Overview
The Albany Burns Club was founded by a few members of the soon-to-be-defunct Albany Bowling Club in order ‘[t]o keep up the old and valued friendships that were made on its turn’ (‘Club Notes’, ‘ALBANY BURNS CLUB’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. X (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1901), pp. 107-8). They formed their club ‘for the purpose of affording its members an opportunity of studying the works of our National Bard as well as meeting together throughout the winter months in a social capacity’ (Ibid).
The club met monthly between October and March at the Trades’ House Restaurant on Glassford Street (Merchant City, in the heart of the city centre) with membership being restricted to 150 members.
Date of Existence
1899?-? (the 1901 Annual Burns Chronicle gives 1900 as the founding year, while the 1904 Chronicle gives 1899); Federated 1900
Source of Information
1. Roseberry [sic] Donation, Catalogue of the Burns Exhibition. Galleries of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 175 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow (Glasgow: William Hodge & Co., 1896), [title page] (Mitchell Library Special Collections, 907880);
2. ‘Burns Anniversary. Celebrations in Falkirk and District. Falkirk Burns Club’, Falkirk Herald, 27 January 1909, p. 6;
3. ‘Burns’ Anniversary. Celebrations in Falkirk and District. Falkirk Burns Club’, Falkirk Herald, 28 January 1914, p. 3;
4. ‘Burns’ Anniversary. Celebrations in Falkirk and District. Falkirk Burns Club’, Falkirk Herald, 31 January 1914, p. 3;
5. ‘Club Notes’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. X (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1901), pp. 107-8;
6. ‘Club Notes’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1902), p. 122; 146;
7. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1904), p. 147;
8. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1905’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIV (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1905), p. 157;
9. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1909’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1909), p. 172.
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Catalogue, and Annual Burns Chronicle)
National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Reference Number
907880 (MLSC) (Catalogue)
BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Additional Notes
This Burns club sent visitors to and held joint meetings with the following: Rosebery Burns Club, Glasgow Carlton Burns Club, Bridgeton Burns Club, and Sandyford Burns Clubs.
‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available through the Robert Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.
This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.