Blake Milteer – The Mackinnon Photographic Collection

President Katrina welcomed everyone to tonight’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Motherwell and Wishaw including Blake Milteer. She intimated that, as per last week, we would have the speaker first, followed by club business.

Our speaker for the evening, Blake Milteer, Curator of Photography for the National Galleries of Scotland, was introduced by President Katrina and the topic of his presentation was the historic ‘MacKinnon Photographic Collection’.

This collection had been put together by Murray MacKinnon and was a social commentary on Scottish life with scenes from the 1840s to the mid-20^th century.  There are 14,000 photographs in the collection, almost all black and white.  The collection was purchased by the National Galleries of Scotland in 2018.  The photographs are at present being dated and digitalised and the aim is to get all of them online to be viewable by all.

Blake showed a number of photographs depicting life in Scotland, mainly in the second half of the 19^th century.  They included Fishwives at work; the Tay Rail Bridge (before and after the disaster); the Forth Rail Bridge under construction; Scottish rural scenes; wild and domestic animals.  Photography only started in 1839 and first photos to be developed were in Scotland.

A planned tour of the MacKinnon Photographic Collection, which was due to begin in September 2020, had to be postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  It is hoped that the tour, which will go to North East Scotland, the Highlands & Islands and South West Scotland, will take place in March 2021.    

After his talk Blake answered a variety of questions from the Rotarians.

Our vote of thanks was proposed by Callan Dick, who thanked Blake for a very enjoyable and fascinating presentation.

President Katrina’s interesting Rotary information was ‘Rotary History – A Home for Headquarters’

The idea of Rotary International having its headquarters in a beautiful building of its own dates back to 1920.  Formed in 1910, the National Association of Rotary Clubs – now Rotary International – outgrew its original H.Q. in the office of its secretary in Chicago over a period of nine years, as it expanded beyond North America. 

In 1928 a committee was formed and potential locations in Chicago were identified. However, the Depression and the U.S. entry into World War II delayed any further action until the Rotary Conventions of 1946 and 1947 debated and rejected proposals to relocate the headquarters to Denver.

In 1952 the Board began looking for land or a building in Chicago.  In 1953 Rotary leaders gathered at Ridge Avenue for a ground-breaking ceremony and the building opened in August 1954.  Known today as One Rotary Center, the building is still home to Rotary International World Headquarters and welcomes more than 2,000 visitors annually.

Willie Talbot reported that the Bonus Ball had been won by Andrew Stephen. He has, also, received a phone call from RFUK acknowledging our £2,000 donation and was told that £1,600 would go to ‘End Polio Now’ and £400 to the ‘Action Fund’, gift aid being added to each.