Collated by Alison Leslie. Orkney, or the Orkney Islands, is a group of 70 islands off the north coast of Scotland. They became part of Scotland in 1469 in lieu of an unpaid dowry from Norway. Today Orkney is best known for its historic sites, the dive sites around the scuttled World War One German fleet, its birdlife, its food and drink, and the North Ronaldsay sheep […]
Author: Paula Williams
Zoom Into Scotland
What is that building? Who is this street named after? Where do those gates lead? With most of us spending more time at and around our homes, we are noticing things we haven’t spotted before. Whether you have lived there for a short time or for years there is always something new to discover. Many of us live away […]
Discovering 16th Century Atlases
Blog written by Rosie Seidel, MSc in Book History and Material Culture student at the University of Edinburgh. In an effort to increase the discoverability of and access to maps in the collections, I have been working to index and identify editions of 15th century Ptolemaic and Ortelian atlases.
Finding, Researching and Listing a Wall Map of Canaan
Blog written by Ted Simonds, History of the Book student at the University of Edinburgh Whilst listing the maps included in the Library’s atlas collection I came across a six sheet wall chart bound into a composite atlas. When it came to researching the map in greater detail, I realised that compiling is something the […]
You are Here A journey through maps.
Accurate, beautiful, clever, dangerous, exciting. Maps can be all of these things. They show us new places, help us re-imagine familiar haunts and even enable us to travel through time. A map is both a useful tool and a magic carpet to far-away places. In the cold winter months we can travel in our minds […]