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 […]
Category: 20th-century items
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 […]
National Library of Scotland and the Edinburgh College of Art: an enduring partnership
Since 2014, the National Library’s Public Programmes team have been regularly working with Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) Illustration tutors and their 1st Year students on an annual collaborative project. Taking inspiration from different aspects of the National Library’s collections, the students have created Riso prints, linocuts, drawings and paper sculptures as part of their […]
Harry Potter and the 80 translations
The National Library of Scotland’s new Treasures exhibition in Edinburgh includes an array of translations of the first Harry Potter novel. These translations show that the Harry Potter books are a global success, published and read in almost every corner of the the world. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling (1997) (or […]
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 […]
Our collections and the climate crisis – Fife
The Library holds millions of items- books, journals, e-books, maps, music, moving images- and these can help individuals build both practical and emotional resilience in the face of the climate crisis. Be it a map showing the effects of coastal erosion in Scotland or an e-book on climate justice or a poem deepening our relationship […]
Our collections and the climate crisis – Clyde River Basin
The Library holds millions of items- books, journals, e-books, maps, music, moving images- and these can help individuals build both practical and emotional resilience in the face of the climate crisis. Be it a map showing the effects of coastal erosion in Scotland or an e-book on climate justice or a poem deepening our relationship […]
Our collections and the climate crisis – Cairngorms
The Library holds millions of items- books, journals, e-books, maps, music, moving images- and these can help individuals build both practical and emotional resilience in the face of the climate crisis. Be it a map showing the effects of coastal erosion in Scotland or an e-book on climate justice or a poem deepening our relationship […]
Our collections and the Climate Crisis — Outer Hebrides
The Library holds millions of items- books, journals, e-books, maps, music, moving images- and these can help individuals build both practical and emotional resilience in the face of the climate crisis. Be it a map showing the effects of coastal erosion in Scotland or an e-book on climate justice or a poem deepening our relationship […]
Gil Heron, Gil Scott-Heron and their “Scottish spirits”.
This is a blog about four men, footballer Gil Heron (1922-2008), his son the musician Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011), publisher Jamie Byng (1969-) and TV executive and football pundit Stuart Cosgrove (1952-). These men’s lives and the points where they crossed over tells us something about Scotland and its relationship with African-American culture over the last […]