Newsletter No.

13, April 2010

Dear Friends,

It has been a quiet few weeks for me, although the storms at the end of
March brought home John Muir’s quote of ‘The dark and stormy
North Sea’. The sight of the huge waves pounding the harbour wall
and the shoreline was tremendous – and frightening.

We are promised a hot summer. Well, they did last year too and we
know what happened, but this forecast came from a company in Wales
who got last year’s summer and winter right, so here’s hoping that our
summer events will be even more enjoyable.

We start off on the anniversary of John Muir’s birth on 21st April with
the launch of Robert Russell’s ‘wee’ book on the John Muir Way.
Please do come and join us at the Birthplace for the launch.

As usual the Newsletter ends with the Walks and Talks Programme
for the next three months and I hope you’ll be able to join us at these
events. We would also like to hear your ideas for future events so
please do let us know.

Sincerely,

Jim Thompson
 Visitors at the Birthplace
The first three months of 2010 have been very quiet with visitor numbers down
to a trickle but there are clear signs of the green shoots of recovery. January
and February are generally ‘slow’ months but the snow and low temperatures
have had a marked effect. Among the visitors who have made it to the
Birthplace were two folk from other ‘small museums’:
Jeff Cowton is curator for the Wordsworth Trust and among his responsibilities
is Dove Cottage, Grasmere, which was the home of William and Dorothy
Wordsworth from 1799 to 1808. Jeff was intrigued to learn of John Muir’s
love of poetry and high regard for Wordsworth. Muir visited Grasmere during
his ‘homecoming’ in 1893 and recorded in his journal his emotions while
standing at the poet’s grave. The headstones, he wrote, were plain while
“maple, yew, pine and ash hold boughs over them. A robin came and sang on
the maple as I stood with damp eyes and a lump in my throat.” He picked some
leaves from the branches and mailed them to Louie with his next letter.
Pauline Smeed later received a lengthy e-mail from Jeff in which he thanked
the Birthplace staff for “a wonderful visit” when he was made to “feel so
welcome”. “I felt almost as if I was in the Wordsworth Museum, surrounded by
very similar ideas.” He is keen to develop links between the Wordsworth
Trust and the Birthplace and has extended a warm welcome “to anyone
connected with the John Muir [Birthplace] Trust who may be visiting this part
of the world.”
Caroline Boyce is chairman of the Friends of Dollar Museum, an independent
local museum dedicated to the history and heritage of the town. It was set up
in 1988 in a 19th century woolen mill and was runner-up in the 1994 Scottish
Museum of the Year Awards. Since then it has received a Museum of the Year
award for Community Involvement in 2000 and, a year later, was visited by
Princess Anne. Caroline and her husband Paul began their Dunbar visit with a
guided walk around the harbour area before touring the Birthplace. A bar
lunch was followed by a “bracing walk” along the clifftop trail.
Birthplace manager Jo Moulin spoke to both Jeff Cowton and Caroline Boyce
and it is likely that one or other of the Birthplace’s recent exhibitions on Muir’s
homecoming and the influence on him of Burns’ writings will be on display in
Grasmere and Dollar in the near future.

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 John Muir Birthplace Trust - News
A recent meeting of the John Muir Birthplace Trust discussed a wide range of
issues and illustrated again the diversity of our interests and challenges! The
100th anniversary of Muir’s death will be marked in 2014 and presents a wider
opportunity to celebrate his remarkable achievements and legacy. A John Muir
Strategy group has been established in conjunction with East Lothian Council
and is exploring how to gain greater recognition of Muir in a national context
and to develop the potential of his name. We discussed the naming of the new
primary school campus and would very much like to see Dunbar have the first
John Muir School in the UK. At the last count, there were around thirty schools
in the USA named after Muir, most but by no means all, in California. We also
look forward to a forthcoming significant anniversary of the twinning of
Dunbar and Martinez, though there is debate about the actual date! As ever, we
are grateful for the active support of the Friends and Birthplace staff whose
knowledge, hard work and enthusiasm are evident in the continuing success of
the Birthplace.
Liz McLean
Chair, John Muir Birthplace Trust

John Muir’s Birthplace Museum - News

Portraits in Nature
Photographs by local artist James Page
Wednesday 17th March - Sunday 11th April
An exhibition of photographic images exploring patterns and images in nature
such as faces in clouds and rocks has recently opened at the Birthplace. The
exhibition is already proving very popular, with over 50 visitors specifically
for the exhibition in the first two days.
James wants to encourage people to watch the natural world around them and
will be running a workshop for older primary pupils as part of the regular
Friday afternoon children’s workshop programme at the Birthplace.

Friday Afternoon Children’s Workshops

Due to growing popularity we are now running workshops every week
alternating between older and younger primary aged children. At one of the
recent workshops the Birthplace was turned into a wildlife crime scene with
lots of evidence for the children to investigate.
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 Summer Opening Hours
The Birthplace changed to summer opening hours from the 1st April, namely:
Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and Sunday 1pm to 5pm.
If you have children visiting over the Easter break, don’t forget that there are
always free drop-in activities available at the Birthplace at weekends and when
the schools are on holiday.

