Ellisland: A Museum History. Part 1: Restocking and Reframing, 1921–53

Abstract

This article examines the circumstances from which a museum collection was formed in the early twentieth century at Ellisland Farm, the home of Robert Burns and his family from 1788–91. It describes the gradual rehabilitation of Burns's image during the nineteenth century and with it a re-evaluation of the importance of the ‘interiority’ of Ellisland and the necessity to reframe the memory of this period of the poet's life with specific material culture markers. The article charts the efforts of the early trustees and custodians to interpret the Ellisland story by fashioning parts of the farmhouse for visitation as an historic house museum. A series of important acquisitions throughout 1930s and 1940s, particularly by the Trust Secretary, Matthew McKerrow, sought to underline the significance of Burns's three years at Ellisland. This narrow focus based on person, period and place characterised the first three decades of Ellisland's life as a museum and would set the pattern for the remainder of the century.