‘Mokisins’, ‘Cloaks’ and ‘A Belt of a Peculiar Fabric’: Recovering the History of the Thomas Whyte Collection of North American Clothing formerly in the Grierson Museum
Antiquarian, Museums, Ethnography
TDGNHAS Series III, 83 (2009), 131(WARNING large file size: 5.11 MB)
In 1965 the Grierson Museum, Thornhill, was disbanded and its rich collections of natural history and antiquities were distributed to other museums and to private dealers. Glasgow Museums acquired several pieces, including some rare items of clothing that mostly originated in the Great Lakes region of North America. The collection history of these items has become obscured, but current research to reattach the clothing to surviving documentation suggests that it was acquired by a Dumfriesshire man, Thomas Whyte, early in the nineteenth century. This paper introduces this little-known collection and the archival processes through which its history is now being reconstructed and recast. It also reflects upon the social relationships through which the Grierson Museum was developed and highlights possibilities for future research into its fascinating history.