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You searched for: More Like: 'The opening of the Rowett Research Institute'
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The Rowett Research Institute
2241 The Rowett Research Institute at Bucksburn. It was opened by Queen Mary in May 1923. Craigiebuckler House
2602 A photograph of Craigiebuckler House taken from The Freedom Lands and Marches of Aberdeen 1319-1929 compiled by Donald B. Gunn (1929). The lands surrounding this house were sold by the town council in 1817.
The house was built in the 1820s by Provost James Blaikie. The James Hutton Institute, then the The Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, later built their Aberdeen campus on the estate, incorporating the house. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2617 A long shot showing Prince Philip talking to members of staff outside the main Rowett Institute building. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2618 Prince Philip delivering a speech at the Rowett Institute. Members of staff stand in the background. The man fourth from the left is Sir Kenneth Lyon Blaxter, third director of the institute between 1965-1982.
The left most figure in the image is Sir Edward Maitland Wright (1906-2005), principal of the University of Aberdeen from 1962 to 1976. He was also a Professor of Mathematics at the University from 1936-1962. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2619 Prince Philip exiting a Rowett Institute building about to greet members of staff. He is followed by E.M. Wright. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2620 Prince Philip meeting members of staff at the Rowett Institute. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2621 Prince Philip chatting to members of staff at the Rowett Institute. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2622 Prince Philip preparing to plant a tree at the Rowett Institute. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2623 Prince Philip planting a tree at the Rowett Institute, accompanied by institute officials, and watched by a seated audience. The two people behind him are E. M. Wright and Kenneth Lyon Blaxter. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2624 Prince Philip, Kenneth Lyon Blaxter and E. M. Wright walk and converse with the facility's buildings in the background. Aberdeen Sailors' Mission and Home
2751 The granite facade of the Aberdeen Sailors' Mission and Home building, built in 1893-95, that has been retained and incorporated into a large residential development on Mearns Street. This appears to be all that remains of the building.
The eastern elevation we can see here was part of a three block extension to the institute designed by architect James Souttar. There was also an entrance to the building on James Street. A preview of the opening of the building, with a detailed description of it, can be read in the Aberdeen Journal of 26th September 1895, page 7.
Queen Elizabeth II's first solo opening ceremony was the Aberdeen Sailor's Home, after it was reconstructed, on 3rd October 1944.
Also of local interest in this image is a car from the well-known firm Panda Rosa Metals. This family business specialise in ferrous and non-ferrous metal recycling and have been operating in Aberdeen for many decades.
Mearns Street, originally running from Regent Quay to Virginia Street, was constructed on the site of a previous thoroughfare called Pork Lane. This was described as a narrow lane of congested tenements and had a reputation for ill-health and crime.
Post Office directories indicate that Pork Lane was demolished in around 1885-86 and that Mearns Street was established by 1887-88. This development was part of a programme called the Shorelands Scheme of Improvements.
In October 1886, the Improvement Committee of Aberdeen Town Council recommended the name of the new street in compliment to the master of shore works who had initiated the improvement scheme, Daniel Mearns (Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 23rd October 1886, page 4).
Mearns (1838-1913) was a shipping merchant, councillor for the St. Clements Ward, active in the Aberdeen Harbour Board and went on to serve as Aberdeen's Lord Provost between 1895 and 1898. George Walker
4371 A photographic portrait by George Washington Wilson of Baillie George Walker (1821-1910). It comes from an album of photographs by Wilson of the Aberdeen Town Council of 1883. This is held in the collection of Aberdeen Local Studies at Aberdeen Central Library.
Walker, a good friend of Wilson, was a well-known bookseller, councillor and local cultural figure. He hailed from Huntly before moving to the Granite City.
At a meeting at the Music Hall on on 25th March 1884 Walker seconded the motion of Professor Alexander Bain (1818-1903), a philosopher, early psychologist and independent thinker, for the adoption of the Public Libraries Act by the Town Council. The motion passed with 891 voters in favour and 264 against.
Walker was one of a number of speakers at the opening of Aberdeen's first free public lending library in March 1886, then located in the Mechanics' Institute on Market Street. Praising the preparatory work done by the town's first librarian, Andrew W. Robertson, Walker stated that Robertson had "turned night into day in his efforts and that it was absolutely necessary that he takes a well-deserved holiday during the summer."
Walker remained a champion of the library service for the rest of his life. He donated his extensive 21 volume journal to the library and these remain in the Local Studies collection. These idiosyncratic volumes are a unique cornucopia of local history and culture. John Duguid Milne
4372 A photographic portrait of John Duguid Milne (1822-1889), an Aberdeen advocate.
On 20th March 1883 Milne read a paper titled The success of free public libraries in industrial towns, and the necessity for a free public library in Aberdeen to the Philosophical Society of Aberdeen. The paper was also published by the society as a pamphlet shortly afterwards. A copy of this paper is held by Aberdeen Local Studies.
Milne draws together the experiences of free public libraries from England and around Scotland. He also points to the example and popularity of John Anderson's library in Woodside, which had opened in 1881.
In the section 'Who should move for a free library?' Milne writes:
"The Free Library is not especially for the wealthy, nor even for the well-to-do, but for the people, for the industrial classes; and it is for the industrial classes themselves to say if they want it. They have also the power in their hands, as they form a majority of the ratepayers." (page 17).
Milne was the director and legal advisor of Aberdeen's Mechanics' Institute. He ends his paper by stating that should the Public Libraries Act be adopted by Aberdeen, the Mechanics' Institute was prepared to hand over to the Free Public Library their whole stock of books and their substantial premises on Market Street.
Milne's paper, and the offer within, was likely a determining factor in the initiation, and ultimate success, of Professor Alexander Bain (1818-1903) and Baillie George Walker (1821-1910) putting forward a motion for the adoption of the Public Libraries Act at a meeting in the Music Hall on 25th March 1884. This meeting took place around a year after the first reading of Milne's paper.
Opening in March 1886, the Mechanics' Institute building did become the first location of Aberdeen's new Free Public Library and its collection of books formed the core of its stock. If you look at some of the older items in the collection of Aberdeen City Libraries today, stamp marks for the Mechanics' Institute can still be seen. |