Softback book ‘The Secret Island – towards a history of Tiree’, 2014. Published proceedings of a three-day conference held on Tiree by the Islands Book Trust in September 2013, with chapters by many authors on a wide variety of aspects of Tiree’s history and culture.
Hardback book ‘John G Paton – The Missionary Hero of the New Hebrides’ by Charles D Michael, ca 1900, about the life and times of Rev John Gibson Paton of Kirkmahoe, pioneering minister in the South Pacific Islands (now Vanuatu) in the mid 1800s. On the inside front cover is written ‘Malcolm Brown 1st Prize 1933’ and John Brown, Balephuil, Tiree. From the house of John Brown, The Sliabh, Balephuil.
Hardback book ‘Lord Clive’, 1901, composed from essays by MacAulay about the life of Lord Robert Clive (b. 1725), founder of the British empire in India in the 1700s. On the inside front cover is handwritten ‘This book belongs to Mr John Brown, The Sliabh, Balephuil, Tiree’ and stamped with his name next to ‘Balemartine P Sch’.
Small hardback book in Gaelic ‘An Saoghal a ta ri Teachd / The World to Come’ or ‘Seallaidhean Nèimh agus Ifrinn / Visions of Heaven and Hell’ by John Bunyan, 1891. On the inside front cover is handwritten ‘Francis Wm Taylor, 26th Janry 1901’. Rev Taylor was a Baptist minister. The book was in the belongings of John Brown, Sliabh, Balephuil.
Set of 13 brass numbers with sharp steel teeth used for tattooing identification marks on the ears of livestock during the 1950s and 60s. Kept in a ‘Four Square’ metal cigarette tin bearing a crown. From the house of John Brown, Sliabh, Balephuil.
Scanned copy of a package label of Duncan MacKinnon & Son, General Merchants, Balephuil. Duncan MacKinnon and later his son, Alasdair, ran a large shop in Balephuil, which sold all manner of household items and petrol. It closed in 1974.
Summary of research into the families and descendants of people at the centre of the Balephuil Fishing Disaster of 1856, by descendant Sharon Clayton, Canada, in 2020.
Black & white photograph of L-R: black-roofed croft house, outbuildings and new croft house, at Main Road Farm in Balephuil, around the 1930s. From an exhibition held at An Iodhlann in 1998.
Scans of ledgers, school workbooks, ships logs and other documents belonging to Duncan Alexander Campbell, Balephuil (1828-1911), who emigrated to Bruce County, Ontario, aboard the ‘Britannia’ in 1846, with his wife Elizabeth Forrest, Dumbarton(?) (1831-1906). Before emigrating to Canada to join the rest of his family, Duncan became a ship’s carpenter in Dumbarton. Includes background information compiled by the donors.
Copies of documents and correspondence between An Iodhlann’s genealogist Flo Straker and Kathryn McKinnon Berthold regarding the descendants of Murdoch Campbell, Balinoe (b. ca 1725). Names include Duncan Campbell, Balephuil (1853-1932) and his wife Janet Black (d. 1930); Hector Campbell (b. 1778); John Black (1820-1876); Murdoch Campbell, Balinoe (1805-1876); Alexander Campbell & Cath McDonald; Catherine McMillan, Kenovay.