Printing - A Type of Enlightenment

An exhibition marking 240 years of print in Kilmarnock, featuring the Kilmarnock Edition of Burns's poems and rarely displayed items from East Ayrshire's collections.

Marking 240 years since John Wilson's printing shop opened in Kilmarnock, this exhibition draws on East Ayrshire's museum collections to trace the history of print. It begins with Robert Burns's Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, the Kilmarnock Edition printed by Wilson, and explores how print spread ideas, stories and culture through text and imagery. Rarely displayed items include the Kirk Session Book from Mauchline Parish Church, bearing the signatures of Robert Burns and Jean Armour, the only known document containing both. The display is in the North Museum.