Plans for work in Dumfries and Galloway

  Plans for work in Dumfries and Galloway, Dumfries Museum   These pages from Dr Kissling's notes show his hopes for his work in Dumfries and Galloway. Having researched at Dumfries Museum since the mid-1950s, he moved to Dumfries in 1968.   The first page shows his handwritten plans for 'a folk museum system for Dumfries and Galloway'. It illustrates Dr Kissling's concerns about the disappearance of traditional crafts. He writes:   'One by one, age old crafts are being dealt a solid blow by mass production before they had a chance to recover. Eventually the boredom of mass-standards and conformity will be resented, and the people will cause to regret the loss.'   Although Dr Kissling did not create a new folk museum in Dumfries and Galloway, he did help create and preserve a collection of photographs and objects relating to local craft practices in Dumfries Museum.   The second two pages show a list of important subjects to photograph in Dumfries and Galloway compiled by Dr Kissling with the help of Alf Truckell, curator at Dumfries Museum at the time.   Dr Kissling managed to photograph almost everything on this list and these photographs are now kept in Dumfries Museum so that people can remember the histories of fishing, farming, crafts, and architecture in Dumfries and Galloway.   Some of Dr Kissling's local photographs can be seen here.   Dr Werner Kissling (1895-1988) was a German photographer and ethnographer who spent most of his life documenting Scottish crafts, architecture, and agricultural practices. He was associated with Dumfries Museum from the mid-1950s until his death in 1988.