Case Study - Cataloguing
Cataloguing the Glen Grant Archive
I was approached to take on cataloguing the Glen Grant Archive at the beginning of May 2022. I did an initial one-day scoping report in mid-May to gauge the size of the project and started work at the end of the month. It was obvious work had been done on the collection in the past as many of the volumes were numbered. Fortunately, I was able to find a copy of this list with the kind help of the Ballast Trust.
My brief was to catalogue the whole collection but prioritise records that might refer to Major James Grant, owner of the distillery from 1872-1931, and the historic gardens he laid out. The gardens had been restored in 1996 and a lot of historic research was done at the time which was also in the collection.
I started with photographs and family papers keeping a record of any items found that related to Grant and his garden. Other parts of the collection included minutes, financial records, correspondence, plans, production and customer records, advertisements and artefacts. My favourite item was a petition from Grant's youngest daughter to be taken for a drive in the car she called Lizzie Daimler.
The collection was approximately 91 linear metres and I catalogued it to item level in 50 days.
