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Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

Health, Wealth and Happiness

8 vintage tins of medicine against a blue background. The tins are brightly coloured and include vaseline, children's cough pastilles, zinc ointment and reg-u-letts.
medicine tins, David Wright Collection

About the project

Health, Wealth and Happiness was a year-long project from 2021 - 2022, exploring the topical subject of healthcare in the Highlands.  The project was run by the collections team at Inverness Museum and funded by a Covid-19 Museum Development Fund grant from Museums Galleries Scotland.  The project was subsequently acclaimed by Museums Galleries Scotland as an example of Best Practice.

We examined both the past and present of health and wellbeing – from poorhouses and traditional remedies, to the Covid-19 pandemic and modern medicine, while the unique challenges of providing medical assistance in a vast, rural landscape led to a special focus on transport.  We also wanted to highlight the pioneering Highlands and Islands Medical Service (HIMS), launched in 1913 as the world’s first integrated public health service, HIMS is recognised today as a forerunner of the NHS.

A young man wearing a blue shirt and white cotton gloves is sitting at a desk. He is looking at a doctor's case and holding the lid open to reveal medical equipment inside. A stethescope and some medical tins sit on the desk. Behind him is a bookcase full of old books.
Joe Setch, project museum assistant

Health, Wealth and Happiness project aims
The aims of the project were:
to employ a Museum Assistant for 12 months in order to provide capacity and support to the Collections Team by acting as project co-ordinator and also to provide an entry level museum post as an opportunity in the Highlands for the postholder to gain valuable skills and experience that will help to establish a career in the sector
to develop skills and experience of staff and volunteers whilst also improving collections knowledge and relevance
to make new acquisitions for the museum collection, in particular relating to the pandemic but also other health issues and disabilities experienced by people across the region
to promote collaboration with other teams, museums, networks and organisations
to create an engagement programme exploring new activities and interpretation
to increase digital engagement and enhance web content
to proactively develop new audiences, with a focus on local communities across the region
to raise the profile of the collections and the museum
to produce an exhibition staged at IMAG, followed by two HLH sites in Thurso
to purchase new exhibition equipment and interpretation aids that can be reused in future exhibitions and displays
to undertake evaluation that will inform future projects, displays and activities
to share our experiences and examples of good practice with the wider sector

Health, Wealth and Happiness exhibition

The project culminated in an exhibition which was held in 2022.  This exhibition, the first to be curated by our collections team in over a decade, was launched at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery on 15 April 2022 and ran until 18 June.   It then travelled to Caithness, and was on display concurrently at the Thurso Gallery and the North Coast Visitor Centre from 2 July to 13 August 2022.

The exhibition featured objects and artworks from the museum’s own collection, as well as items on loan from individuals and other museums across the region.  Hospitals, healthcare workers, and healing waters were among the topics featured in this exhibition.  Highlights included an immersive early-20th century pharmacy, a copy of the landmark 1912 Dewar Report, and a timeline of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Highlands.

A large textile panel hangs on a white wall. The panel is cream with a dark purple band at the bottom, and a colourful tree with branches goes up the full height of the panel. Hanging from the top and down the sides are paper leaves in bright colours. The leaves have writing on, the wishes made by visitors.
Well Wishes tree, HWH exhibition

Well Wishes engagement project

As part of the overall project, we ran the Well Wishes engagement project; a mindful craft activity based on the tradition of healing 'clootie wells'.  People across the Highlands made wishes on paper hazel leaves and created a cotton braid to tie it to our fabric tree.  Some were made by visitors, others were posted to us.  In the tradition of clootie wells, as the ‘cloot’ (cloth) decomposes, so too should the ailment of the wishmaker disappear.  So after the exhibition closed, almost 1000 wishes were composted at Inverness Botanic Gardens and eventually went to the Highland Folk Museum, where a hazel tree was planted and will be nourished by the compost.  The tree will provide a habitat for wildlife and sustainable materials for the museum's traditional building programme.  With their return to the earth, the ‘wishes’ will assist new growth and life, completing their cycle.  

Vintage medical items set against a blue background. On the left, a stack of three sterilised dressing boxes, on the right a blue glass medicine bottle, a brown glass dropper bottle and a small clear glass measuring beaker. In the foreground a metal pair of scissors.
First aid kit, David Wright Collection

Kari Moodie

For enquiries about the Health, Wealth and Happiness project, please contact our collections curator

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