The Library is home to almost certainly the largest collection of books on Scottish football in the world. We have biographies, annuals, club histories and match programmes dating from the mid 19th century to the present day covering all levels of the game from amateur to the national team. We are always keen to add […]
The slavery debate and pamphlet wars
By Ash Charlton, collaborative PhD student on placement with Rare Books. Please note that some material in the collection and the language that describes them may be harmful. Read our statement on language you may encounter when using the collections. The National Library of Scotland holds a wealth of information, including a substantial collection of […]
Women & the Anti-slavery Movement
By Ash Charlton, collaborative PhD student on placement with Rare Books. Please note that some material in the collection and the language that describes them may be harmful. Read our statement on language you may encounter when using the collections. The National Library of Scotland holds a wealth of information, including a substantial collection of […]
Myth, romance, adventure: An Outlander inspired trip through the Scottish film archive
This blog, inspired by the television series Outlander, will take you on a time travelling tour of Scotland on film! The National Library of Scotland has a world-class collection of moving images available to all. Whether a scholar or fan, explore the romance and reality of Scottish history recorded in both documentary and imaginative works. […]
Introducing our Virtual Reading Room – another way to view the collections
Whether you are scholar, learner, or just a little curious – the virtual reading room allows you to immerse yourself in the Library’s collections anywhere. We have added quotes from readers throughout this blog. “Great opportunity for people who cannot visit the library…“ Our new virtual reading room allows you to explore our collections without […]
![Handel's Overtures 11th Collection Set for the Harpsichord or Organ ... Time and Truth, Jephtha, Theodora, Deborah, to which is added the Coronation Anthem. London: I. Walsh, [1758]. NLS reference: BH.266](https://blog.nls.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Almut4-750x410.jpg)
George Frideric Handel and his coronation anthems
It is coronation time again after seventy years! It will be a grand ceremony with old and new elements of the service and its music. Let us introduce you to a coronation anthem which was composed by German-British composer, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) for the coronation of George II in 1727: Zadok the Priest. It […]
David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes: Collector and Engraver
Hello, my name is Caroline Thirlwell and I am a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh studying Global Premodern Art: History Heritage and Curation. For the past three months I have been working as an intern at the National Library of Scotland in the Rare Books Division under the supervision of curator James Mitchell. […]
Two lurid 1940’s paperbacks published in Glasgow
The publisher most associated with paperbacks in the UK is Penguin Books who, changed British reading habits forever when they published their first ten titles in 1935. The ten included literary fiction by Ernest Hemingway and Eric Linklater, crime stories by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers and the first Penguin book “Ariel” by André […]
Tom Hanlin: Scottish miner and bestselling novelist whose work was praised by John Steinbeck
Scottish literature has a strong tradition of novels of working-class life by working-class authors. Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s ‘A Scots Quair’ (1932-4), William McIlvanney’s ‘Docherty’ (1975), James Kelman’s ‘The Bus Conductor Hines’ (1984) and Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ (1993) are among the classic works of Scottish proletarian literature. The only two Scottish novels that have won the […]
The first issues of ‘The Scotsman’ from 1817 have been added to our Treasures exhibition
The permanent and free ‘Treasures of the National Library’ exhibition at our main building in Edinburgh gives visitors the chance to see some of the most important items in our collections. We have recently refreshed the contents of the exhibition. From March 2023 you can see the first edition of Robert Burns’s ‘Poems’, printed at […]