Museum barcode to unlock rare record of Scotland's past

New technology is to be deployed by one of Scotland's main cultural attractions to allow visitors to download rarely-seen footage charting the modern history of the nation on to their mobile phones.

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is piloting the use of small barcode-style squares attached to dozens of glass cases housing exhibits to open up access to a treasure trove of archive material.

Film footage and grainy photographs of factory workers, fishermen, soldiers, families and schoolchildren, as well as landmark historical occasions and celebrity interviews, can now be instantly downloaded on to any smartphone.

The pioneering project - the first of its kind in Scotland - is being tested out on 70 of the 350 exhibits in the museum's Changing Nation gallery, which was unveiled three years ago to chart the development of Scotland throughout the 20th century.

These include the pay- slip of a worker at the doomed Ravenscraig plant in Lanarkshire, a suit made from St Kilda tweed before the island's 1930 evacuation, early footage of Cumbernauld's "new town" taking shape, a sewing machine made at the Singer factory in Clydebank, the first MRI scanner dating back to the 1970s, and an early sculpture of the Dounreay nuclear plant, in Caithness.

Archive footage includes images of children in Shetland wearing traditional guising costumes, schoolgirls being taught how to wash and iron clothes at school and rare footage of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig during the First World War.

More modern exhibits featured in the pilot include Harry Potter and Rebus detective novels, a poster promoting the film Trainspotting, a stage jacket worn by The Rezillos, a model of the Scottish Parliament building and the dark cloak featured in Scottish Widows' advertising campaigns.

Visitors simply scan the label beside an exhibit and are able to use a newly-developed mobile application to access the Scottish Screen Archive and SCRAN, which is run by Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments.

It is hoped the digital codes will become a regular fixture at the museum, which is due to unveil a refurbishment of the original Royal Museum building in the summer.

When they start operating from tomorrow visitors will be encouraged to leave their own stories or comments and download their own film or photographs on the exhibits' digital sites.

Alison Taubman, principal curator of communications at the museum, said: "This project is a great example of how museums can not only give visitors more information about objects and stories, but also involve our visitors in adding their own responses to the objects, whether personal reflections or additional resources to let others find out even more."

The museum pilot has been developed as part of a 1.4 million digital project.