The choice: Philip Doddridge, Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Honourable Col. James Gardiner. (London, 1748). Chosen by: Robert Betteridge, Rare Books Curator (Eighteenth-Century Printed 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 […]
Doors Open Day: Through ‘The Void’ to Libberton’s Wynd
During Doors Open Day, we try to take visitors to hitherto unknown parts of the National Library building at George IV Bridge. ‘The Void’ is the final destination of our tours on Doors Open Day – but what is ‘The Void’? ‘The Void’ is effectively a sub-street space between the structures of the Library building […]
Doors Open Day: The Staircase Window by Helen Monro Turner
Following his unfortunate death, to ensure continuity in the Library project, Reginald Fairlie was succeeded as the Library’s architect by one of the partners in his architectural practice, Alexander Ritchie Conlon. Conlon’s fledgling career had been interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served as an Officer with the Royal Engineers’ bomb disposal. […]
Doors Open Day: The Sculptors
“While he chips away with his chisel the rest of the work on the building goes on round him. The rickety noise of cranes. The sharp rattle of drills. The clattering of bricks. And the clang of steel girders…” – The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch, 14th July, 1954. For several months in 1954 and 1955, the […]
Wild Scotland on Film
‘’The light of enchantment on heather and lochan, the curler’s call, the fragrance of green bog myrtle, slow silence enfolding all’’ Bee Keeping in the North (1946) (Intertitles on silent film) Scotland’s great outdoors features in many memorable films – think of the brooding mountains of Glencoe in ‘Skyfall’ or the breathtaking Aberdeenshire village of […]
Zoom into Inverclyde
Part of the historic county of Renfrewshire, Inverclyde is situated in the crook of the upper Firth of Clyde as it bends east toward Glasgow. Its largest towns, Greenock and Port Glasgow, were historic centres of shipbuilding. From the eighteenth century they were key ports for the British trade in goods from overseas, including commodities, […]
Curators’ Favourites: James Leslie Mitchell’s Spartacus
Photograph by Zach Dyson. The choice: James Leslie Mitchell, Spartacus (London, 1933) Chosen by: Ian Scott, Curator in General Collections Read or download this book from the Lewis Grassic Gibbon page on our digital gallery http://digital.nls.uk/lewis-grassic-gibbon-books/archive/205174226 where you will find this novel alongside the other books James Leslie Mitchell published during his lifetime both under […]
Zoom into Clackmannanshire
Collated by Charlotte James Robertson. This time in our ‘Zoom into…’ series the spotlight is on Clackmannanshire. Affectionately known as ‘The Wee County’ it is mainland Scotland’s smallest council area by population. Clackmannanshire borders the council areas of Stirling, Fife, and Perth & Kinross. The town of Clackmannan was the county town up until 1822 when Alloa became the main administrative centre. […]
Curators’ Favourites: The Travels of Cyrus
The choice: Andrew Michael Ramsay, A New Cyropaedia; or The Travels of Cyrus. (Edinburgh, 1729). Chosen by: Robert Betteridge, Rare Books Curator (Eighteenth-Century Printed 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, […]
21st Century Periods
In early 2020, following the Government’s Period Poverty Bill and the subsequent Let’s Call Periods, Periods campaign, we committed to supplying free sanitary products in our buildings. By happy coincidence, General Collections curators Dora Petherbridge and Jan Usher had been working with Professor Bettina Bildhauer and Dr Camilla Mørk Røstvik of St Andrews University, who […]