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Description: | Programmes for the Annual Dinner of the Walsall Burns Club in celebration of the birthday of Robert Burns. 1921 and 1934 are missing from the sequence, but there are examples of the originals in Acc 63/280, 294. The souvenir programme of 1920 contains illustrations of all the menu card covers up to that date. (Some of the originals of these can be found in Acc 743 and Acc 63.) The remainder are in the form of individual programmes, some single sheets, and some in booklet form. Up until 1942 the programmes were designed by William (Billy) Meikle, the only exception being 1928 when Meikle was President and the programme was designed by Ben Westwood. The first menu card featured the 'Walsall Bear' adapted from the Arms of the Borough of Walsall, wearing a 'Scottish' cap. The covers designed by Meikle show the date and venue, the name of the President (and sometimes Vice-President) and often reflect the activities of the Club, e.g. the move from the Stork to the Dragon (1901) or a lecture on Macbeth (1913). From 1922 the programmes were larger booklets and so featured more detail on the covers. Many showed scenes of Walsall or places and events connected with Burns and the Walsall Bear made regular appearances. From 1943 to 1980 the covers were designed by George Willott ARCA, the Principal of the Walsall School of Art. The design continued to contain the details of date, venue and names of chief officers, but featured just one illustration, mostly of Robert Burns. In 1946, in memory of William Meikle, his image replaced the usual Burns reference. 1958 saw a sketch of the Club's President, William A Reid, on the cover and a return to reflecting other events such as the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite, and Scottish scenes. 1981 - 1983 designs were by S Graham Benton, and continued the tradition of featuring a sketch of the President. The covers for 1984 - 1991 are identical, with a motto taken from a seal belonging to Robert Burns "Better a wee bush than nae bield" (A small bush is better than no shelter) and a design by E Davies. Only the President's name is included with no reference to date and venue. This design continued to be used as the frontispiece of the programmes until 1998, although the main cover was a glossy photograph of a portrait of Burns by Alexander Nasmyth. The 1999 cover returned to hand-drawn illustrations with date, venue, and President's name. The artist's name is unknown. The reverse or inside of the programme follows the same format: Grace Menu - originally seven courses of soup, fish, haggis, removes, poultry, sweets and cheese. Later menus were reduced to soup, haggis, meat course, sweet, cheese and coffee. Toast List with responses, recitations and songs. These changed slightly over the years but usually included 'The King' (or Queen), 'The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns', 'The Lassies', 'Guests and Kindred Societies', 'The Houses of Parliament', 'The Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses" and "The Walsall Burns Club". A poem or quotation by Burns is often included. When dancing was featured the name of the Band was given as well as the accompanist for the singing and the Piper for the haggis. The programmes were printed by J & W Griffin Ltd. of the Observer Office and later by the Walsall Observer Press. After 1958 there is no printers' name until the 1994 - 1998 programmes which were printed in Scotland, and used the back of the programme for advertising whisky. Inside the programme for 1972 is one black and white photograph of guests at the Annual Dinner, 22 x 17 cms, copyright West Midlands Press, Bridge Street, with some people identified on reverse. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/ | Publisher: | Walsall Archives / Local History Centre | Rights holder: | Various | Temporal: | (1900) - 1999 | Source: | Black Country History | Creator: | Walsall and District Scottish Society (formerly Walsall Burns Club) | Identifier: | http://www.blackcountryhistory.org/colle... | Go to resource |
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