Craiglockhart : School Hall of R.C. Training College

Category

Library Item

Item no

54979

Title

Craiglockhart : School Hall of R.C. Training College

Artist / maker

Jackman, S. G.

Date

1959

Size

5 x 4 inches

Type

Photographic film

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Prior to its days as a college for Catholic teacher training, Craiglockhart was a treatment institution for First World War victims of shell shock, now recognised as a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It was sold to the trustees of the Society of the Sacred Heart, an enclosed religious order, to be used as a convent and training college for Catholic teachers. Also, at this time Craiglockhart became part of Edinburgh, as the Colinton parish was subsumed into the city.

The main building was added to over the years with a Chapel opened in 1933 and extended in 1963, and a new wing on the other side of the building built in 1957. In 1965 a six-storey hall of residence was added along with a new lecture block, hall and gymnasium and the whole was renamed Craiglockhart College of Education, which it remained for the next 20 year

This digital image is from a donation of material to the library by the photographer, S. G. Jackman. The material included prints, notebooks, glass negatives and photographic film negatives. Unfortunately, it was discovered that some of the film negatives were badly damaged by Vinegar Syndrome, so called because of the distinctive vinegary odour it produces. Cellulose acetate can be chemically unstable and deterioration of the cellulose acetate triggered by heat, moisture or acidity, can lead to Vinegar Syndrome. Vinegar Syndrome once developed, can’t be reversed. The Vinegar Syndrome effects are very evident in some of these images showing the crackling and bubbling on the surface of the film which in some cases had become separated from the base layer. It was decided that we would digitise the negatives to preserve Jackman’s photographic record of Edinburgh and then dispose of the contagious negatives.

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