The 2024 Ian MacDougall Memorial Lecture takes place at the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh – Thursday 4 April 2024, 5 pm. It will be delivered by Caroline Milligan.

Based on a series of oral history interviews made by the late Ian MacDougal with mill workers between 1996 and 2004, Border Mills: Lives of Peeblesshire Textile Workers is a new book that charts a period of immense change across all aspects of textile manufacturing in the Scottish borders. The book documents the lives and work of a generation who lived through both world wars and worked in an industry in flux, with new innovations in mechanised processes and fibres.

Caroline Milligan, of the European Ethnological Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, who edited the book, will discuss how she returned to Ian’s research, and the process of bringing a collection of oral history recordings out from the archives to publication. The book is published in collaboration with National Museums Scotland and will be available to purchase at the event.

Following Caroline’s talk, The Mills of Tweeddale Project will give a presentation on their new oral history project, which aims to preserve the contemporary history and heritage of the Tweeddale textile industry.

The Ian MacDougall Memorial Lecture is part of a series of annual events dedicated to the memory of Dr Ian MacDougall (1933-2020), the pioneering oral historian who played a central role in documenting and preserving the archives of the Scottish labour and trade union movements. This event is hosted by the National Library of Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Labour History Society and the Scottish Working People’s History Trust.

Further information about the lecture will be available on the Scottish Labour History Society website.

Border Mills: Lives of Peeblesshire Textile Workers, by Ian MacDougall, edited by Caroline Milligan is available from the National Museums Scotland shop.