In 1887, Dr Robert Halliday Gunning FSAScot promised the Society a donation of money. The £1,000 gift (worth approximately £649,000 in present-day money, relative to wages) was designed to ‘help experts to visit other museums, collections or materials of archaeological science at home or abroad, for purposes of special investigation and research’.

For over a century, recipients of the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Gift or Fellowship used funds derived from Gunning’s endowment to support their research and advance knowledge of Scotland’s distant and recent past. New information has come to light on Gunning’s links to slavery in Brazil thanks to IASH Research Fellow Dr Simon Buck’s recent study, Slavery, Colonialism and Philanthropy at the University of Edinburgh, produced as part of the University of Edinburgh’s Race Review.

As well as his interests in a slaveholding gold-mining company in the State of Minas, Brazil, Gunning owned between thirty and forty enslaved African-descended people on Palmeiras, a chácara (private country estate) near Rio de Janeiro. He used his fortune – derived in part from the enslavement of people of African descent – to patronise an array of medical, scientific, religious and educational institutions in Brazil, England and Scotland. As well as his financial gift to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Gunning also donated objects taken from South America to its museum, including human remains.

Earlier this year, the Society awarded Dr Buck the final 1887 Jubilee Gift (formerly the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Gift) to support additional research on Gunning’s links to the Society and an article for the Society’s journal, the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, before the gift was removed from the Society’s list of grants and awards. The Society will use Dr Buck’s research and input from Fellows to inform future actions with regards to reparations.

At this exclusive Online Fellows’ Meeting, hear more from Dr Buck about his research and the Society’s links to historic slavery in Brazil.

Fellows are encouraged to share their questions and feedback about the Society’s next steps at the event or by contacting the Director of the Society, Dr Simon Gilmour, at director@socantscot.org.

Content warning: This presentation will contain images and discussion of slavery.

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Throughout the year, Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland are invited to exclusive online and in-person events. They are one of the benefits of Fellowship and provide opportunities to network, meet other Fellows, and learn and discuss areas of shared interests related to Scotland’s past.

If you are not a Fellow and would like to support our work as a charity while enjoying the many benefits of Fellowship, find out how to join or subscribe to our public e-newsletter.

When: Thursday 25 September, 5pm BST

Where: Online via Zoom