Artist Douglas Gordon.(Image courtesy of The London Times.)What is art? When confronted by that tricky question often the best answer the average person can come up with echoes Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous statement about pornography: "I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it." Library administrators at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland see it this way: if it isn't uplifting, positive, and celebratory, it isn't art.To add a final flourish to the December 2009 unveiling of the remodeled ground floor of its main library, the University commissioned a work of art. The...
Scotland’s Library Highlights Highland’s Historic Homicides
Victorian Artist James Hamilton's Romantic Depiction of The Massacre of GlencoeThe National Library of Scotland has chosen as the centerpiece of an exhibit of "nine cultural treasures" one of the most infamous documents in the country's history: the 1692 government order commanding the notorious Massacre of Glencoe. The chilling contents of this death warrant stand as a horrific example of state sanctioned murder.The Official Order For The Massacre (see full text below.)In August of 1691 the English crown ordered the chiefs of all Scottish clans to take an oath of allegiance to William III by year's end. This proclamation reflected...