| Collection | GB 0231 University of Aberdeen, Special Collections |
| Level | Sub-series |
| Ref No | MS 3270/6/2 |
| Alt Ref No | 15 |
| Title | George 'Taffy' Davidson (1893 - 1976), artist, collector and museum curator |
| Date | 1969 - 1976 |
| Extent | 1 file |
| Creator Name | Taffy Davidson graduated with a diploma in drawing and painting from Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. He was discharged from active service following a shrapnel injury received in France, but soon afterwards recalled for duty in Northern Ireland, where he remained until the end of the War.
After the War he returned to Aberdeen and to painting: He had pictures exhibited at Aberdeen Art Gallery and at the Royal Scottish Academy, and was awarded the Brough Travelling Scholarship, which enabled him to return to Holland for a year, where he had already spent some time painting before the War. He become increasingly attracted to antiques and their acquisition, and his enthusiasm for antiquaries of all sorts soon found an outlet as curator of pictures, silver and antiquities at the University of Aberdeen. Later, he was appointed curator of 'Am Fasgadh', the Scottish Universities-funded museum of rural life at Kingussie.
As friends and colleagues, mutual respect and affection is in evidence in Lockhart and Taffy's correspondence and reminiscences. The two men spent a month travelling together on a University-funded tour of European museums and regularly exchanged opinions and advice over museum purchases and exhibits. |
| Description | Obituary of Taffy Davidson, written by Lockhart, October 1976, with related correspondence from his widow, Nan Davidson, Old Aberdeen, October - December 1976.
Letters from Nan and Taffy Davidson, Old Aberdeen, thanking Lockhart for speech given at re-opening of the Kingussie Museum, 3 July 1975.
Postcard advertising the 'Highland Folk Museum, Kingussie, Invernessire', n.d. [pre 1975]
Letter from Taffy Davidson, Old Aberdeen, regarding picture of a Goldfinch, 17 October 1969.
Postcard from Taffy Davidson to Miss Philip, reporting that there had been 15 visitors to the museum, who bought some post cards and 'ate most of my sweeties ...', n.d. |
| Access Status | Open |
| Access Conditions | Open, subject to signature accepting conditions of use at reader registration sheet |
| Related Material | See papers of the Anthroplogical Museum MS 3270/2/2. |