...de la St. Thomas Times-Journal:
Talk about packing light! With only one trunk to hold their earthly possessions, whole families journeyed months nearly 200 years ago from Scotland to new lives in Upper Canada. Elgin County Museum celebrates their arrival with an exhibition beginning Saturday.
There’s a formal opening 2 p.m. Sunday.Named for the ubiquitous pine chest which contained those pioneer belongings, The Emigrant’s Kist is a travelling exhibition from the National Museum of Scotland, with additions from the museum’s own collection.Tools, cooking utensils, clothing, keepsakes -- and the family Bible in Gaelic -- all filled a typical chest...
...Fleshing out the Scottish exhibition are artifacts from the museum’s own collection. Curiously, the Scottish kist contains an English-language Bible -- fortunately, the local museum has a dozen Gaelic testaments.
1 comment:
Yes, the NMS should have gone the whole hog and put in a Gaelic bible, a few bottles of whisky, a tin of shortbread and maybe a haggis or two. They should also have called it the Highland Emigrant's Kist, as it is not representative of the large numbers of emigrant Scots who never spoke a word of gaelic or wore a shred of tartan.
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