June 20, 2004

The Rt. Hon. Lesley Hinds, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh leads the ribbon cutting ceremonies at the opening of “Loyalty and Exile: The Jacobites and America” at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Joining the Lord Provost are (right to left) Brian Andersson representing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Robert Currie, president of the Clan Currie Society and producer of the program, Robin Nicholson, curator of The Drambuie Collection of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Frank Mills, Deputy Superintendent, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island National Monument. Over 300,000 visitors toured the museum during the exhibition which ran from April through June of this year.

Clan Currie Society Hosts Third Annual National Tartan Day Ceremonies On Ellis Island

New Exhibit, Film Premiere, and National Tartan Day Award Ceremony Highlight Spectacular Celebration

The Clan Currie Society returned to Ellis Island in April 2004 to host their annual National Tartan Day program in celebration of the young holiday recognizing the centuries of Scottish heritage in the United States.

For their third annual celebration of National Tartan Day on Ellis Island, the Clan Currie Society opened a new exhibition, produced in conjunction with The Drambuie Collection of Edinburgh, Scotland. “Loyalty & Exile: The Jacobites and America” opened in grand style on April 2, 2004.

Robert Currie, president of the Clan Currie Society, gave a brief history of National Tartan Day, which was created by Senate resolution 155 in 1998 as a way to “remember and reflect on the vast contributions of Scots and Scottish Americans.”

“We are honored that The Drambuie Collection has graciously offered to donate the panels of this exhibition to the Clan Currie Society. We look forward to sharing this exhibit with all those interested in this important era of Scottish and American history.”

The Rt. Hon. Lesley Hinds, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh (akin to a mayor of one of the country’s largest cities) attended the Ellis Island opening festivities and commemorated the event. “I think it is an excellent exhibition, which will give information about a particular part of the history of Scotland,” she said. “I think it’s important that we can link as Scottish people to people living in New York and looking at the heritage, the culture and the arts. I think it’s a great event, whether it’s for a ceilidh, or to be out with business people, make those links, or if you just want to enjoy yourself.”

The first of several thousand visitors set foot on Ellis Island amid the skirl of pipes and entered the Ellis Island museum and enjoyed fiddle and harp music and watched highland dancers. Nearly 330,000 visitors attended the Ellis Island Immigration Museum while the Society’s Tartan Day exhibit during the three months it was on display in 2004.

Highland dancers Olivia and Kathryn Chrysostom welcome visitors to the Ellis Island screening room to watch the premiere of “The Crafter’s Song,” the first documentary film on National Tartan Day.

Visitors coming off the ferry boats to Ellis Island were greeted by the sights and sounds of Scotland in the form of bagpiper Steve Fox and the dancing Highland Lassies, Olivia and Kathryn Chrysostom. Fox piped in dignitaries such as Currie and Hinds, and several honored guests to the reception area in front of the exhibit.

Robin Nicholson, curator of The Drambuie Collection, said the exhibit “is an attempt to show how the Jacobites who supported the Stewart dynasty were forced into exile to America for their support of the Stewart kings. ... That was really one of the major causes of the emigration in the 18th century, before the big mass emigration of the 19th century.”

Nicholson said the panel exhibit illustrated the very rare Jacobite art that is in the Drambuie Liqueur Company collection. “Drambuie goes back to 1746, has a very long history and heritage, and we have this very fine collection of Jacobite works of art. We’re using that to illustrate the story of the Scots immigrants who supported that cause and came to the United States.”

Nicholson was thrilled with the opportunity to highlight the collection at Ellis Island. “It’s been great for us to be able to highlight this earlier part of the period,” he said. “I think there is this tendency to think most immigration was in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century, but actually a lot happened in the 18th century.”

Nicholson had even greater accolades for the Clan Currie Society. “I have no greater praise for what the Clan Currie Society has been doing. I think they hold up as a torch to what other clan societies could and should be doing to not only promote their own individual family heritage but to promote the whole Scottish experience. I think that Clan Currie deserves great plaudits for what they’ve done.”

Nicholson added, “I think Tartan Day is absolutely fantastic,” Nicholson said. “I think ‘s been a very good way to focus on this one particular immigrant experience, which is that of the Scots coming into the U.S., and how it fits into the overall wider experience of so many of the other immigrants.”
The Clan Currie Society also announced the creation of a new tradition - the Society’s Ellis Island gathering will now be the home for announcing the recipient of Tartan Day Award. Bestowed by the Scottish Coalition, a group of national Scottish heritage organizations, the award is presented to “contributors to the recognition of Scottish American values.” The Clan Currie Society has agreed to announce the honoree at the annual National Tartan Day celebrations at Ellis Island.

The 2004 honoree was Ellice McDonald, Jr. CBE of Montchanin, Del. McDonald helped form Clan Donald USA and served as High Commissioner from 1976 to 1983. He also published “By Sea, By Land,” the national Clan Donald newsletter from 1987 to 1992.

Bagpiper Steve Fox of Montclair, New Jersey welcomes visitors to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum as part of the annual Tartan Day festivities.

Recalling family history, Robert Currie said, “How appropriate it is for a contemporary member of the MacMhuirich bardic family to be honoring one of the great contemporary men of Clan Donald. I am delighted to be acting in this capacity today performing a duty much in the same way my own MacMhuirich ancestors did in centuries past.”

In addition to the opening of the exhibition, the celebrations on Ellis Island during Tartan Day Weekend included the world premiere of “The Crafter’s Song,” the first-ever Tartan Day documentary, filmed primarily at Ellis Island during the 2003 celebrations.

“The Crafter’s Song,” produced by the Clan Currie Society, features four talented Scottish artists, violin-maker Colin Adamson, knitter Wilma Couper, tartan crafter Robert McBain, and Hamish Moore, one of the world’s foremost bagpipe crafters. The film also featured New York violinist Lisa Gutkin, who participated in this year’s Tartan Day celebrations on Ellis Island.

Harpist Jennifer Port, whose cousins are Curries, came from Scotland to perform at several events throughout the Tartan Week festivities. Port, who also participated in the Clan Currie Society’s annual Pipes of Christmas concerts in December, 2003, was making her Ellis Island debut.
Debbie Nuse joined Port and Gutkin on the small pipes. Nuse first learned how to play the small pipes after being inspired by Hamish Moore, who taught her briefly in Ashokan, N.Y.

All photos courtesy of Warren Westura.

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