Scotland has three official languages, but countless others have echoed through its streets and floated over its airwaves. From poetry to protest chants, the speech and song of the immigrants and refugees who have made their homes in Scotland have enriched the soundtrack of Scottish life. Pause for a moment to imagine the long-gone soundscape […]
Author: Staff Writer
Scottish South Asian Voices in Broadcasting
Over the last six months as an intern at the National Library of Scotland, I have undertaken the project ‘Scottish South Asians in Broadcasting’. This project draws on the Library’s vast collections, particularly the Moving Image Archive and Sound Collections, to identify underrepresented stories relating to the South Asian contribution to broadcasting in Scotland. The […]
A Natural Treasure
Isobel Wylie Hutchison features in our ‘Treasures of the National Library of Scotland’ exhibition. Her diaries, manuscripts, photographs, artwork and film all reveal a woman who loved to travel, but also one whose connection with the outdoors was important: I had heard the call of the wild, on star-lit nights under the Northern Lights. I […]
Changing gender in Metamorphoses
Ovid’s Metamorphoses has almost 12,000 lines and covers over two hundred and fifty Greek Myths. As the name suggests each of these myths involves some kind of transformation for the characters within it. Some of these transformations are from mortal to immortal, from human to animal and from human to plant, as well as a variety […]
Variations on a Theme: The Court Case of Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie
In 1810 the schoolteachers Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie found their Edinburgh boarding school abandoned after the rapid removal of every single pupil by their parents. The reason for this exodus stemmed from the accusations voiced by their pupil Jane Cumming who informed her grandmother that the two teachers were in a sexual relationship. Horrified […]
Sir Walter Scott and the historical novel
Last year marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Scotland’s greatest literary talents, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). The Wizard of the North, as he became known, enjoyed a towering reputation throughout the 19th century and was one of the most important figures in the development and popularisation of the historical novel. The […]
LGBTQ+ Representation within the Moving Image Archive
The Library’s Moving Image Archive at Kelvin Hall aims to collect films of historical value and that represent the diversity of people living and working in Scotland, as well as historical and ongoing development of screen practice in Scotland. Despite this wide scope, there’s much to be said about what’s missing. As inclusion of all […]
Funny Kinda Guy
At the Library’s moving image collections at Kelvin Hall, we have the real hidden gem that is ‘Funny Kinda Guy’ (2005), which we are screening for this year’s LGBT History Month: Blurring Borders – A World in Motion. This touching and musical feature-length documentary, directed by Travis Reeves, follows musician Simon de Voil through the […]
The Puzzle of the Paisley Pensioners
This short blog uncovers the story of Anchor Pensioners 1965, a recent addition to the moving image catalogue, and illustrates how public engagement is key to understanding some of the unique archival material in the Library’s collections. The film came in to the archive a few years ago as a consequence of a house move. […]
Collections available for music making
While the National Library of Scotland is a reference-only library and doesn’t lend music, mass digitisation has seen the set up of ‘Special Collections of Printed Music’ on our Digital Gallery. You can browse the different sections of this site or you can search for specific titles or composer’s names. Over the past year we […]