The latest collection to join our unique corpus of asbestos-related materials is the Michael Brazier papers on asbestos and the asbestos industry.
Our asbestos collections provide first-hand evidence of the fight to gain scientific acceptance of the lethal effects of exposure to asbestos, the international campaigns to ban the substance, and efforts to get compensation for the victims of asbestos-related disease.
These papers, gifted to the University by the son of Michael Brazier this year, are fascinating in that they document the asbestos debate from the point of view of an asbestos company.
Michael Brazier was the grandson of Albert Alfred Brazier, the founder of A.A. Brazier & Co. This company was started in the 1920s as a UK distribution arm of the Johnsons Asbestos Company, which was based in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Michael started in the late 1940s learning the asbestos trade, became a company director and then eventually took over as managing director from his father, Wilfred Sydney Brazier.
Michael was passionate in his interest in all the aspects of the asbestos debate, and he was part of the industry delegation to the parliamentary Advisory Committee on Asbestos in 1976-77. Over decades, he carefully collected reports, documents, and publications relating to the asbestos health debate, from the perspective of the asbestos industry. He was particularly interested in whether all forms of asbestos were as dangerous to health.
A collection-level description is available on our online catalogue, including the option to download a detailed box-list for the collection.
Further information
- Collection catalogue: Michael Brazier papers on asbestos and the asbestos industry
- Asbestos-related collections resource guide
(Image credit: Letterhead from A.A. Brazier, Acc 2065: Box 6)
This year, Book Week Scotland (17-25 November 2025) is celebrating stories of friendship. Friendships formed at college or university often prove to be lifelong bonds, and this was certainly the case for many students at Strathclyde’s antecedent institutions, which include Glasgow’s early teacher training colleges.
Autograph albums: a popular pastime
This post highlights the friendships documented in autograph albums owned by three teacher training students in the early twentieth century. At that time, compiling an autograph album was a popular activity, particularly for younger people. A blank album would frequently be given as a gift, and the recipient would then ask their friends and classmates to fill its pages with verses, sketches, and other mementoes, transforming it into a unique and enduring record of friendship.
The owners and their albums
The owners of the three albums considered here were all female students taking the General Certificate course to qualify as primary school teachers. The earliest volume belonged to Sarah McLellan (1884-1956), who studied at the Glasgow Church of Scotland Training College (also known as Dundas Vale) from 1903-1905 (reference: CSTC/7/13). The first page of Sarah’s album is inscribed by her mother, Annie McLellan, and dated 18 January 1905. This was the date of Sarah’s 21st birthday, which suggests that her album was a birthday gift. The second album belonged to an unidentified female student who attended another of Strathclyde’s antecedent institutions, the Glasgow Free Church Training College, from 1906-1908 (reference: FCTC/8/9). The third album belonged to Mary McDonald (1898-1997), who studied at the Glasgow Provincial Training College from 1917-1919 (reference: JCE/22/2/26). The flyleaf bears Mary’s name, address and the date: 14 July 1918. This was the date of her 20th birthday, again indicating that she had received her album as a gift.
Student life
In the early twentieth century, hundreds of female students were admitted to Glasgow’s teacher training colleges every year. Each college divided its new intake of students into several large sections, and the students then remained in their allocated section throughout their two-year course. All three autograph books have a page inscribed with the names of every student in the owner’s training section. In the volumes belonging to Sarah McLellan and Mary McDonald, a handful of those who are named on the section page also added their full home address on a separate page. Presumably, these were the girls with whom Mary and Sarah were particularly friendly, and with whom they most wanted to stay in touch.
Artistic and literary contributions
The other pages are covered with personal inscriptions by individual students, generally in the form of verses or drawings. When invited to sign a classmate’s album, a student would select a page for herself, write or draw her contribution and put her signature or initials at the bottom of the page, usually with the date. More rarely, she might contribute two or more pages to the same volume, like Mary McDonald’s classmate, Jenny Bonar, who penned at least three sets of sketches for Mary’s album. While the most thoughtful and detailed inscriptions probably came from the owner’s closest friends, only 14 of the 80 students within Mary McDonald’s college section provided an illustration or a literary contribution for her album. Mary may only have invited contributions from these select few, owing to the logistical difficulties of circulating the album to every member of such a large section.