Interesting Requests and Contacts

Staff at the Birthplace have welcomed many interesting visitors and have
responded to a number of interesting enquiries recently. These have included:

• A visit by Jeff Cowton, the Curator of Dove Cottage, The Wordsworth

Museum and Art Gallery, Cumbria. We are discussing the loan of the
Scotchman Comes Home Exhibition which will provide a great link to
Muir’s brief visit to Cumbria in 1893 and exploring the possibility of
someone from the Birthplace attending the conference of curators and staff
from literary house museums in October.
• A visit from Caroline Boyce from Dollar Museum following a request to the
Birthplace for a speaker. Will Collin will be giving two talks over the next
few months and temporary exhibition loans are also being explored.
• Longniddry Primary School teachers Karen Hood, Mellony Bertram and
Hilary Anderson brought Head Teacher Mr Pedro and teacher Mrs Jackson
of Oranje Diamant Primary School, Hopetown, South Africa. Oranje
Diamant School is twinned with Longniddry Primary School. Mr Pedro and
Mrs Jackson left having bought some books to take back to South Africa as
they are working towards a John Muir Award.
• A request for resources to support the John Muir Award from the education
unit at a prison near Aberdeen.
• An outreach request from Dunbar Primary School P1s for a session on
“Why do people visit Scotland?” Jo Moulin trundled into school with a
suitcase full of props that prompted discussions about Scottish history,
landscape, places to visit, food, famous people and miming playing the
bagpipes and fiddle!
• An outreach request from Stenton Primary School for a session on John
Muir and Native Americans.
• An outreach request from Cockburnspath and Stenton Primary Schools for
‘Waste Free Lunch’ sessions.

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 Big Picnic Birthday Celebration 2010
Last year schools and groups
from East Lothian, Edinburgh
and Moray celebrated John
Muir's birthday with a Big
Picnic event in their local
community. John Muir (Dan
Cairney) and President
Roosevelt (Jim Thompson) were
seen picnicking at the Glebe
with a group of pupils from
Dunbar Primary School [photo].
Athelstaneford Primary School
took a picnic to the special place that they had created as part of a John Muir
Award Project. East Linton Primary School’s John Muir Award Family Group
took their picnic to the park and used some of the environmental activities from
the resource pack on the birthplace website. “Everyone joined in the
environmental games and activities and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.”
We currently have twenty-one organisations registered for 2010, with requests
from East Lothian, Scottish Borders, Edinburgh, Perthshire, Inverness and
Cheshire! For more information, or to register a group, please go to
www.jmbt.org.uk.

Science Week Workshop

The 12th to the 21st of March was
the National Science and
Engineering Week. The
Birthplace took part by holding
drop-in workshops with the
theme of ‘Let’s make weather’.
Children who took part followed
in John Muir’s footsteps by
studying glaciers, sorting
sediments and making rain and
clouds.

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 Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace - News

Innerwick Primary School embark on John Muir Award

From now to the end of the school year will see a
considerable increase in school visits. Among
recent visitors were schoolchildren from Falkirk,
like many others working to complete a John Muir
Award.
One local class setting out on the journey is primary
6/7 at Innerwick. To start them off, Will Collin
gave them a talk on 1st March when he focused
mainly on Muir’s boyhood in Dunbar and his youth
on the family farms in Wisconsin. Favourite parts
were the stories of Muir’s inventions and the
adventure he and David had on the roof of their
Dunbar home.
Will received an enthusiastic reception and fielded
numerous questions on Muir’s life. One, on
Muir’s temporary blindness as a result of an
industrial accident, brought an answer that was
not for the squeamish but the questioner has since
thanked Will for his talk and his answer, “even
though it was gruesome”.
Each of the class has sent Will a ‘thank you’ letter
and all are looking forward to their forthcoming
visit to the Birthplace.
[Drawings by Caitlin Letch from her ‘thank you’ letter.]

Far Flung Friends

If you plan to visit John Muir’s Birthplace and you are from out with the local
area, please let us know in advance as we would love to welcome you! Friends
volunteers would like to meet you for a coffee and even show you around
Dunbar. Please leave your name and contact details at JMB 01368 865899 to
be passed on to Susan, Will or Jim.

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 Launch of Walking the John Muir Way

As reported in the last Newsletter, Friends member Robert Russel - a retired

teacher, keen walker and trustee of the John Muir Birthplace Trust - had
volunteered to write a wee book about the John Muir Way. With contributions
to the cost of production of the book from Scottish Natural Heritage, East
Lothian Council and a number of Community Councils, we are delighted to be
able to invite Friends to the launch of the latest addition to our growing library.

You are invited to the book launch of

Walking the John Muir Way

by Robert Russel

Wednesday 21st April

4-5pm
John Muir’s Birthplace, 126 High Street, Dunbar
East Lothian EH42 1JJ Tel: 01368 865899

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 Postcards
Friends have ordered two new postcards. One is a portrait of John Muir along
with the quote: ‘When we try to pick out anything by itself…’, and the second is
an image of the Birthplace with the quote: ‘When I was a boy in Dunbar…’.
Look out for them in the JMB shop very soon!

