page_title: History of Dundee
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: History of Dundee / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: Dundee Harbour, late 19th century Image of Dundee harbour with a sailing ship in the foreground and the city skyline in the background. Image also shows two steam ships.; Mary Slessor was born in Aberdeen in 1948 but moved to Dundee in 1859. Here Mary, aged 11, entered Baxter&#39;s textile works, working for half the day and attending school the other half. At the age of 14 Mary left school in Dundee and worked long days in the jute mills. Photographer: Unknown Filename: imp-cswc-GB-237-CSWC47-LS2-005.tif Coverage date: circa 1880 Part of collection: International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960 Type: images Part of subcollection: Photographs from the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, U.K., ca.1900-ca.1940s Repository name: Centre for the Study of World Christianity Archival file: impa_Volume378/2342.url Geographic subject (city or populated place): Dundee Repository address: The University of Edinburgh School of Divinity, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX, United Kingdom Geographic subject (country): Scotland Format (aacr2): 1 lantern slide&#160;: 8 x 8 cm. Rights: Contact the repository for details. Part of series: Mary Slessor LS2 Repository email: divinity-CSWC@ed.ac.uk Subject (lcsh Keyword): Shipping Date created: circa 1880 Publisher (of the digital version): University of Southern California. Libraries Subject (aat genre): cityscapes Format (aat): lantern slides Legacy record ID: impa-m68149 Access conditions: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/divinity/research/centres/world-christianity/collections-resources File: GB 237 CSWC47/LS2/5
context_page_description: Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland with a population of around 150,000 people. It is situated on the north bank of the Firth of Tay on the east coast of the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The Dundee area has been settled since the Mesolithic with evidence of Pictish habitation beginning in the Iron Age. During the Medieval Era the city became a prominent trading port and was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the local jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period, Dundee also gained prominence due to its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
context_section_description: Dundee greatly expanded in size during the Industrial Revolution mainly because of the burgeoning British Empire trade, flax and then latterly the jute industry. By the end of the 19th century, a majority of the city's workers were employed in its many jute mills and in related industries. Dundee's location on a major estuary allowed for the easy importation of jute from the Indian subcontinent as well as whale oil—needed for the processing of the jute—from the city's large whaling industry. A substantial coastal marine trade also developed, with inshore shipping working between the city of Dundee and the port of London. The industry began to decline in the 20th century as it became cheaper to process the cloth on the Indian subcontinent. The city's last jute mill closed in the 1970s.
  In addition to jute the city is also known for jam and journalism. The "jam" association refers to marmalade, which was purportedly invented in the city by Janet Keiller in 1797 (although in reality, recipes for marmalade have been found dating back to the 16th century). Keiller's marmalade became a famous brand because of its mass production and its worldwide export. The industry was never a major employer compared with the jute trade. Marmalade has since become the "preserve" of larger businesses, but jars of Keiller's marmalade are still widely available. "Journalism" refers to the publishing firm DC Thomson & Co., which was founded in the city in 1905 and remains the largest employer after the health and leisure industries. The firm publishes a variety of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post, The Courier, Shout and children's publications, The Beano and The Dandy.
  In the nineteenth century Dundee was home to various investment trusts, including the Dundee Investment Company, the Dundee Mortgage and Trust, the Oregon and Washington Trust and the Oregon and Washington Savings Bank, Limited. These merged in 1888 to form the Alliance Trust. Many of the investors in this trust were notable local figures including land gentry, such as the Earl of Airlie, merchants, ship owners, ship builders and  jute barons and other textile manufacturers. The Alliance Trust shared its headquarters with another Dundee based trust the Western & Hawaiian Investment Company, later known as the Second Alliance Trust. The two would finally merge into one firm in 2006. The two Alliance Trusts' original main interests were focused on mortgages and land business principally in agricultural areas of the western United States (notably Oregon, Idaho and Texas) and Hawaii. The company also leased mineral rights of properties in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as investing in various ventures in Britain and abroad. In 2008 the company was listed on the FTSE 100 Index and the next year moved to new purpose-built headquarters.
  Dundee also developed a major maritime and shipbuilding industry in the 19th century. 2,000 ships were built in Dundee between 1871 and 1881, including the Antarctic research ship used by Robert Falcon Scott, the RRS Discovery. This ship is now on display at Discovery Point in the city, and the Victorian steel-framed works in which Discovery's engine was built is now home to the city's largest book shop. The need of the local jute industry for whale oil also supported a large whaling industry. Dundee Island in the Antarctic takes its name from the Dundee whaling expedition, which discovered it in 1892. Whaling ceased in 1912 and shipbuilding ceased in 1981. The last connection with whaling in Dundee reportedly ended in 1922 when a trading ketch owned by Robert Kinnes & Sons, which had been first set up as a trading company for the Tay Whale Fishing Company, was lost in the Cumberland Sound. 
  The Tay estuary was the location of the first Tay rail bridge, built by Thomas Bouch and completed in 1877.  At the time it was the longest railway bridge in the world. The bridge fell down in a storm less than a year later under the weight of a train full of passengers in what is known as the Tay Bridge disaster. None of the passeng
caption: Dundee Harbour, late 19th century
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