Adam Richardson (Printer)

A large volume of material produced both during and after Adam Richardson's time as Printer at Crichton Royal Institution. The material comprises poems and songs by Adam and several by his son John, generally about the local area and personal topics; instructions, explanations and testing of a new literary science devised by Adam which attributes a numerical value to letters and words allowing the value of statements to be calculated; proposed inventions, ideas, designs, suggestions and possible improvements covering a wide range of subject matter including flying machines, toys, hydraulic engines, printing equipment and machinery worked by tidal power; advice and instructions on playing draughts; six carved wooden cogs; correspondence relating to his employment at Crichton Royal Institution including requests for leave, his pension payments and the New Moon and from family members, 1845-1892 ; and a news cutting from 1980 about his notebooks and possible involvement in the invention of the telephone. This material is presented mainly on loose bits of paper, many of which are just small scraps and are difficult to read. There is also a series of eighteen indexed notebooks containing some of his inventions and ideas.

1845-1980

3 boxes

Adam Richardson was employed as a Printer at Crichton Royal Institution for 21 years from 1862 until he retired in 1883. He was employed after printing production of the hospital magazine, the New Moon, increased and a professional printer was sought, the role having previously been carried out by a patient who was a printer to trade. His tasks included printing a variety of material including the New Moon, gate passes, labels, tickets for lectures, theatre and concert bills and pages of text for Annual Reports. It is thought that he was responsible for the installation of a series of voice tubes for communication between some of the hospital buildings and as a result could have been a forerunner in the invention of the telephone. He was born in Dumfries in 1825 and married a local woman from Troqueer, Ann Given, with whom he had four children, William, Agnes, John and Adam. It appears that the family left Dumfries for a time after they were married as their first child was born in New York, their second in Glasgow and their third in Cumberland. The material in the collection shows he was an avid inventor and had an extremely creative mind in his pursuits of poetry and literary science.

Recreation and Printing Scrapbook , DGH1/6/17/2; New Moon, DGH1/7/1/1; Photographic Material, DGH1/8.

Enquiries for reproduction for commercial purposes should be directed to the Archivist, Dumfries and Galloway Archives and Local Studies

The papers are available at Dumfries and Galloway Archives subject to conditions of UK Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and NHS Records Management Code of Practice 2012. Subject to these restrictions, this material is being digitised by the University of Glasgow as part of a Wellcome Trust funded project. Material that is digitised will be accessed freely online through the Wellcome Library catalogue.

Material donated to Crichton Royal Museum and Archive by Mrs Aitkinson, Adam Richardson's granddaughter, in November 1990. In the event of consideration being given to disposing of any of this material please contact Mrs Aitkinson's daughters, Doris Smith or Mrs J Simpson, contact details can be found in file.