Rare festive photographs reveal glimpse of Scotland’s rural past

All five historic photographs are available for press use here. 

The photographs, each over 100 years old, include record-breaking snowy scenes, an eccentric Father Christmas from Fife and a family portrait by one of Scotland’s earliest woman photographers. The Christmas cards are free to download from nms.ac.uk/ScottishLifeArchive, just in time for the festive season. Each one offers a unique glimpse of Scottish Christmases past. 

Lady Henrietta Gilmour took up photography after the birth of her seventh and last child. She became a pioneer of the medium, capturing over a thousand images of Scottish country life, including a tender portrait of her children sledging in the grounds of Montrave House, Fife, in 1900.  

Also from Fife, Mr Henry Watson posed as a characterful Father Christmas in Burntisland in 1909, wearing a fake beard and long, fur- trimmed coat decorated with dolls and toy animals. Two snowy scenes capture the extreme winter of 1895, when Braemar in Aberdeenshire captured the lowest ever recorded temperature in the UK at minus 27.2°C.

The Christmas cards are free to download, just in time to share to a little bit of Scottish history with loved ones this holiday season: Festive scenes from the Scottish Life Archive | National Museums Scotland

The Scottish Life Archive was established in 1959 as a way of preserving and documenting material culture and histories relating to rural life in Scotland. In later years it expanded to include evidence of not only country life, but maritime, urban and industrial life. It contains a large collection of photographic negatives, slides and prints. It can be viewed by the public upon appointment. 

Dr Ailsa Hutton, Curator of Modern and Rural History at National Museums Scotland, said: 

“The Scottish Life Archive offers remarkable insight into all aspects of Scottish life, with 300 years of documentary and illustrative material. I am thrilled to have an opportunity to shine a light on this rich resource, and Scotland’s fascinating rural history, through these  magical festive photographs. Whether it’s a quirky Santa Claus or a record-breaking snowy winter, I hope people enjoy sharing a little bit of Scottish rural history this Christmas.” 

The National Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride consists of a museum, historic farmhouse and working farm, telling the story of the land, people and ways of working that have shaped Scotland's rural history. On display in the museum is Scotland's largest collection of tractors, combine harvesters and farming machinery, while the farm is home to Ayrshire, Aberdeen Angus and Highland cattle, Tamworth pigs, sheep, hens and Clydesdale horses. Lanarkshire's Reid family lived in the Georgian farmhouse for ten generations, and rooms are as they would have been in the 1950s.