During 2009/2010 Almond Valley Heritage Trust was granted funding by Museums Galleries Scotland and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to identify and describe collection material relating to the Scottish shale oil industry held by museums, libraries and archives in Scotland, the wider UK and abroad. This website presents the results of the survey and brings information about the distributed collection together for the first time with the aim of directing research and informing collecting activity.
The website provides item level descriptions of 8191 objects, archives, media items and geological specimens stored in 3258 searchable records, belonging to 46 organisations. The intention was to include only material contemporaneous with the industry and any items described as a copy were normally excluded from the survey. However, it is likely that in some instances the level of information available may not have been sufficient to exclude some modern copy material.
The navigation bar to the left can be used to search the survey results by the following indexes:
- Historical Chapter associates collection items to key trends or episodes in the history of the industry
- Process, Practice & Impact relates items to key technical and commercial activities of the industry or are associated with the community and environmental impact of its operations
- Institution allows you to browse the collection items held by each individual museum, library or archive
- Geographical Location links items to present day local authority areas
- Oil Companies relates items to their associated oil company or oil companies
- Item Type allows you to browse items by type i.e. by archival material, three-dimensional object, media item (e.g. image, film or sound recording) or geological specimen
In addition, the search box allows you to search all item descriptions relating to your own specific subject of interest.
A copy of the Scottish shale oil industry survey report can be found here.
Although the project has ended, the database will be updated as additional items relating to the Scottish shale oil industry are identified. If you know of any items held in museums, libraries and archives that have not yet been included in the survey, please contact us.