Information about Archibald MacKinnon, Balephuil & Mull (1824-1886) and Colin MacDonald, Balephuil & Glasgow (1856-1927). Colin MacDonald’s father (also Colin) died in the Balephuil fishing disaster of 1856, just before he was born. Colin Jnr trained as a doctor then returned to Tiree to start a practice at Balemartine in 1909. Colin’s wife Jessie Maggie MacKinnon was Archibald MacKinnon’s daughter. Archibald MacKinnon survived the Balephuil fishing disaster of 1856.
“Around 1909, a second doctor had come to the island, Dr Colin MacDonald (an Dotair Domhnallach), whose first wife was related to Helen Kennedy (Eilidh bheag, Balevullin), set up a rival practice in Balemartine … but it is unlikely the island could support two doctors and left after a few years to go to Bunessan” [on Mull]. Extract from ‘Water from the Seventh Wave – a history of Tiree’s healers’ by John Holliday.
CD recording of a BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Crossing Continents’ on Resignation Syndrome in refugee children in Sweden, with a note from Dr Margaret Mackay, School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh, about the similarities with a condition in Tiree children known as barr a’ chinn.
Scanned copy of a newspaper eulogy of Dr Catherine Brown (1900 – c.1985) titled ‘The doctor whose name lives on in Agyll school annals’ from (presumably) the Oban Times. Although Catherine was born in Bunessan, Mull, her Baptist minister father Alexander Brown, was originally from Mannal, Tiree, and she was “as much at home too in the Isle of Tiree”.
Collection of 36 original colour photographs, including the Reading Room and first exhibitions, Whitehouse Cattle Show, houses Taigh a’ Bhochdainn and Lag nan Cruach before renovation, ploughing demonstration, Tiree district nurses, Tiree football team ca. 1999. Most are catalogued separately (see 2018.54.5 – 27).
Small, brass weighing scales and weights (5mg to 10g) , probably used for measuring out small quantities of medicines in the 1960s. Includes black storage case (18 x 9.5 x 2 cm), which also acts as a stand for the scales.
Softback report ‘Profiles: Health and Community in Rural and Urban Argyll’ using data from the Rural-Urban Morbidity Recording Project (2001-2004), by Jane Farmer et al, 2004. The profiles include the work of health professionals, people’s health status and their use of health services. They also highlight strengths and weaknesses of living in the local communities – centering on factors which might be related to health. See pages 17-23 for data from Tiree.
Softback book ‘Hebridean Heroines: Twentieth Century Queen’s Nurses (1940s – 1970s)’ by Catherine M. Morrison, 2017.
Provides insight into the lives of women from the Western Isles who worked as district nurses in the mid-twentieth century. Here they describe in their own words their everyday lives; working long hours and always available when called, regardless of hour, weather conditions or remoteness.
Black & white photograph of Dr Alexander Buchanan (1935-1911), Tiree’s doctor, during a vist to Coll in the late 1800s. He is standing outside the smiddy in Arinagour. The photograph was taken by Robert Sturgeon – the donor’s grandfather, and is from a postcard reproduced from a glass-plate negative.
