Scottish Working People's History tells story of work and unions at National Library of Scotland

Exhibition: Scottish Working People’s History, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, until October 30 2011

“Far too often there has been a far too romantic view taken of Scottish history,” laments Dr Ian MacDougall, whose research for the Scottish Working People’s History Trust has bolstered this resolutely gritty glance through an altogether more real history north of the border.

“It’s based on figures such as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queen of Scots and the like. Anything that informs and reminds people from Scotland and visitors to Scotland of the history of so-called ordinary people has to be a good thing.”

Marking their 20th anniversary by staging the show in partnership with the Scottish Labour History Society and the library, MacDougall and his colleagues highlight everyday struggles and triumphs from times which can make the current difficulties facing society seem little more than intermittent showers in the face of unrelenting sunshine.

There’s the Fenwick Weaver’s Society in Ayrshire, which became the world’s first co-operative at the behest of a handful of determined souls, and a defence statement read out by revolutionary Red Clydeside socialist John MacLean at his 1916 trial for sedition.

“Tramp cards” carried by coachmakers as they scoured the country for work, service and pay books once owned by anti-fascists in the Spanish Civil War, the century-old desk diary of Independent Labour party co-founder James Keir Hardie and books held by the National Union of Railwaymen also attest to dramatic, hard-fought existences.

Dr Maria Castrillo, the curator of the show, uses original documents to chart the earliest beginnings of the union and labour movements in Scotland, which she says have helped shape Britain and other corners of the world as we know them today.

• Open 10am-8pm (5pm Saturday, 2pm-5pm Sunday). Admission free.