The exhibition shows a selection of items taken from Edinburgh Museums & Galleries' Newhaven collections. The images include, the 'Yellow Butterflies' as the Newhaven fisherwomen were known, seen in some of the photographs in their colourful striped costumes. As well as many images of Newhaven people, objects and documents.
Newhaven grew from the site chosen by King James lV to build his naval dockyard in 1504 and his greatest ship, the Michael in 1511. The death of James IV at Flodden saw the end of the expansion of the Scottish Navy. As Newhaven grew as an important fishing village, the local fishermen began to follow the herring in the late 18C; they made a comfortable living dredging for oysters and line fishing for white fish. An indoor market was built in Newhaven in 1896, which served many of the fishing villages across Scotland. By the 19C the main business of Newhaven and Leith was its trade; exports included herring and cod.
Newhaven became part of Edinburgh in 1920, four centuries after its foundation. Its fishing industry however went into decline in the 1950's, but land reclamation that was started in the 1940's to extend Leith Harbour has continued in recent years giving rise to extensive new housing and transforming an industrial landscape into an extension to the village.
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries