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The Promenade at Aberdeen Sea Beach, c. 1950 with the Beach Shelter and Beach Bathing Station in the background.

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Bay of Nigg - a popular area for a summer picnic.

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Children catching shrimps at Aberdeen Sea Beach.

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Aberdeen Beach from the south. A crowded day on the beach. Note the roof of the Beach Ballrooom at the right of the photograph.

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This image taken in 1902 shows a horsedrawn coach full of people ready to go on an outing. It had been organised by James MacPherson, joiner in Cults and the photo is taken at the east side of Kirk Brae. Such outings were commonplace at this period when firms organised day trips into the country for their employees.

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The exterior of the Palace Cinema, Bridge Place.

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A photograph looking south west from Broad Hill towards the Bannermill (or Banner Mill) cotton works. The road in the foreground is that which would become Links Road. This continued along the north side of the factory and had a junction with Constitution Street at the north east corner of the works. The land shown in front of Bannermill is Queen's Links. The location of Bannermill is now occupied by a large square shaped complex of mostly early 21st century flats (completed 2004), with parking in its middle, and a main entrance, on Bannermill Place, accessed from Constitution Street. The factory was established in 1827 by Thomas Bannerman and closed down in 1904, then under the management of Messers Robinson, Crum & Co. Limited. The premises were used as stores and for various types of works during the 20th century. In 1999 the 5.8 acres site was put on the market by the then owners, the North Eastern Farmers (NEF) farmer's co-operative, with a price of around £5million. NEF left the site in February 1999 to move to a new headquarters at Rosehall, Turriff. (See P&J, 11 November 1999, p. 7) Aberdeen City Council subsequently produced a planning brief for developers calling for a housing or mixed housing and hotel development on the site. Wimpey House submitted a plan for 349 luxury flats and this proposal was given the go-ahead. Construction primarily took place during 2002 and 2003, with the first residents moving-in in October 2002.

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The Aberdeen Boys School of Industry c.1841. The first Industrial School was opened on 1st October 1841 in Chronicle Lane. It was set up by Sheriff William Watson and was intended for the industrial training of boys between the ages of 8 and 14 years. These boys were the children of the poorest classes, and chiefly 'those who are found to infest our streets, begging and stealing.' They were educated and provided with food and worked for a few hours per day at teasing wool, netmaking or gardening. Dinner was broth, beef and bread, or occasionally potato soup, or kail. The boys would go home to their families after 8pm, but those who were homeless went to the House of Refuge. Religious worship was also an important part of their regime. In the first six months of the school, 109 boys were admitted, athough the average daily attendance was less than 60. It was reported that juvenile vagrancy and crime had decreased attendance at the Industrial School was made compulsory. It was then found necessary to find a larger building in 1856 which eventually became Oldmill Reformatory. Industrial Schools existed until the mid 1930's.

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This portrait of a woman is also by Alexander Ledingham of Rosemount. The photographer's stamp is present in the bottom right corner. The woman is standing by a chair that can be seen in other Ledingham portraits so this was obviously a recurrent prop. The painted backdrop in this picture suggests the setting of a large estate house. The subject of the photograph wears a rather serious expression which was the convention in 19th and early 20th century photography. This was a continuation of the tradition of painted portraiture and suggested the stature and respectability of the subject. The great American writer Mark Twain wrote, "A photograph is a most important document, and there is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever." Stillness was also required due to the exposure times of early photography.

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Splash was chosen as a name due to it reflecting the movements dolphins make in the water. The children decided to decorate their own patterned dolphins to go onto Splash. Included next to each dolphin is the child's signed initials which is how they say their name/friend's names to other peers etc. within Aberdeen School for the Deaf. We wanted to include them to distinguish the involvement of sign in their education here at Aberdeen School for the Deaf.

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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

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This photograph taken on 14th July 2018 shows a Co-Wheels electric car at a charging station on Aberdeen's Queen Street. The south side of Marischal College is in the background. Co-Wheel's are a social enterprise whose website describes themselves as "the only independently-owned national car club, providing low emission, hybrid and electric cars on a pay-as-you-go basis for organisations and communities across the UK" (accessed 03/08/2018).

