement of the play's arrival one line, buried in the third page.
The play's contents was often changed by Home, depending on its audience. The play examines the deep tension between Scotland's people and its nationhood, particularly in regard to Scotland's cultural independence from Britain. On the play's first night in 1756, the play so inspired one playgoer with patriotism that he shouted "Whar's yer Wully Shakespeare noo!" in the middle of the performance. (Megan Stoner Morgan, Scottish Literary Review, vol. 4, no. 1 (2012)).
The play also left a deep impression on the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume. Regarding the broadside, it is interesting to note that Douglas, not the Shakespearean comedy, was the headline act.
The play's protagonist, Douglas, is played by an H. Johnston, most likely a 36-year-old Henry Erskine Johnston. A portrait of him playing the title role is held at the National Portrait Gallery. Impressively, he also serves as Petruchio in Garrick's Catherine & Petruchio. Likewise, other actors play characters in both productions. |