SILK sample books from Dunfermline cloth manufacturers and a pair of National Coal Board wellies – still with traces of coal dust – are just some of the items being sorted at a special museum collection centre.

The pieces of history also include a dressing case that belonged to Catherine the Great’s revered admiral, Inverkeithing-born Samuel Greig, as well as a range of household gadgets – including a rare 1904 hand crank Singer sewing machine bought in Dunfermline, a 1920s gramophone and a 1950s Bakelite TV, complete with nine-inch screen and 49 Guineas price tag.

OnFife curators are currently reorganising thousands of artefacts – previously under wraps – so they can be appreciated more readily by visitors.

The objects – donated by the public mostly – are being researched and catalogued digitally by staff at the collections centre in Glenrothes.

More than 80,000 items from Fife Council's Museums Collections were transferred to the former Amazon warehouse five years ago.

The collection, now cared for by OnFife, is more than a century old and includes donations from individuals, businesses and community organisations.

Objects too big or oddly-shaped to fit into boxes were bubble-wrapped for the mass flitting while others had been covered up for safe keeping.

The move means the items – including 1,000 works of art – can be kept in stable, environmentally-controlled conditions, secure and free from damage risk.

There are reminders of a lost commercial world – a ‘Protectograph’ that prevented unauthorised alteration of business cheques; a set of Scots weights and measures used by Burgh inspectors in Burntisland; and one of the earliest mass-produced office calculators.

There are vintage toys galore – a black Triang doll’s pram that defines the term ‘design classic’; a red pedal racing car swish enough for Stirling Moss; and a charming child’s desk, perfect for today’s home-working were it not so petite.

Collections staff are now 18 months into this monumental task.

“Around 1,100 objects have been carefully unwrapped so far,” says collections curator Jane Freel. “The condition of each has been checked and recorded and its ID number matched to its documentation record.

“A detailed description of each artefact is recorded digitally, along with a record of its precise location, so items can be easily found if needed by a curator or visiting researcher.”

Collections staff have been working with colleagues in OnFife’s archives and local studies department to gain fresh insights into many objects that had limited background information.

One such example is a trunk used during the Second World War by a Captain D Drysdale, about which staff had very little recorded information.

“We now know much more about David Drysdale,” said collections support assistant Susan Goodfellow. “We have details of his military service, his career in banking, his involvement in many local organisations, his service as Honorary Sherriff Substitute for Fife and as a Justice of Peace.

“These important details are now recorded on our catalogue. That’s such a vital part of the work we are doing because behind every item lies a human story. We are honouring people’s lives as much as the objects they left behind.”

OnFife’s Uncovered project has been made possible with funding from Museum Galleries Scotland. People wishing to view a particular object at the collections centre should email museums.enquiries@onfife.com.