Welcome to the Scottish Diaspora Blog!

The Scottish Diaspora Blog is the digital home for my work on the Scots abroad. I post stories regularly that deal with Scottish Diaspora history, and host a number of Resources, such as the Scottish World Map. If you are doing your own research on things Scottish and have a question you think I might be able to help with, just get in touch. You can also share your comments on posts and stories.

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Naturalist John Muir and the Preservation of Wilderness

Scotland saw many a geologist, surveyor and explorer go out into the world charting unknown lands. What is perhaps less well known is that there were also botanists and naturalists who cared for the environment in, for their time, progressive ways. One of them was John Muir. Born in Dunbar on 21 April in 1838, Muir’s parents emigrated to the United States in 1849, setting up Fountain Lake Farm in Wisconsin.

At 22 Muir commenced studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he first became interested in botany, chemistry and sciences. He selected courses rather randomly, however, and thus never actually graduated. This was not to stand in the way of what became a lifelong passion for the preservation of nature and wilderness. After a brief stint in Canada, Muir went on to a 1,000 mile walk from Indiana to Florida in 1867 – a journey he later wrote about in A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. Without an exact plan, Muir was simply guided by the ‘wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find.’ Due to illness he abandoned his original plan to continue his walk in South America, sailing instead to California. After his arrival in San Francisco in early 1868, Muir quickly made his was to Yosemite, having heard so much about its natural beauty.

One of his earliest thoughts was that the valleys of Yosemite could not have been formed by a major earthquake – the established view at the time – but were rather a result of glacial activity. It was such progressive ideas that contributed significantly to Muir’s standing, though, initially, they were dismissed as ridiculous by many geologists for whom Muir was a silly amateur. One of Muir’s early supporters was Louis Agassiz, one of the foremost geologists of the time who described Muir as ‘the first man I have ever found who has any adequate conception of glacial action.’

The preservation of wilderness became Muir’s greatest passion and achievement. For him Yosemite and other areas in the Sierra deserved protection from humans and livestock alike to maintain their pristine natural environment.
As a result not least of Muir’s lobbying activities, the United States Congress passed a bill at the end of September 1890 that followed most of Muir’s recommendations. Muir was also co-founded, in 1892, of the Sierra Club, acting as its first President. The Club is one of the oldest environmental organizations in the United States.

As a result of his growing reputation, Muir acted as expert on many occasions. His endeavours received a significant boost when Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States. At the President’s suggestion, he and Muir camped together in Yosemite in 1903, with the President leaving the trip convinced that Yosemite should be brought entirely under control of the federal government – something Muir had long since campaigned for.

To learn more about Muir and his activities, click here or watch the documentary. British readers may also be interested in this BBC programme.

The Legacy of David Livingstone

Scottish missionary, explorer and anti-slavery campaigner David Livingstone was born on 19 March 1813 in Blantyre, Lanarkshire. Livingstone came from a humble background and was dedicated to studying from an early age. It was through his education, in fact, that he was able to bring together his interest in medicine and theology with his Christian faith. After studying medicine at Anderson’s College in Glasgow in the mid- to late 1830s, Livingstone applied to train as a missionary with the London Missionary Society (LMS), with a view to becoming a medical missionary abroad. Prior to the Disruption of the Church of Scotland the LMS was a common route for Scots to take who were interested in missionary work as the Church of Scotland did not yet send particularly many missionaries on foreign missions – this only became more common with the establishment of the Free Church as a ‘missionary competitor’.

Originally, Livingstone had been keen to go to China, but the outbreak of the First Opium War put an end to that idea. Instead, he continued with his studies at the LMS in London for a while, which allowed him to meet fellow Scottish missionary Robert Moffat, who was on leave from his missionary work in Africa at the time. It was this encounter with Moffat that awakened Livingstone’s interest in Africa, which subsequently became his destination of choice (and, it’s worht noting, Robert Moffat’s daughter Livingstone’s wife).

Livingstone’s accounts of Africa and his explorations throughout the southern parts – he headed several expeditions – already cemented his legacy in his own lifetime. He was the first European, for example, to see Victoria Falls, giving the Falls their name in honour of Queen Victoria in 1855 (to learn more, have a look at British Pathe’s video of the 1955 centenary celebrations of the discovery of the Falls) .

