There are lots of festive treats within the University’s Museum Collections. Here are four favourites chosen by curator Matthew Jarron.
This Christmas mat from our Needlework Development Scheme Collection was made in Sweden in 1949 by designer Ulla Kockum. Scandinavian design was growing in international influence at this time and Kockum had just been appointed to advise the Needlework Development Scheme, a UK-wide initiative run by the four Scottish art colleges to improve the standard of stitched textiles.
Based in Dundee, Valentine & Son was one of the world’s largest greetings cards companies for most of the 20th century. They employed a team of artists and designers, many of them alumni of the Art College, to create a wide range of cards. This Christmas card from the 1940s was designed by Dundee artist Elizabeth ‘Bunty’ Stott, who later went on to work as an illustrator and cartoonist for DC Thomson.
Art College alumna Kathleen Mowat went on to have a successful career as a designer in the 1950s and 60s, specialising in product packaging. This is a detail from one of several Christmas designs she created for the United Co-operative Baking Society.
There is also a darker side to Christmas festivities. For many years drink driving campaigns attempted to reduce the number of deaths caused on roads by drivers coming home after having one too many at Christmas parties. This striking design from our Graphic Design Collection was produced in the early 1960s.
The University Archivist, Caroline Brown, has chosen some of her favourite Christmas related items from the archive collections.
This striking shot of the Murraygate at Christmas was taken in the 1960s by photographer Alex Coupar. The street is full of shoppers and on the right of the shot is Smiths, one of three major department stores which stood on the High Street, Murraygate, Commercial Street junction at the time.
These three pages are from the Christmas catalogue of one of the other department stores, G L Wilson. Two are from 1914 just after the outbreak of the First World War (reflected in the suggested gifts for children) and the third from 1932 proving the popularity of socks as a present through the ages.
The Archives holds the records of hospitals and what were called asylums in Dundee, Perth and Angus. This photograph shows the children’s ward in Dundee Royal Infirmary, then Dundee’s main hospital, at the end of the 19th century.
This striking image is from a 15th century Book of Hours (Christian prayer book) and shows the nativity. Dating from around 1450 and beautifully illustrated by hand, this is one of the Archives’ most treasured possessions.