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A photograph of the Well of Spa in around 1969 at its second location, on Spa Street, in the western periphery wall of Woolmanhill Infirmary. This site is still identifiable today by the curving recess in the low wall and the now leveled out supporting wall, both shown in this image. A digital copy of this image was kindly given to Aberdeen Local Studies by our colleagues in the Masterplanning, Design and Conservation Team. It was the then Department of Planning and Building Control that oversaw the restoration and relocation of the structure to its current site outside Denburn Car Park in 1976/77. The plans were drawn up by Aberdeen City Council planner John Soutar. In reference to the well's Woolmanhill location he was quoted in the newspaper saying "The Victorians were great for shifting things and they weren't fussy where they put them." The stone structure, which was built in around 1635, was previously located on the western said of Spa Street, in front of Garden-Nook Close. This location can be viewed on the 1867 Ordnance Survey town plan of Aberdeen (sheet LXXV.11.12) and in other photographs on this site. The 1970s restoration and relocation of the well was advocated by councillor Frank Magee. The project, estimated to cost £4,500, was met with opposition and it was only given the go-ahead after considerable debate. The restoration of the well was carried out by a masonry firm, based in Birnie, called Moray Stonecutters. It was temporarily transported to Elgin for the work. An additional £4,500 was spent in the creation of a new garden surrounding the well by a Job Creation team. It was called the Four Neukit Garden in reference to the old amenity gifted to Aberdeen, along with the original stone structure, by the portrait painter George Jameson. Coverage of work on the well can be read in local newspapers from the time. The finishing touches on the well's final relocation were reported in the Evening Express of Saturday, 22nd October 1977, page 16.

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This stone is located in the same field north of Wynford. It is marked "31 ABD". The line of the marches from number 30 has left the Littlemill Burn, for the Blind Burn, and headed north a short distance. The descriptions in 1525 and 1698 there had not been a marker stone here at those times. In 1780 two large earthfast stones were noted, both saucer marked. It was here that new burgesses underwent the initiation of "doupin'", or being dropped onto the stone. This took place during the Riding of the Marches. The Doupin' cup stone is next to the lettered stone. This is the north west corner of the Freedom Lands. However, the boundary line does go further north that this point; north east to stone number 34 at Greenwelltree, later Craibstone Golf Course. A slide of this image was kindly lent to Aberdeen City Libraries by Colin Johnston so that we could create a digital copy for public use. The image was taken in the early 1980s when Colin worked as a teacher at Bridge of Don Academy. He led several current and former pupils, and staff members in an investigation into the location, physical condition and public knowledge of Aberdeen's historic boundary markers.

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Hans Christian Andersen wrote 'The Snow Queen' in 1844. Aberdeen City Libraries hold a number of interesting resources relating to the author. Perhaps the most notable is a 1926 reprint of his autobiography 'The True Story of My Life' translated by Mary Howitt and published by George Routledge & Sons. Born in Odense, Denmark in 1805, Andersen wrote three autobiographies during his lifetime. 'The Book of My Life', written in 1832 aged 27, was for close friends, the Collin family, and was not intended for publication. 'The True Story of My Life' in 1846 was to accompany a German edition of his collected works and his final autobiography, 'The Fairy Tale of My Life', was published in 1855. Mary Howitt (1799-1888) was an English author who came to prominence as a translator of Scandinavian literature, in particular eighteen volumes of the Swedish novelist Frederika Bremer (1842-1863) and many translations of Hans Christian Andersen. In the 1926 preface to 'The True Story of My Life' Scottish author and poet, Violet Jacob, claims that Howitt's "precise and innocence English" is the ideal vehicle for conveying Andersen's writing. It was through Howitt's translations that the English speaking world first came to know Andersen's work. Howitt dedicates her translation of 'The True Story of My Life' to the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887). Lind was world famous for her immaculate voice, generosity and strong religious convictions. She and Andersen were good friends. When Lind rejected Andersen as a suitor she became the model for the Snow Queen with a heart of ice. Their friendship endured nonetheless and in 'The True Story of My Life' Andersen explains the central influence Lind had on his work: "Through Jenny Lind I first became sensible of the holiness there is in art; through her I learned that one must forget oneself in the service of the Supreme. No books, no men have had a better or a more ennobling influence on me as the poet, than Jenny Lind, and I therefore have spoken of her so long and so warmly here." The autobiography also contains other glimpses into the inspiration behind 'The Snow Queen'. For example, Andersen's childhood surroundings are said to have inspired the roof top garden on which the story's heroes, Gerda and Kai, first meet and become friends: "Our little room, which was almost filled with the shoemaker's bench, the bed, and my crib, was the abode of my childhood; the walls, however, were covered with pictures, and over the work-bench was a cupboard containing books and songs; the little kitchen was full of shining plates and metal pans, and by means of a ladder it was possible to go out on the roof, where, in the gutters between and the neighbour's house, there stood a great chest filled with soil, my mother's sole garden, and where she grew her vegetables. In my story of the Snow Queen that garden still blooms."