So interested was the world in David Livingstone that, when no news was received from him for several years in the late 1860s, the New York Herald sent journalist/explorer Henry Morton Stanley on a mission to find Livingstone in 1869. Stanley did so in November 1871, allegedly greeting Livingstone with the words ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’ (click here for a drawing of the scene). Livingstone remained in Africa, but the remainder of his life was plagued with illness. He died at the village of Ilala southeast of Lake Bangweulu in present-day Zambia in May 1873, probably of malaria and dysentery. Livingstone’s heart was burried under a tree near to where he died, but his body was returned to Britain and interred at Westminster Abbey.

Given Livingstone’s legacy it comes as no surprise that the centenary of his birth in 1913 was celebrated widely. In the British Isles a national memorial service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in the morning of 19 March, and in the evening a ‘Centenary Celebration’ held at the Royal Albert Hall, with speakers including Lord Balfour of Burleigh (President of the World Missionary Conference) and explorer Sir Harry Johnston. Glasgow had its own celebrations and the LMS issued a Centenary medal. Celebrations were not confined, however, to England and Scotland.

One important initiative abroad that was designed to keep alive the legacy of David Livingstone was the establishment of the David Livingstone Centenary Medal in 1913 by the Hispanic Society of America to be awarded by the American Geographical Society. The first medal was awarded, in 1916, to Sir Douglas Mawson, an Australian geologist and explorer of the Antarctic (click here for images of the medal).

Throughout the Scottish diaspora church services were held in honour of Livingstone. As a report from Cape Town notes, Livingstone ‘was celebrated in most of the churches in South Africa’ – one of the countries where his legacy had been most profound. In Australia, too, such celebrations were common. In Melbourne a gathering was held at the Independent Church, and addresses were delivered by several reverends. In Adelaide, people came together at a meeting at Pirie Street Church. As the Acting Premier, the Hon. R. Butler, stated,

they were met together to keep green the memory of one of Britain’s most noble sons. The Empire was that day doing honour, in all its parts, to one who had sacrificed his life in the cause of humanity. … He was an Imperialist of the widest sympathy, who had lived a life of heroic self-sacrifice. His most remarkable trait, perhaps, was his love for his fellow creatures.

But Livingstone was not only an explorer, of course. Hence the Rev. Dr. Jeffries went on to explore his missionary activities in more detail, observing that people ‘all over the world, from Winnipeg to New Zealand, from London to Hongkong’, were paying ‘tribute of loving admiration to the memory of David Livingstone.’

And that was very true indeed. In Hobart, Tasmania, the local auxiliary of the London Missionary Society had organised an exhibition in the Town Hall (click here to read the report of the opening), and a little further, across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, the Dunedin auxiliary held a meeting in Moray Place Church (full report here). In Fielding, a good two hours north of Wellington, a lecture ‘illustrated by lantern views’ was given.  Celebrations for the Livingstone Centenary were, as the Straits Times (Singapore) noted, really held ‘in every part of Empire’.

In 2013, one hundred years after these celebrations took place, Livingstone’s legacy lives on, and a number of events havr been organised for the bicentenary celebrations of Livingstone’s birth:

• check out Livingstone 200
• National Museums Scotland has a great exhibition on display until early April, check Dr Livingstone, I presume?
• check out Celebrating Lanarkshire 2013 Hall of Fame

The Wellcome Images holds a lot of interesting records connected to David Livingstone, including photographs and digitised images of his letters. To search the archive click here.

You might also like to learn more about Livingstone’s memory: Malawi leader visits Blantyre.

Sir Harry Lauder and the Scottish Diaspora

Lauder in Chicago in 1909 (Chicago Daily News)

On 26 February 1950 Sir Harry Lauder, the famous Scottish entertainer Winston Churchill once referred to as ‘Scotland’s greatest ever ambassador’, died in Strathaven, Lanarkshire. Lauder’s story is a remarkable, and one that directly connects him to the Scottish Diaspora. Born near Edinburgh in 1870, Lauder’s mother moved the family to Arbroath after the death of Harry’s father. It was there that Lauder, aged 12, started work in a local mill. Two years later, the family relocated to Lanarkshire, where Lauder became a pit boy, working in a coal mine. Ever since his father’s death, Lauder had, however, also enjoyed singing, and it was singing that should make him famous all over the world. He began to get paid engagements and then joined a concert part, touring Scotland, and 1894 saw Harry get his first professional engagement. He set up his own touring company soon afterwards, and after his 1898 show at the Argyle Theatre Birkenhead, Harry’s career took off. Lauder made it to London, and from there reached global fame, touring the Unites States twenty three times and becoming the first performer to entertain front line troops during the First World War.

