Robert Burns remains one of Scotland's greatest cultural assets.
In the centuries since his death artists, photographers, printers
and publishers have generated a vast body of visual material
relating to the people, places and events of Robert Burns' life and
work.
This selection of images illustrates the people, places
and events associated with Robert Burns in the popular culture of
Scotland. It includes portraits of his immediate family and
descendants, who were themselves transformed into minor celebrities
simply because of their heredity; topographic images of the places
where he lived or visited, which feature in his writing and which
became landmarks - if not places of pilgrimage - for his
enthusiasts; the monuments erected to Burns and the events and
ceremonies which take place in his memory. It illustrates his
contemporary circle of friends and patrons and also those who
sought to preserve and promote his position in Scottish culture
throughout the last two centuries. The images are drawn from
collections of paintings, drawings, engravings and lithographic
prints, books, ephemera, postcards, photographic prints, glass
plate negatives and magic lantern slides held by Dumfries and
Galloway Museums.
These images also serve to illustrate how Robert Burns' growth
in popularity reflected the advances being made in reprographic
technology and communication throughout the centuries following his
death.
