22 January 2016

A Shetlander's vision of Aberdeenshire captured in Peterhead exhibition

Aberdeenshire Council’s museum service has launched a visually striking exhibition at The Arbuthnot Museum in Peterhead, showing maps and objects by James Robertson (1753-1829), the Shetlander who mapped Jamaica and Aberdeenshire.

Educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen, Robertson went to the Caribbean to make his fortune and became an expert in land surveying, producing remarkably accurate maps of Jamaica in 1804.

In 1810 he was commissioned to survey and draw a new map of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. The map took 12 years to complete, was full of inaccuracies, and resulted in a legal dispute which was unresolved at Robertson’s death in 1829.

This map and Robertson’s four maps of Jamaica are on loan to the exhibition from the National Library of Scotland. Also on show are many personal objects and a wonderful portrait of James Robertson, on loan from Shetland Museum and Archives.

Documents pertaining to Robertson’s 1822 map of this area are on loan from Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives, as is an ‘azimuth’ compass from Aberdeen University Museums.

This exhibition has previously been seen only in Shetland. Visit the Arbuthnot Museum in Peterhead before Saturday, 20 February, 2016, to see the most detailed maps of Jamaica and north-east of Scotland from the 19th century.

Cllr Alison Evison, Chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Education Learning and Leisure Committee said: “We are delighted to be hosting an exhibition of such quality, working with our national and regional partners.

“I would encourage everyone to visit the exhibition as this is a great opportunity to learn how our ancestors went to great efforts to understand our landscape.”

To accompany the exhibition, there will be a range of events as part of VisitScotland’s year of Innovation, Architecture and Design for all ages at the Arbuthnot Museum throughout February 2016.

For further information about these events please contact museum curator Fiona Clark on 01771 622807.