Sophy & White: January Update

It's 2026, and we are into our final six months of collections based project, Sophy & White: the Dunollie Collections Unboxed. This project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, kicked off in January 2024 and will end this summer, in July 2026.

The Sophy & White project focuses on the two collections we care for here at Dunollie: the Clan MacDougall collection, comprised mainly of historic textiles, clan artefacts and Jaocbean weaponry, and the vast social history collection of Miss Hope MacDougall, daughter of the Clan's 29th Chief. The aims of this project included a full audit and review of both collections, updating and creating vital documentation to keep them safe and accessible, as well as four sub-projects encouraging engagement with various elements of our collections, from historic plaid, to spinning wheels, agricultural tools to iconic gowns.

As we move into February, we are coming to the end of our third sub-project: Seed. The aims of seed were for us to better understand the breadth of our agricultural collection, and how mechanisation changed the Scottish landscape and what we eat today. Our Learning and Engagement Officer on Sophy & White, Flora Swietlicki, has created a range of learning resources aimed at primary school children, with a view to bringing an understanding of local agriculture, how it has changed, and how our modern diet differs from the diet of the past. These resources include short, informative content made with local videographer Beth Chalmers, and a handling box of original and replica tools and utensils. We are also installing a new temporary exhibition in our 1745 House Museum, focusing on how mechanisation changed the Scottish landscape and approaches to agriculture, through the lens of Miss Hope MacDougall's collection of agricultural tools and photography.

Another huge achievement behind the scenes in this last quarter was concluding the process of documenting our extensive textile collection. Many of our textiles have been stored without documentation for a number of years, due to a lack of staff time and capacity, a problem facing more and more small, independent museum like ours. Updating and creating documentation for all of our collections was one of the primary focuses of the Sophy & White project, as it makes our collections more safe, more accessible, and more engaging than ever. Throughout the first two years of this 30 month project, a team of volunteers, recruited and supported by Collections Development Officer Shannen Provan-Sloan, worked tirelessly to update records for our Social History collection before turning their attention to creating brand new records for all of our incredible historic textiles. This is a delicate process which included unboxing, gently examining (where appropriate), numbering and writing descriptions for each item. Upon completion, we have catalogued almost 600 items - a huge achievement, and something which will stand our collections in good stead for years to come. We have also completed the transfer of all of our original and new records to a brand new object database, meaning that before the end of 2026, our collections will hopefully be available to browse online, in their entirety, from anywhere in the world.

We are also now launching the fourth and final sub-project of Sophy & White: Cobalt Blue. Cobalt Blue aims to engage a younger audience with our collections, inspiring conversations about difficult topics like cobalt mining and climate change, as well as to engage with colour and technology. Several students from Oban High School will be participating in workshops on natural dyeing, and will then support Learning & Engagement Officer Flora Swietlicki to recreate one of our most incredible historic gowns. The pupils will document their experiences, guided by Beth Chalmers, and create digital content of their time working on this project, bringing what they have learned to a wide audience online. Follow along with our updates in the coming months to see how this project takes shape.

As always, thank you to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for funding this incredible project. Thank you to all of our volunteers for their continued, appreciated support. And to everyone who follows along and backs this project in other ways, a huge thank you. We hope you are as excited as we are to see what the final six months has in store.