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This talk will be based around the exhibition Embroidered Stories: Scottish Samplers (National Museums Scotland, 26 Oct 2018 - 21 April 2019), which showcases a unique collection of Scottish samplers that will be bequeathed to the museum. Dating from the early 18th century to the late 19th, these embroidered pictures were made by girls (and occasionally boys) as part of their education. Including details of the family members, local towns, buildings and events, as well as religious verses and decorative and symbolic images, samplers provide a fascinating record of the social history of the Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Helen Wyld is Senior Curator of Historic Textiles at National Museums Scotland, where she is responsible for European textiles from 1400-1850. Her special areas of research are the history of tapestry in Scotland, England and Europe, 1500 to the present.


All events in our lecture series include an opportunity to meet the guest lecturer, coffee and cakes and a special tour of the Castle.


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About the lecturer

Helen Wyld is Senior Curator of Historic Textiles at National Museums Scotland, where she is responsible for European textiles from 1400-1850. Her special areas of research are the history of tapestry in Scotland, England and Europe, 1500 to the present.

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Lauriston Castle Lecture Series

Scottish Samplers: Hidden Histories

Three Inch Fools

Shakespeare at the Castle: Hamlet

Sunday 15 July 2018, 6:00pm Five actors, with all manner of musical instruments, present an inventive take on Shakespeare’s most infamous and iconic play, Hamlet. The Three Inch...

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Edinburgh Living History group

Spick and Span!

Sun 8 Apr 2018

Costumed Performance

Spring brings a flurry of activity in the Castle as the staff are busy cleaning. It also brings a lot of gossip about what is going on in the Castle...

Archived event

This is an archive page for a past event

Find out what's happening now and upcoming in our What's on section.

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