The dates appended to each contribution suggest that Sarah McLellan, Mary McDonald and the third, unidentified owner each began the process of collecting inscriptions from their classmates well in advance of finishing their studies. This was essential, as every person invited to contribute would need time for inspiration to strike, and to perfect their inscription or illustration before then returning the book, to be handed on to the next contributor. Sarah McLellan received her blank album in January 1905 and was due to complete her training course in July of that year; we know that her classmates were contributing to the album by March 1905, if not a little earlier. Mary McDonald received her album in July 1918 and was due to finish her training course in July 1919. Her classmates were signing the album’s pages by August 1918. The unidentified owner of the remaining album started her training in 1906 and completed it in July 1908. Although we do not know exactly when she acquired the album, her classmates were filling up its pages by September 1907.
Many of the students’ contributions are small watercolours, or sketches in pencil and ink. Delicate flower studies, landscapes and seascapes feature prominently, as well as portraits and some illustrations of animals and birds. Several examples of these are shown below.
The quality of the illustrations reflects the fact that the training course for primary teachers included both drawing and nature study. Many of the students were accomplished artists who gained endorsements to teach drawing in addition to their general teaching qualification.
Themes of sentiment and symbolism
Several sketches in the albums depict boats sailing into the sunset, signifying the end of girlhood, of training, and of the students’ concentrated time together. Other contributions reflect topics covered in the teacher training course or make more overt reference to the student experience. One of Sarah McLellan’s classmates, for instance, reproduced the words and melody of ‘The Normal Call,’ which was the Church of Scotland Training College song, while this drawing by Mary McDonald’s classmate, Victoria Gaul, pokes fun at the psychology classes that were part of the students’ curriculum:
In keeping with the sentimental purpose of the albums, some contributors copied out carefully chosen verses by Burns and other authors. These either praised the personal qualities of the volume’s owner, or entreated her to think of, and remember, the contributor. Other students expressed hopes for the owner’s future happiness and good fortune, especially in the pursuit of love and marriage. A highlight of this type is the beautifully executed ‘map of matrimony’ drawn by Annie S. MacKenzie in 1907. Plotting the course of courtship, the map guides Annie’s classmate from the starting point of ‘spinster isles’ and ‘bachelor cove’ down through the ‘strait of flirtation’ and the ‘gulf of matrimony’, with the journey culminating at the ‘region of rejoicing’.
Not all female students aspired to matrimony, however. Another contributor to the same album, Marion Burleigh, urged its owner to ‘gather gear by every wile … for the glorious privilege / Of being independent.’ Humour also characterised many students’ contributions. This tongue-in-cheek illustration by Sarah McLellan’s classmate, Jane G. Martin, depicts a future suitor striving to win Sarah’s hand:
Perhaps the most charming and creative contribution is the ‘Casket of Gems’ (pictured below), drawn by another of Sarah McLellan’s classmates, Janie P. Young. Topped with a bow displaying the initials ‘DVTC’, for Dundas Vale Training College, and the dates ‘1903-1905’, signifying Sarah’s period of study, the casket contains everything deemed necessary for a young Edwardian woman to succeed in life: the cure for worry (‘laughter’), the cure for love (‘marriage’), and the cure for heartache (‘sympathy’); the best rouge (‘early rising’), the elixir of life (‘love’), and the balm of all ills (‘essence of tu-lips’); as well as the cure for laziness (‘work’), the balm of life (‘contentment’) and a stimulating tonic (‘courtship’). Each gem is revealed by lifting the small, square flaps of the casket.
Beyond college: friendships that lasted
Upon qualification, most of the students who signed the autograph albums were posted to schools in and around Glasgow. Living and working within reasonable travelling distance of each other must have helped them to maintain contact with their college friends. Two of the girls from Mary McDonald’s training section inscribed her album in December 1919 and February 1920, approximately six months after they had completed their course (July 1919). This suggests that the friendships forged at college continued, and that Mary saw her two classmates again after concluding her studies. In fact, Mary’s section went on to hold annual reunions for the next 60 years, and it is tempting to speculate that she took her autograph book along on these occasions, to reminisce with those who had become lifelong friends.
Preserving friendship in the Archives
Sarah McLellan, Mary McDonald and the third, unidentified student all continued to collect inscriptions and illustrations in their albums after completing their studies. They also received contributions from family and friends outside their student circle, but the autographs of their college classmates form the nucleus of each album. These unique and beautiful volumes, cherished by their owners throughout their lives, are now preserved in the University of Strathclyde Archives and Special Collections as evidence of the student teachers’ humour, artistic talent, and most of all, their friendship and regard for one another.
This is a revised version of an article originally posted on Tumblr in November 2021.