Lauder went to the United States in 1907, and his first performance took place in the New York Theatre. Hailed by the New York Times as a ‘deserved success’ , it was also during this trip that Lauder met William Morris – the man who later became his manager in America (read the full newspaper report here). There can be no doubt that his US audience loved him, so much so in fact that Lauder returned for tours in the United States 22 times.

With growing fame, however, came an even more global career, with Lauder also making it to Canada, South Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Lauder arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on 19 August 1914, having made his way there from Sydney, and performed at the city’s Grand Opera House from 5 September (click her for an advertisement). As the Evening Post reported:

The famous entertainer was asked recently what he would sing in New Zealand, and his reply was “Well, my first song will be the one I began my London career with ‘Tobermory.’ It’s the first I sing in every country in which I am a stranger. And I shall follow it with ‘Stop Yer Ticklin’ Jock,’ and I think I’ll sing ‘Fou tho Noo.’ There’s an element of intoxication in it, and since I first sang it the world has grown more temperate. Therefore, I leave it out rather than disturb the susceptibilities of any one person in the audience.

Please click here for a photo of Lauder in Wellington. Lauder also performed in Christchurch in the South Island, where he purchased a flag with the signatures of the New Zealand Governor, the Prime Minister and other politicians, at an auction organised for the benefit of the Canterbury Patriotic Fund at the end of Lauder’s concert.

See also: Celebrating Lanarkshire 2013

Robert Burns – Scottish Diaspora Icon

St Andrew’s Day undoubtedly was one of the main celebrations in the annual events calendar of the Scots abroad. On equal footing stood, however, the celebration of Burns Night in honour of Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns. Burns societies and clubs were formed all around the world to organise events, and it was their activities that contributed to making Robert Burns a central Scottish Diaspora icon.

‘Robbie Burns anniversary service at his statue in the Domain’ (Sydney, Australia, c1927-1930)

Burns celebrations have their origin in early nineteenth century Scotland. The years when the Burns cult first developed in Scotland were a time of great change. Early nineteenth-century Scottish society was a society in upheaval: industrialisation and the associated modernisation processes brought major dislocation. As a result, many people tried to hold on to their accustomed ways of life and familiar traditions, with strenuous efforts being made to protect Scottish society from corruption. Such attempts partly explain why early and mid-nineteenth century Scotland was characterised by what Finlay has described as ‘Highlandism and tartanry, the romanticisation of the Scottish past, the sentimentalisation of rural life’. Although such romantic notions of Scottishness have been critically discussed, they clearly fulfilled an important function in maintaining some level of continuity and distinctiveness, an important component in the making of a nation and national consciousness. Burns was crucial because he represented, both in his work and as a person, traditional Scottish virtues and a pure and uncompromised version of Scotland and its rural past. The poet, in fact, practically safeguarded aspects of Scottish life. If placed within this context, Burns was more than Scotland’s national poet, a literary presence who had to be celebrated; he became a symbol of Scottish national identity and helped to secure it. This important point explains why celebrations of Burns developed relatively quickly after his death, and then spread so quickly throughout the Scottish Diaspora. So let’s explore the nature of Burns anniversary celebrations among the Scots abroad.

Burns dinners in the Scottish Diaspora followed the traditional core patterns that had been established after Burns’s death in Scotland, the evening being organised around various toasts and the actual dinner. Scottish songs would be sung between the toasts, with ‘Auld Land Syne’ to conclude the proceedings. The central element of all Burns anniversary celebrations was the toast to the immortal memory of Robert Burns, which commonly described the poet to sufficiently ‘warm the heart of every Scotchmen’; he was the poet of ‘Scottish feeling and sentiment’. The view of Burns as a patriot had been fostered by Burns’s own commitment to Scotland, a devotion that shines through in his poems and letters. Scots, Simpson argues, ‘have found in Burns a compensation for the loss of nationhood’. Invoking the memory of Burns could be a means of compensation and explains why ‘Scotchmen paid such homage to the memory of Burns’. He became a symbol and connector who, with his poems, ‘was able to knit the hearts of Scottish people together’. This notion is underscored by the fact that Burns was considered to ‘comprise in himself every variety of the Scottish character’. Accordingly, as one speaker at a dinner argued, to ‘do honour to the memory of Burns … [is to] do honour to the land of our birth, which the poet has rendered classic … And well may we Scotchmen be proud of Burns, for he loved Scotland’. In his function as a connector, Burns was primarily used, as the Secretary of the Dunedin Burns Club reveals in a letter to the Secretary of the Highland Society of New South Wales reveals,

