Paper short abstract:

In nineteenth-century Scotland, collectors and the collected—particularly women—worked to different agendas. While collectors often sought to define places, women sought to transmit family repertoires, making active decisions about how to represent their family, region and nation through song.

Paper long abstract:

In nineteenth-century Scotland, collectors and the collected—with a particular focus on women—worked from different agendas. While collectors, on the whole, sought to define places, women sought to transmit family repertoires. Critics have often assumed that women played a relatively passive—although rich—role in collection processes and that representing place was the decisive factor for them. In fact, women made active decisions about how to represent family, region and nation through song. I will explore this notion through consideration of four repertoires associated with specific women: Kitty Hartley (1728-1799), Margaret Laidlaw (1730-1813), Carolina Oliphant (1766-1845), and Amelia and Jane Harris (1815-1891 and 1823-1897). The collections were made for different reasons: personal use, publication, as part of a patriot's 'bounden duty', and as a calling card to senior ballad scholars. Through an analysis of contents, and an exploration of correspondence, I consider whether women made conscious choices of songs for transmission and, if so, whether they aimed to gain esteem for their family traditions or were following local and national agendas. I suggest that their decisions were often overlooked by collectors, particularly in the nineteenth-century preference for composite published texts. Choices were mitigated, too, by the agendas of the male collectors with whom women engaged, arguably a process that has continued in the Scottish context into the present day. In conclusion, I will demonstrate that women sources and collectors played vital roles in creating images of Scotland in, and through, song, as well as contributing to broader cultural landscaping.