Burns Statue, Dumfries

This photograph was part of the first group of images of locations associated with Robert Burns to be made specifically for website use. It was taken using a 'conventional' SLR camera (not digital) on 35mm colour transparency film. The film was then sent to a photolab for processing; on its return the frames to be used were selected and these were sent back to the photolab for digitisation. They were written to a Photo CD Portfolio II disk as .pcd files, which was then passed to the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network for uploading to their website. In all the images moved through the postal system five times.   This image is of Burns Statue, Dumfries. In May 1877 the town council of Dumfries adopted a proposal to erect a statue to Robert Burns, the town's most illustrious inhabitant. A site was chosen in Church Place, at the junction of the High Street, Castle Street and Buccleuch Street and the local historian William McDowall was appointed secretary of a committee formed to progress the project.   The committee approved a model for the statue proposed by the artist Amelia Paton Hill. She had exhibited portrait busts, animal figures and genre groups at the Royal Academy, and all these elements are to be found in her statue of Burns, which is probably her best known work.   The statue was carved in Carrara by Italian craftsmen working to Amelia Hill's model. It was unveiled by the Earl of Rosebery on 6th April 1882. In the century that followed it was moved on several occasions to accommodate road improvements in the vicinity.