[t]o popularise our grand Scottish music and songs, and in helping to instil in children of Scotsmen a love for the land of their fathers, its splendid traditions, and a pride in their Scottish blood. [Burns] taught Scottish men and women to glory in their nationality, taught them to believe in the Brotherhood of man and he has taught millions who have never seen Scotland’s hills and glens. . . the best feelings of our humanity.

The idea that Burns represented Scotland made him a potent symbolic marker of ethnic distinctiveness.

Piping in the haggis (Calgary, Canada, c1927-1933)

The bill of fare on most occasions included traditional Scottish dishes such as neeps and tatties, shortbread or haggis. As a reporter from the Otago Witness noted, ‘[t]he national dishes of Scotland were not forgotten, and at each end of the table a noble haggis maintained its pride of place, the dish immortalised by the great poet, by his address to it as the Great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race. The sheepshead, too, smoked on the board, with other dishes solid and savoury.’ The haggis was popular and ‘greatly in request’, specifically chosen with a range of other dishes to reflect the Scottish traditional, the national, cuisine. The partaking of a typical Scottish dish, preferably ‘washed down by a liquid equally Scottish’, was a communal activity that not only demonstrated ‘the love with which the Scotch in this country [New Zealand] clung to the memory of the Old Country’, but also helped to foster a spirit of solidarity. If it is acknowledged that national dishes are not simply food items, but in fact bearers of national culture, their semi-ritual consumption adds another dimension. Foodways are important for the production of ethnic identity and a locus for memory. They served as another distinct marker of ethnicity and communal glue, further providing continuity with the past.

As a result, many Burns anniversary guests saw themselves as united in their longings for the old homeland. As a Mr Hibbard observed in 1870, ‘… [t]hough many years absent from my native land, I am heart and soul a Scotchman. Scotland is to me the bright spot in the distance’. The distance from Scotland, both physical and temporal, seems to have had no particular relevance for those attending the dinners. As a Mr Church observed at the same dinner:

Whatever others may feel, I feel it an honour to take part in an event that appeals so directly to our sentiments of patriotism, and that recalls so vividly to our mind the scenes and associations of the land of our birth. I do not look upon this festival to the memory of Burns as an idle and useless ceremony as some do, but as a re-union at which some of the finest sensibilities of our nature may be aroused and quickened. Amongst these I give a high place to the love of our native country, a sentiment that has proved the root of much that is noble and excellent in the history of the nations of the earth.

Mr Church was proud of his Scottishness, going on to note the important contributions Scots had made all over the world, where Burns Night celebrations continue to be held to this day. In New Zealand Burns certainly left a deep legacy – check out this timeline to learn more.

Further reading:

Tanja Bueltmann, ‘”The Image of Scotland which We Cherish in Our Hearts”: Burns Anniversary Celebrations in Colonial Otago’, Immigrants & Minorities, 30:1 (2012), pp. 78-97.

Finlay & Simpson chapters in K. Simpson (ed.), Love and Liberty: Robert Burns – A Bicentenary Celebration (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1997).

Hogmanay in New Zealand

Hogmanay is one of the most traditional Scottish festivals, cherished by people in Scotland and all around the world. For those Scots who relocated abroad it was, however, often a bit of a sad event, reminding them of family and friends left behind in Scotland. Nan Drennan, who had moved to New Zealand in the early twentieth century, for instance, wrote to her mother on New Year’s Eve in 1916 with rather mixed feelings. She remembered the day as one that they ‘always spend together’, but the only thing she could offer from New Zealand were her thoughts, which she promised would ‘be with [them in Scotland] all that day’. Being in New Zealand for Christmas and New Year was particularly alien in any case, with the reversal of the seasons contributing to a sense of displacement.

