Scotland’s National Catholic Museum, Blairs Museum, has launched a new website featuring an interactive virtual museum and shop, thanks to £4 million in funding last July from the Scottish Government’s Museum Recovery and Resilience Fund established to protect Scotland’s culture and heritage sectors from the impacts of Covid-19.
The new website unites all the collections of the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust Museum and the historic Library and Archive (both of which are on loan to the University of Aberdeen). The website also provides a link to the Scottish Catholic Archives at Columba House in Edinburgh.
Museum curator and project lead Amy Miller said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has prevented many visitors from coming in person to view our collections at Blairs. This new website and suite of online resources allows anyone with an internet connection to see our museum and treasures safely.”
She added: “We have also created a YouTube Channel to host our new series of web videos about our collections and the amazing stories they tell. We are still adding new videos so it is well worth checking the channel regularly.”
There doesn’t yet appear to be much content on the website and even less to help family historians, but people with Scottish ancestry will enjoy a look around. At the bottom of the home page, there are links to a few interesting topics. Right now, the YouTube videos, such as The Rise and Fall of the Jacobites and a History of Blairs College, seem the most informative resources about Blairs Museum and the Scottish.
