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Friends’ membership subscriptions provide a valuable regular income which contributes towards collections care and improvements to Argyll Estates Archives research facilities. The Friends also support targeted fundraising initiatives for the archive to help with conservation, cataloguing and engagement.
Many of our records bear witness to their age and the varied conditions in which they have been kept over the years. His Grace the Duke of Argyll provides storage, research space and a professional archive team to manage the collection, but additional financial investment is needed to conserve items most at risk.
Sponsor an Item
Adopt a Glass Plate Negative!
Our current sponsorship campaign focuses on our amazing collection of glass plate negatives, which date from the 1860s to the early 1900s. A total of 97 plates require expert care from skilled conservators, including individual cleaning, repackaging and stabilisation of broken plates. Once conserved, digital images of the negatives will be uploaded to our online catalogue.
78 plates by Scipio Mactaggart depicting Inveraray and its inhabitants in the 1860s are up for ‘adoption’ at £50 each, and a further 19 from the Campbell of South Hall collection are being offered together for £950. Sponsors will receive high-resolution images of their adopted plate(s) and their names will be recorded in the archive catalogue.
Would YOU like to help us fund this exciting project? Download our adoption catalogue below to learn more and pick a plate.
Why Your Support Matters
Conservation is the process by which archives are stabilised and repaired so that they can be preserved for the future and made available to researchers, in person or digitally. Many items need minimal intervention, others need substantial care and attention. We ensure all work is done by skilled conservators, trained in the most up-to-date techniques and using the most appropriate technologies and materials available.
Preservation and conservation are expensive to implement: from the purchase of acid free boxes, folders and seal bags to employing the services of a skilled conservator. The results of this investment, however, will be an archive that can be accessed for another 800 years. We think this is an investment worth making and we invite you to support us in this work.