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For more than 30 years Harry Gordon, one of Scotland's most talented comedians of the 20th Century, dominated Aberdeen's entertainment industry and prompted local historian Fenton Wyness to describe him as "possibly the only real attraction Aberdeen beach has ever had". Aberdeen Local Studies hold a collection of bound volumes of Beach Pavilion programmes, published between 1924 and 1940. The Beach Pavilion opened in 1905 and later became the home of Harry Gordon, the 'Laird of Inversnecky' and one of Aberdeen's most popular comedians. He entertained visitors at the Beach Pavilion throughout the 1920s and 1930s helped to make the Beach Pavilion one of the brightest and best places of entertainment in town, bringing many world-famous artists to Aberdeen. The final curtain came down with the Second World War. Due to its vulnerable location, many people were reluctant to go the Beach and the Pavilion was closed during the war years. It was re-opened in 1946 (although Harry Gordon had given up his tenancy by then) and continued as an entertainment venue. In 1962 the Pavilion was re-named the Gaiety and became a licensed restaurant, public bar and lounge. It then functioned as a restaurant in the Queens Links leisure complex but the remaining remnants of the original building were sadly destroyed by fire in May 2014.

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The work of the Aberdeen Grammar School Art Club can be seen in the collection of sketch books held in Local Studies for the years 1920 - 1923 and 1926 & 1928, and as supplements in some of the school magazines which also describe the early activities of the club. The Art Club was started by the enthusiastic Art Master, C.R. Leslie Millar, in 1917. There was an initial membership of 25 boys with H. Morgan acting as Secretary, who was later complemented for his delightful posters and sketches on the notice boards. The club would go out sketching on Saturdays from mid-May and throughout June, working in pencil, oils, water-colours and pastels. The first sketch book was produced for Christmas 1919 with introductory club notes. It's a tribute to the art masters that they did much to develop the appreciation of art and encourage individual talent among the pupils. The work of the club was favourably commented on by His Majesty's Inspectors and at the Aberdeen Artists Society Exhibition in December 1921 two club members were successful in having pictures accepted. Have a look at some fine examples of the art club's sketches in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition on the touchscreens.

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This image was digitised from Artistic Aberdeen: A Sketch Book (1932) by W. S. Percy. The book describes the scene as follows: "Broad Street, a vista which in years not very far off, may again under go change. This was formerly named the Broadgate, but this part of it now, as compared with the plaza in front of Marischal College from which the drawing has been done, is rather ironical. The part seen in the drawing is also entirely given over to the municipal offices; at the end is the Town House, the tower of which can be seen. On the left are the offices of the Aberdeen Journals Limited."

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A notice detailing regulations for the management of Aberdeen's life boat. The regulations are taken from two acts of the Harbour Committee dating from 7th January 1811 and 13th March 1815. The regulations detail the rights and responsibilities of Captain Nicol, then acting as the sole management and direction of the boat. He is empowered to collect dues from the other boats using the harbour and to offer extra financial reward to life boat volunteers in instances of danger. He must also keep the boat, its apparatus, and the launching slip in good working order at all times and have it launched and ready to go in stormy conditions. The broadside was complied from the aforementioned acts of the Harbour Board by William Carnegie and was printed and published by D. Chalmers and Co.

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This image was digitised from Artistic Aberdeen: A Sketch Book (1932) by W. S. Percy. The book describes the scene as follows: "Jack's Brae, leading up from Hardweird. This name and street go back to the middle of the eighteenth century when the Council of the Burgh permitted the land to feuded out by "John Jack, manufacturer at Gilcomstone, at the yearly value of 8s. sterling." It was never, in actuality, a very pretty or charming part of the town, and is now less so than ever. Doubtless, in years soon to come, clearance schemes will include Jack's Brae; this drawing will be one of its best memorials."

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