By Mark Mackay

THE ENTIRE collection of Perth and Kinross Council museums and art galleries has been identified as “nationally significant.”

Six other collections from museums and galleries across Scotland have also received ‘recognition’ status.

Funded by the Scottish Government and managed by the Scottish Museums Council, the recognition scheme helps to ensure important collections are identified, cared for and promoted to a wider audience.

The Perth and Kinross collection has been built up over more than 200 years, starting with material collected by the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth, which was founded in 1784.

It now includes over 372,000 objects or groups of objects and specimens, covering the themes of human, art and natural history.

Featured are archaeological items including major holdings relating to medieval Perth as well as bronze age and prehistoric finds, an unparalleled collection of locally-made glass and silver and extensive collections relating to herbaria, vertebrates and invertebrates, botany and geology.

The Fergusson Gallery houses the largest single holding of work by the artist J. D. Fergusson in existence, while Perth and Kinross also provides a home for an extensive photographic archive, paintings, prints and sculpture, ceramics and unique textiles.

The collection is mainly housed in the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, built in 1824 and later extended as the collection grew.

The local heritage service recently won a national award for the conservation and display of a rare silk doublet dating from the 1620s.

The council’s convener of lifelong learning, Liz Grant, welcomed this latest recognition.

She said, “Perth and Kinross Council is delighted and honoured to receive this wonderful news.

“We look forward to being able to build on this important recognition to care for our collections in order to share them with residents and visitors of Perth and Kinross.”

The other six collections awarded the status are held by local authorities, universities and independent trusts.

They all explore Scotland’s industrial and social heritage and the country’s contribution to the understanding of the history of science, the natural world, art and the humanities.

They include collections that explore two of Scotland’s leading industries—coal and lead—and the history of farming in Aberdeenshire though a picturesque working farm set in the 1950s.

Celebrating along with Perth and Kinross are Aberdeenshire’s farming museum collection, and Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood and Scottish art collections.

There was also recognition for the entire collections of Aberdeen University and the Scottish Mining Museum, and for the miners’ library collection of the Museum of Leadmining at Wanlockhead.

Culture minister Linda Fabiani said, “We have an array of wonderful collections in our museums and galleries across Scotland and it’s important that we recognise this.

“I am pleased to see the recognition scheme adding another seven collections that will now be deemed ‘nationally significant’ and I hope will attract many more visitors.”

The announcement brings to 17 the number of collections recognised as being of national significance.

Custodians of the collections receive plaques and certificates to display at their venues.

Perth and Kinross will also have the opportunity to bid for recognition funding to undertake a project to increase accessibility to its collections and improve how they are cared for.