New Year’s Day in Invercargill, 1874

But in true Scottish spirit, the Scots in the Antipodes knew how to make the most of Hogmanay in the southern hemisphere, being paramount in establishing the tradition of holding sport meets over New Year. Caledonian societies, which were first formalised in New Zealand in the early 1860s, primarily held their Caledonian Games during the southern hemisphere summer. There was, among the large societies, a strong preference for New Year’s Day, Scottish migrants thus contributing to making New Year, rather than Christmas, the foremost holiday in the colony. This was an important development, given the role Hogmanay has traditionally played in Scottish society. Although there is fragmentary evidence of shinty being played in the Highlands around New Year, such activities pale alongside the documentation of the Caledonian Gatherings celebrated in New Zealand. The connection between sports and New Year, then, is a distinct contribution of southern hemisphere Scots. So while New Year’s Day sporting gatherings existed in New Zealand from at least the end of the 1840s, it was the Scots who institutionalised them successfully and effectively, guaranteeing the survival of these sporting meets until well into the twentieth century. The Games had great recreational value, offered athletic training for the colonial youth, and were linked primarily to the New Year holidays, often giving them pre-eminence over Christmas. To learn more about Caledonian Games and New Year’s Day in New Zealand, click here.

The global saint: St Andrew’s Day in the Scottish Diaspora

‘No saint in the calendar’, observed a reporter in the Hong Kong Daily Press in 1886, ‘receives the hearty and regular devotion paid to St Andrew by his flock in all parts of the world.’ And indeed, next to Burns Night, St Andrew’s Day was the central holiday in the annual events calendar of the Scots overseas, offering an opportunity for them to gather and celebrate their Scottish heritage – a tradition that continues to this day. But let’s look at some of the events that have taken place since the mid-nineteenth century, when St Andrew’s Day celebrations began to proliferate around the world.

Montreal St Andrew’s Society Ball

In New York, in 1890, ‘the music of the bagpipes and the pungent aroma of the haggis’ filled the banquet room of the famous Delmonico’s restaurant – the venue of many a Scottish gathering in the city. Scottish songs were sung, and Scottish stories were told, and, as the New York Times pointed out, ‘the names of Wallace, Bruce, Burns, and Scott had only to be mentioned to start a fresh round of cheers or another song.’ (to read the full report of the celebration, click here). In many cities throughout North America similar sentiments were expressed, and balls and dinners were common celebrations as in Montreal (see image). Further south in the United States, 150 guests came together for a ball under the auspices of the local St Andrew’s Society in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1886, exchanging greetings with the Winnipeg St Andrew’s Society in Canada. For many dinners beautifully adorned menus were often produced. The menu of the 1905 St Andrew’s Day celebration of the Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston came complete with thistle drawing and tartan ribbon (please click here to see the menu); a similar display of tartan can be found on the 1906 menu of the Charleston St Andrew’s Society. By contrast, but no less nicely presented, the menu of the 1896 St Francisco St Andrew’s Society celebration came in the shape of a map of Scotland.

In Hong Kong, in 1886, the annual St Andrew’s Day ball was, as the China Mail noted, one of great sociability, with an illustrious round of 700 guests gathered at the City Hall, which had been superbly decorated for the occasion. The exterior of the Hall, for instance, had been illuminated by ‘gas jets arranged in the form of the familiar Gaelic welcome’, lighting up the front of the building. Inside, in the ante-room, a ‘gigantic St Andrew’s cross’ had been created, while the theatre was set up as a supper room for guests. At half-past nine, H.E. the Acting Governor the Hon W.H. Marsh arrived at the ball with his wife, and was welcomed by the Hon. Mr Ryrie, the St Andrew’s Society’s President. A decade later, Scots in Kinta (Malaysia), organised a concert to celebrate Scotland’s patron saint, while, another decade later, Scots in Singapore held balls. At other times lavish dinners were hosted at the city’s famous Raffles Hotel.

