This Saturday we’re hosting Scottish Book Trust’s Treasures workshop, with author Ewan Morrison. Ewan’s Treasures story Smells Like Bat Table is online now.
At the Burns Monument Centre we deal with treasures every day – old books, maps, letters, family history records, even treasure chests! Our current favourite box of treasures contains a variety of pamphlets from the collections and press of Kilmarnock publisher James McKie (this is distinct from the official McKie Collection - a treasure-trove of Burnsiana originally housed in the Burns Monument museum). The pamphlets range from local poetry and sermons to school books and travel writing. Also in the collection are some of the odd jobs that McKie printed, for example this Guidebook to Kelsall’s Crystal Palace Exhibition, and Royal Collection of Moving Wax Models.
Quite why James McKie printed this guidebook is unknown. We can’t find any mention of Kelsall’s Exhibition in the reports of Kilmarnock’s fairs of the 1870s and 80s. The Kilmarnock Standard regularly reports on the fairs and shows of the town at this time, with great detail of the peculiar exhibits: The World in Miniature, Hengler’s Circus, The Living Menagerie, Lilliputian Circus, Auld Ord the Great Equestrian, Mr Biddall’s Ghost Illusion, Whatman’s Marionettes, Carloman’s Living Curiosities, Purchase’s Waxwork and Mandor’s Maxwork.
Kelsall’s may have visited Glasgow or one of the coastal towns. Whatever McKie’s reasons for printing this, we liked it so much we digitised it! Click on the image below to open up the digital version, and zoom in to see more detail.