Blog at the Ballast

I've mentioned before that the National Maritime Museum had put some of its collections online.  Well, I discovered at the weekend that this website by Surface View also has images from the NMM available to order as large-scale wall murals, prints or blinds. This means that you can have an images from the plans for the Mauretania (1907), HMS Fearless and even the...

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This week's photo is of a tug called the Brigadier. It was built by George Brown and Company in Greenock in 1960.  Full details about it here. ...

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I was in Calais last weekend (13-15 November) for the E-Faith conference.  It's a get together of volunteers and volunteer associations to discuss and share information about the safeguarding of industrial and technical heritage.  The meeting was held at the Museum of Lace in Calais, which is a beautiful building that combined an original factory with a modern extension that incorporated a jacquard card design...

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So, I forgot to put a photo up on Friday but there was a reason.  David Powell the BACS Surveying Officer and I were putting the final touches to a National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland before it goes out to consultation.  More information about the strategy is on the Business Archives Scotland blog.  It explains why we are developing a strategy and how...

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Today I'm travelling to Calais for the E-FAITH meeting this weekend.  I thought it would be appropriate to choose something French themed if such a thing existed in the Dan McDonald collection.  A quick search of the catalogue turned up two candidates who at least have relevant names. The first is 'France' built in 1890 by D & W Henderson.  More information about...

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This week I'm off to Calais on Friday for the E-Faith weekend on Industrial and Technical Heritage (programme here).  I'll be talking briefly about how the Ballast Trust works and the way in which we have been able to make use of volunteers and staff with specialist knowledge to process technical records.  Details of other papers and reports are available here. I'm also...

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In amongst the photographs and negatives of different ships, there are also images of views and cities and appropriately for this week, two pictures of fireworks. I'm not sure if these are bonfire night fireworks that Dan took pictures of, it seems unlikely but I thought they would be appropriate for this weeks photo. ...

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