The county of Perth, formerly known as Perthshire, sits at the heart of Scotland, and its vast geographic size has seen it called ‘the big county.’ It existed as an administrative county from 1890 until 1930, when it was linked with Kinross-shire which, in direct contrast to its neighbour, is one of Scotland’s smallest counties. The county town is Perth, and a large number […]
Tag: books
Zoom Into Angus
The Modern-day council area of Angus traces its name to an eighth century Pictish king, Óengus son of Fergus (ruled 732-761). Óengus (Angus) hailed from Circinn, one of the four principal Pictish kingdoms roughly coextensive with the modern county of Angus. The signing of the Declaration of Arbroath at Arbroath Abbey in 1320 marked Scotland’s establishment as an independent nation, and so Angus has become known as the birthplace of […]
Zoom into East Renfrewshire
Historically, East Renfrewshire formed part of the larger Renfrewshire county. In the 1970s, most of the area broke away to become a new council district called Eastwood. The area was later renamed East Renfrewshire after gaining a part of Renfrew District (namely Barrhead) in 1996. Neighboured by the City of Glasgow to the northeast and […]
Zoom into Na h-Eileanan Siar
Time to step into the rich history and culture of Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles or Outer Hebrides). Na h-Eileanan Siar is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The inhabited islands of the Western Isles include: Lewis and Harris, South Uist, North Uist, Benbecula, Barra, Great Bernera, Berneray, Vatersay, Baleshare, North Grimsay, […]
Happy Dictionary Day!
Hello, I’m Moray Teale and I am the Europeana Rise of Literacy Project Coordinator at the National Library. Today, October 16th, is National Dictionary Day in the United States! It celebrates the birth of Noah Webster, the most famous American lexicographer. Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1828 but it was not […]
The Man Booker Prize at 50: Scottish authors and publishers that made the shortlist
In 2018 the Man Booker Prize celebrates its 50th anniversary. The first award was made in 1969 but most of the novels shortlisted were published in 1968. The 2018 shortlist will be announced on 20th September and the 2018 winner on the 16th October. To mark fifty years of the prize we thought we would […]
Fashion Collections at the NLS
Vogue The Covers HB6.218.6.89, 100 Years of Fashion PB6.212.838/10, Behind The Runway HB6.217.2.36 The General Collections available at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) cover a diverse range of topics from Mountaineering to Music. You can find help and information to set up a business, indulge a passion, learn a new skill or delve into […]
Scottish Book Trade Index Revamped!
The Scottish Book Trade Index is now fully searchable! The new version has all the information from the old one, but you can now combine searches rather than looking for one word such as a name or trade. You can, for instance, find out how many booksellers there were in Brechin in the 18th century […]
Talwin Morris: Book Design and the Glasgow School at the Turn of the 20th century
My name is Kathryn Hillman. I’ve just completed a postgraduate internship within Rare Books Collections as part of my MSc in Art in the Global Middle Ages at the University of Edinburgh. I spent most of my time here at the National Library working on the Provenance Project, researching and identifying the previous ownership history of rare books […]
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 […]