Even further afield, in Australia, about 500 guests came together for the 1881 St Andrew’s Day celebration of the Caledonian Society of South Australia in Adelaide. A ‘procession representative of the Society, headed by the chief piper and his assistants, and Mr. John McDonald – all in Highland costume – and swelled by a goodly number of Caledonia’s lassies as well as of her lads, drew up near the Chiefs residence [of the Caledonian Society]‘. Once gathered there, a number of speeches were given. One speaker ‘proceeded with the assurance that those of them who were fortunate enough to be “brither Scots” had reason be proud of their native home. … As to Scotland itself, no other country could show within so small a space so many different features of beautiful scenery – whether in the rugged grandeur of the mountains, or the wondrous recesses of the Scottish glens, or the calm loveliness of the lochs.’ And the ‘history of Scotchmen was the history of a gallant race; the Scotchmen of to-day were the inheritors of many noble memories of deeds of gallantry and self-sacrifice (Hear, hear)’.

At the helm of organising balls and other St Andrew’s Day events, now as much as in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were a plethora of Scottish ethnic associations, most notably St Andrew’s societies. The Scots spearheaded the development of these ethnic associations world-wide. In North America, St Andrew’s societies were established as wide-ranging benevolent societies in the eighteenth century, giving support to new immigrants, while, in New Zealand, the Scots exercised remarkable influence through their Caledonian societies and the promotion of sports.

So in the spirit of the work carried out by these societies over centuries, and the enduring Scottish tradition of celebrating the saint’s day abroad: happy St Andrew’s Day everyone!

Symposium exploring Scottish connections with Japan held at the National Museum of Scotland

Dr Mairi Arbuckle, Prof Tom Devine, Mr David Forsyth, Dr Tanja Bueltmann, and Mr Masataka Tarahara

The ‘Scottish Connections with Japan: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Impact’ public symposium was held on 3 November 2012 at the National Museum of Scotland. The symposium offered talks from artists, academics and museum curators, and was opened by a welcome address from the Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh, Mr Masataka Tarahara. Nearly 70 people attended the symposium throughout the day.

Talks commenced with a keynote by Professor Tom Devine, Personal Senior Research Professor in History and Director of the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies, University of Edinburgh. Professor Devine’s talk explored the early history of Scottish enterprise in the East, focusing in particular on the nature of and reasons for the success of Scottish commercial ventures, such as that of Jardine, Matheson & Co. With his talk Professor Devine thus set the scene for the Scottish connections with Japan explored in the other papers—many of which sprang from, or were built upon, the earlier Scottish ventures into Asia.

Moving on to Japan, Dr Tanja Bueltmann (Senior Lecturer in History, Northumbria University) and David Forsyth (Senior Curator, Scottish National Museum of Scotland) introduced the main themes of the day through the personal histories of key figures, including, for instance, Thomas Blake Glover, artist E.A. Hornel, and Taketsuru Masataka, the founder of Nikka Whisky, and his wife Rita Cowan. In recognition of the important role Scots played in the development of engineering and education in Japan, Dr Mairi Arbuckle, who joined the symposium from Japan, then spoke about the how the Scots were influential in the modernisation of Japan. In particular, Dr Arbuckle focused on how Scots like Henry Dyer shaped the education of engineers in Japan. Appointed to head the newly established Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo in 1872, Dyer developed an innovative curriculum that combined theory and practice in a novel way, thus contributing significantly to the progress of Japan as an industrial nation.

In the first panel session of the day, curators from the National Museum of Scotland came together to discuss three other key connections in technology and engineering between Scotland and Japan. Dr Alison Morrison-Low explored Scottish lighthouse technology in nineteenth-century Japan, focusing on Richard Henry Brunton and the Stevenson brothers; Elsa Davidson’s talk explored the development of a new seismograph by Sir James Alfred Ewing in Japan in the late nineteenth century; while Alison Taubman brought connections back to the present and to Scotland, looking at Shin-Etsu Handotai and Silicon Glen, and how the National Museum of Scotland has been able to display personal links to an international industry in the ‘A Changing Nation’.

The final panel was devoted to the arts. Rosinal Buckland (National Museum of Scotland) explored the Henry Dyer art collection and his bequest in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and artists Kate Thomson and Hironori Katagiri spoke about their work in Japan and Scotland. Katagiri’s most recent activities, ‘Postcards from Japan’ and ‘Postcards to Japan’ have focused on the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami. To learn more about the project, please visit the project website.

I would like to thank the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation for the generous grant received—without this financial assistance the symposium could not have been held. My appreciation also goes to the National Museum of Scotland and Northumbria University for their support of the symposium, and to all the speakers whose fascinating papers made the symposium such a success.