Modelling innovation and ‘improvement’: the histories and geographies of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s models collection | AHRC CDA
Subject: Cultural & Museum Studies
School: School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
Supervisors:
Professor Simon Naylor, Dr Cheryl McGeachan (University of Glasgow); Dr Rebekah Higgitt (National Museums Scotland)
Discipline+Catalyst: History; Cultural & Museum Studies
Knowledge Exchange Hub: Heritage
Keywords: Object biography, object itinerary, history of science, history of knowledge, institutional memory, curatorial practice
About Jenny’s Research:
This project will investigate the networks that informed rapid agricultural and industrial changes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland. It will do so through the large collection of agricultural models assembled and displayed by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) and then gifted to National Museums Scotland’s predecessor. Comprising more than 300 objects representing Scottish agricultural innovation and improvement, this collection is nationally significant but under-exploited. Through the objects, the project will explore the effects of agrarian changes on Scottish society and environments, sometimes complicating narratives about who were the winners and losers of those changes.
My research will inform future use and curation of the collection, including new opportunities for display and public engagement.
CONNECT WITH JENNY
Email: Jenny Brown
LinkedIn: Jenny Brown