The Reverend Muirhead Collection
Ian Adair Muirhead was a University of Glasgow student and subsequently became the University’s Senior Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History. Having served several parishes as minister, he was an experienced and enthusiastic teacher. Those who knew him remember him fondly when it came to both lecturing and socialising. Outside of the Church and University, his other great love was walking in Scotland.
During strolls and rambles Muirhead would gather interesting-looking specimens of stone, bone, and shell, later placing his findings into boxes of all shapes and sizes. These different containers have become social history artefacts in themselves. The Hunterian looks after the Rev Muirhead’s archaeological collection and Archive Services holds his papers. These were gifted to the University of Glasgow in 1995 by his son Andrew.
The archaeological collection has been useful to students of the University of Glasgow, providing materials for study and research: a student based her undergraduate Dissertation on Muirhead's collection of flints and they have also been the subject of recent PhD analysis.