Unlocking the hidden stories, values, and lives of the HES Trinity House object collection

最近关于非殖民化遗产的争论导致了关注藏品“隐藏故事”的项目的显著增加。遗产组织和博物馆正在寻找发现和解决殖民地的联系，与帝国和奴隶制的联系，以及那些身份（与种族，性别，阶级，（残疾）能力和性取向有关）被边缘化的人的生活（博物馆协会2021:21）。详细的来源研究，检查“如何，为什么和何时获得物品”（同上），是这些倡议的核心，被认为是“至关重要的工作”（博物馆协会2010）。然而，迄今为止，分别关注建筑遗产收藏和物体收藏的来源研究主要发生在离散的领域，通常与不同的组织有关。即使在拥有大量便携式藏品的建筑遗产组织中，也缺乏对历史遗迹和便携式物品的隐藏故事如何相互交叉和相互阐明的交叉研究。特别是，迫切需要开发具有批判性信息的来源方法，通过超越对“获取”的主要关注，探索藏品的后续“生活”（包括使用、展示、解释），来揭示这种关系。这类研究将有助于对文物收藏及其与一般建筑遗产的关系制定持续和综合的方法，对特定历史财产和文物收藏的真实性和重要性具有重要意义。这个CDP项目的目的是通过持续的来源研究来揭示三一之家及其相关藏品隐藏的故事、价值和生活。通过这个详细的案例研究，将开发一种综合的、关键的方法，可以应用于其他具有便携式收藏品的建筑遗产遗址（在HES内外）。在此过程中，该项目将解决以下问题：-来源研究如何揭示与历史财产相关的便携式收藏品的各种隐藏故事，价值和意义？这样的研究能告诉我们什么关于物体，地点和社区的复杂，交叉的传记，从中产生意义和真实性？-这些见解如何通过增强对物体与过去和现在的兴趣、依恋和地点之间关系的认识来提高观众的参与度？利斯是苏格兰的三个海关港口之一，与帝国商业贸易和奴隶经济有着密切的联系。这处房产及其藏品（2008年的藏品）有一系列与帝国、奴隶制和性别相关的潜在故事等待被发现（基于最近对藏品的试点审查）。该研究将确定三一之家的藏品是如何获得的，随后是如何策划、解释和展示的，以及随着时间的推移，它们对不同的社区和利益相关者意味着什么。它将开发创新的方法来研究隐藏的故事，使用文献，视觉，民族志和创造性的方法来揭示新的意义，价值和意义。该项目将建立并补充为期18个月的基线研究项目，该项目建立了HES Properties in Care与帝国和历史奴隶制联系之间的联系（2021年11月委托）。它还将建立在管理帝国遗产研究网络的基础上，这是一个与爱丁堡大学和种族平等与权利联盟（CRER）合作的为期两年的项目，旨在探索如何更好地将跨大西洋奴隶经济纳入苏格兰建筑环境的解释和管理中。

Recent debates about decolonising heritage have led to a marked rise in projects focusing on the "hidden stories" of collections. Heritage organisations and museums are looking to uncover and address colonial connections, links to empire and slavery, and the lives of those whose identities (relating to race, gender, class, (dis)ability and sexuality) have been marginalised (Museums Association 2021: 21). Detailed provenance research, examining "how, why and when items were acquired" (ibid), sits at the heart of such initiatives and is considered "vital work" (Museums Association 2010). However, to date, provenance research focusing on built heritage collections and object collections respectively has largely taken place in discrete arenas, often associated with different organisations. Even in the case of built heritage organisations with extensive portable collections, there is a dearth of cross-cutting research examining how the hidden stories of historic properties and the portable objects intersect and shed light on each other. In particular, there is a pressing need to develop critically-informed provenance methods attentive to revealing such relationships by moving beyond a primary focus on 'acquisition' to exploring the subsequent 'lives' (including use, display, interpretation) of collections. Such research would contribute to the development of sustained and integrated approaches to collections and their relationships to built heritage generally, with important implications for the authenticity and significance of specific historic properties and collections. The aim of this CDP project is to use sustained provenance research to reveal the hidden stories, values and lives of Trinity House and its associated Collections. Through this detailed case study, an integrated, critical approach will be developed that can be applied to other built heritage sites with portable collections (within HES and beyond). In doing so, the project will address the following questions: - How can provenance research reveal the diverse hidden stories, values, and meanings of portable collections associated with historic properties? - What can such research tell us about the complex, intersecting biographies of objects, places, and communities from which significance and authenticity emerge? - How can these insights promote improved audience engagement through enhanced recognition of relations between objects and past and present communities of interest, attachment and place? Trinity House was the Headquarters of the Incorporation of Mariners and Shipmasters of Leith, one of three custom ports in Scotland with strong links to imperial mercantile trade and the slave economy. This property and its collection (2008 objects) have a rich range of potential stories linked to empire, slavery and gender waiting to be uncovered (based on a recent pilot review of the Collections). The research will establish how the Trinity House collections have been acquired and subsequently curated, interpreted, and displayed, as well as what they have meant to different communities and stakeholders over time. It will develop innovative approaches to hidden stories research using documentary, visual, ethnographic and creative methods to reveal new meanings, values, and significance. The project will build on and complement the 18-month baseline research project establishing links between HES Properties in Care and imperial and historic slavery connections (commissioned November 2021). It will also build on the Managing Imperial Legacies research network, a 2-year project with the University of Edinburgh and the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), to explore how we can better include the Trans-Atlantic slave economy within the interpretation and management of Scotland's built environment.