Museums' Lascar book wins Outstanding Local History Publication award

In 1992 Glasgow Life Museums was given a cast-iron plaque, probably dating from the 1890s, which had 'LASCARS ONLY' written on it in English and Bengali. It had been found at Stobcross Quay.  

Lascars are South Asian seamen, and for the last three years members of the Bangladesh Association Glasgow, young people from Our Shared Cultural Heritage, and Glasgow Life Museums curators Emily Malcolm and Isobel McDonald have been leading a research project to find out more about these men and their connections to Scotland, as well as linking to the lives of surviving Lascar seamen in Bangladesh.

This work has included conferences, the publishing of a book, and the creation of a film and a play.

In addition to the project winning the Museums Association's Best Museums Change Lives Project Award, the book based on this research has now won the prestigious Alan Ball Award for Outstanding Local History Publication.

The Alan Ball Award, administered by the Library Services Trust and CILIP Local Studies Group, recognises outstanding contributions in local history publishing, and encourages the publishing of such works by public libraries and local authorities. At the award ceremony this week, the judges called the book 'stunning', 'fantastically researched', 'readable' and 'a very important book'.

Congratulations to all involved on this further recognition of this important piece of work.  

Discover the previously untold stories of the Lascars on our website here.