The next Scottish Local History Forum Annual Lecture will be held in the Library on 13 February, when Professor Niall Logan will be talking about Duping the Luftwaffe. There is an accompanying display in the Library which showcases items relating to this, as well as to civil defence and air raid precautions. With another war […]
Category: Exhibitions and events
Iconic Jet Aircraft display
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first commercial flight by Concorde from Heathrow to New York, I created a display celebrating iconic jet aircraft on the mezzanine level of the General Reading Room. This focuses on Concorde, the Vulcan, Red Arrows, Tornado, Harrier and Typhoon jets. The first 3 being the most iconic. The […]
500 years of the Protestant Reformation
On 31 October 1517 the German monk Martin Luther posted 95 theses for academic disputation on the door of a church in Wittenberg. This event now symbolises the starting point of the Protestant Reformation, and this year sees its 500th anniversary. We have put on an exhibition of original Lutheran tracts which tell the story […]
The music behind our Staffa display (17-27 August 2017)
In the 19th century many composers, including Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847), were inspired by Scottish literature to write music based on Scottish themes. The main influences were Ossian, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. Most major composers did not visit Scotland in person and so the inspiration remained cultural. However, Mendelssohn was one of the few […]
Stephen King turning seventy
Master of horror Stephen King, who has written over fifty novels and roughly two hundred short stories, turns seventy next month. The influence of his work is as strong as ever, with film adaptations of “The Dark Tower” and “It” due for cinema release in the coming weeks and a series based on one of […]
SGT. PEPPER: IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY
The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the UK on May 26, 1967. It remains the third best selling album in the UK: only Queen’s Greatest Hits (1981) and Abba’s Gold: Greatest Hits (1992) have outsold it. To mark this anniversary, the National Library of Scotland has mounted a free display of […]
SAFHS Conference and Family History Fair 2017
The Scottish Association of Family History Societies (SAFHS) Annual Conference and Family History Fair is on Saturday 22 April 2017 at The Bay Hotel, Pettycur, Burntisland Road, Kinghorn, KY3 9YE. The theme of this years event is ‘Building Bridges: Making Connections’. Along with many other stall holders, the National Library of Scotland will be in […]
Rare Books Edinburgh 2017
This week sees the inauguration of a new festival running from the 20th to the 30th of March. Rare Books Edinburgh is dedicated to rare, collectable, and important books and the history of the book and is promoting a series of events and talks across the city. The National Library of Scotland is one of […]
Charity Bazaars in Scotland
The word ‘bazaar’ was first used to describe a sale of work in 1813 in London and spread throughout the developed world in the 19th century. By the 1870s they were huge extravaganzas lasting several days, with entertainments, such as puppet shows, theatrical performances and displays of novelties such as electric light,
March’s Map of the Month: A map of Scotland. [Stitched by] Margaret Montgomery, circa 1800.
March is Women’s History Month and, in keeping with this theme, our Map of the Month is a map of Scotland, embroidered by a young girl over 200 years ago.