We have recently published images of some early Scottish newspapers on our Digital Gallery, ‘Scotland’s News’, including the short-lived scandal sheet the Aberdeen new shaver
Author: Graham Hogg
John Thomson: photographer, writer and traveller
This week marks the centenary of the death of Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837-1921), one of the great names of early photography. Over the last 30-40 years Thomson’s achievements as a photographer, which were largely forgotten in the years following his death, have been increasingly recognised and publicised. A cast bronze plaque to commemorate him […]
Walter Scott and The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
15 August 2021 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Scotland’s most famous authors, who in his lifetime achieved global renown and for millions came to represent Scotland and Scottish culture. Sir Walter Scott’s fame may have declined somewhat over the last 100 years, and his works are not so widely read, […]
Bookplates in the National Library: Who owned books in 18th and 19th century Scotland?
This blog post is about the bookplates collections in the National Library of Scotland and about what it can tell us about the types of people who owned books in eighteenth and nineteenth century Scotland. My name is Bryony Pillath and I am doing an MSc in Book History and Material Culture at the University […]
Curators’ Favourites: Reminiscences of Thomas Marshall of Berwick
The choice: Reminiscences of Thomas Marshall of Berwick, (Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1835) Chosen by: Graham Hogg, Curator (19th-Century Printed Collections and Photo-graphs), Rare Books, Maps and Music Collections Read or download this book from our Digital Gallery. Welcome to the latest of our new fortnightly series where we introduce you to some favourites from our collections for you to enjoy reading, […]
Curators’ Favourites: R.M. Ballantyne’s Fighting the flames
The choice: R.M. Ballantyne, Fighting the flames (London, 1867). Chosen by: Graham Hogg, Curator (19th-Century Printed Collections and Photo-graphs), Rare Books, Maps and Music Collections Welcome to the latest of our fortnightly series where we introduce you to some favourites from our collections for you to enjoy reading, all freely available online. Read or download […]
A generous bequest to the Library
We have a new printed special and named collection available to consult in our Special Collections Reading Room: the Peter Sharratt Collection. This is a selection of 153 volumes from the library of the late Dr. Peter Sharratt (d. 2014), a former lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, who specialised in the French Renaissance and […]
Scotland’s greatest ever confidence trickster?
We have recently bought a printed document linked to one of the boldest con men of all time, Gregor MacGregor (1786-1845). Other fraudsters may have made more money but MacGregor was breathtakingly audacious; he invented a country that didn’t exist, and then persuaded hundreds of investors to buy the bonds of a non-existent government and […]
Sun-pictures and beyond
Scotland and the photographically illustrated book 1845-1900 In October 1844 Henry Talbot, the inventor of the calotype negative (Talbotype) process of photography travelled to Scotland along with Nicolaas Henneman, his former valet who was now running his own Talbotype establishment in Reading. Talbot, with the aid of Henneman, was planning to take photographs to illustrate […]
Election fever 1880s-style
Voters in Scotland went to the polls last week to elect a new Scottish Parliament; a recent Library purchase of satirical cartoons of Liberal politician William Ewart Gladstone gives us a humorous view of political campaigning over 130 years ago. This was a time when politicians could not use social media, or TV and radio […]