Walks and Talks Programme – Past Events

Dunbar Community Woodland Group – February 2010

In February, Isobel Knox, Convenor of Dunbar Community Woodland Group
gave an interesting illustrated talk about the history of Lochend Woods and the
development and work of the Woodland Group. New members and volunteers
are always welcome! To support your local woodland and to keep up to date
with current woodland management please visit www.dunbarwoods.org

John Muir and Faith – March 2010

In March, local historian David Anderson gave a very informative, illustrated,
talk about John Muir and Faith. This was a well-attended talk that attracted a
diverse, and appreciative, audience to Our Lady of the Waves church hall.
David talked about his research into Muir’s books and letters in order to gain
an insight into Muir’s beliefs and opinions about Faith. During the presentation
facts about Muir’s life, quotations from his writings, and images from the likes
of Yosemite, provided the audience with much entertainment and a deeper
appreciation of Muir’s background and his love of nature and the effect these
influences had on his faith.

Walks and Talks Programme – Forthcoming Events

Wed 21st April, 4-5pm in JMB - Launch of ‘Walking the John Muir Way’
Refreshments include John Muir birthday cake!

Wed 5th May, 6.30pm - Walk along new Skateraw Nature Trail.
Meet at Skateraw Barn. Booking essential.
Please phone 01368 865899 for further details.

Wed 2nd June, 6.30pm - Geowalk with Angus Miller at Barns Ness.
Small charge. Meet at Whitesands. Booking essential.
Please phone 01368 865899 for further details.

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 Future Programmes - Survey
Please let the Friends Council know which walks, talks and events you are
enjoying. Do evening meetings suit you? Would you rather have meetings
during the daytime or at weekends? Would you like to try something new?

Please take time to fill in the small questionnaire enclosed and hand/send it to:
Susan Panton, John Muir’s Birthplace, 126 High St, Dunbar, East Lothian,
EH42 1JJ

Alternatively, email your comments/suggestions to susanpanton@yahoo.com

Other Items of Interest

Spirit – by John G Moore
Over the course of Spring 2008-Autumn 2009, Scottish photographer John G
Moore travelled along the 211 mile John Muir Trail through California's Sierra
Nevada Mountains photographing his journey along the way. Starting at
Yosemite Valley, John travelled south, ending his journey at the highest peak
in contiguous USA, Mount Whitney.
A fine art landscape photography book documenting the journey is now on
release. A percentage of sales proceeds from the book will be donated to the
following charities: Yorkhill Childrens Foundation in Glasgow and Access
Adventure in Fairfield, California.
"The publication of Spirit and the critical acclaim with which it is being
received is a wonderful achievement for John Moore. What is even more
wonderful is that sick children and babies from throughout Scotland who are
treated within Greater Glasgow and Clyde will benefit from the proceeds of
this book. We are extremely grateful to John Moore for his support."
Shona Cardle
Chief Executive - Yorkhill Children’s Foundation
Access Adventure is a California-based group that seeks to widen the
opportunities of disabled people. Its director Michael Muir is the great-
grandson of John Muir.

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“John Moore has captured the wild spirit of Scotland’s native son John Muir.
We are deeply grateful that sales of this book will benefit Access Adventure,
and the legacy of my great-grandfather. Every life is enriched by a powerful
connection to the infinite storm of beauty in our wild and natural world, and
John Moore’s photography encapsulates this perfectly.”
Michael Muir
Further details of the book are available on John G Moore’s website [see
<http://www.johngmoore.co.uk/books.html>] and, in February, STV News ran
the story John Muir Trail: Amazing pictures from a Scot’s journey in the
wilderness [see <http://tinyurl.com/stv-moore-trail>].

Adult Education Archaeological Certification Course

The Department of Adult Continuing Education at the University of Glasgow
has run a 2-year field archaeology certification course for a number of years.
Biddy Simpson, ELC Heritage Officer, and Dr Chris Bowles, Scottish Borders
Council Archaeologist, have spoken with Dr Alan Leslie who runs the course
in Glasgow about the exciting possibility of creating an extension course for
the south-east. Before such a decision is made, feedback on possible uptake of
the course is required. If you are interested please contact
bsimpson1@eastlothian.gov.uk as soon as possible with your details and location.

For further information about the course taught in Glasgow go to

http://www.gla.ac.uk/dace/certHE/PDF%20Files/2009/CFA%20Overview%20Sept10.pdf

FRIENDS CONTACTS
Official address: Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace, John Muir’s Birthplace,
126 High Street, Dunbar EH42 1JJ: tel: 01368 865899
Friends Website: www.muirbirthplacefriends.org.uk
Birthplace Email: info@jmbt.org.uk Website: www.jmbt.org.uk
Convener: Jim Thompson, Secretary: Susan Panton, Membership Sec: Duncan
Smeed, Treasurer: Will Collin. All can be contacted through the Birthplace.

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