If you would like a peek behind the scenes of one of London’s most famous restaurants, look no further than “The Ivy Now” for a highly entertaining culinary read.
Tag: history
100 documents that changed the world : from Magna Carta to WikiLeaks
We are surrounded by documents in our everyday lives and, of course, not all documents are in themselves important or worth saving. However, some, be they an ancient scroll of papyrus, a letter, a contract or a 140-character tweet, can have a huge and lasting impact on the world.
Lost Glasgow: The Changing Face of Charing Cross
Earlier this year plans were unveiled to cover a stretch of the M8 motorway at Glasgow’s Charing Cross – to ‘heal the wound’ (as the Herald calls it) opened up in the city as the road was constructed in the 1960s. The National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive (housed here at Kelvin Hall) holds more than […]
Surviving Emotions
One of the best things about working with archives is finding records that give a real sense of the personality of the writer. There are many examples of this throughout the John Murray Archive, an archive that spans over two hundred years. The letters written to the successive heads of the publishing house regularly take a personal […]
The Empire Exhibition 1938
The Empire Exhibition 1938 The Empire Exhibition ran from May to October 1938 at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. King George VI with Queen Mary officially opened the Exhibition on the 3rd of May 1938 2017 marks seventy-nine years since the Exhibition. Reflecting on current political and social economic trends perhaps we can identify, more than […]
Sausages, steam trains and biplanes : Showcasing 100 years of Scotland on film
Most people when they think of films probably think of the latest blockbusters showing at the cinema; fantastic stories far removed from everyday life, and rarely showing anything of Scotland. What many people don’t realise is that for four decades the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive has been collecting and preserving all kinds […]
On the burning of books
The burning of a book is a powerful action – especially when the act is carried out in public. The book may be burnt for many reasons but whatever the reason, it is a strong statement. In On the Burning of Books, Kenneth Baker explores famous moments throughout history when books have been burnt for […]
1930 in Kelvin Hall – Demonstration of John Logie Baird’s television
Diagram of the component parts of Baird’s Televisor, from the Library’s collections On the day before the opening of the National Library of Scotland in Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, here is an account of another exciting visual development which was hosted in Kelvin Hall. The Edinburgh Evening News of Thursday 30 January 1930, p. 8 has the following piece: JUNE […]
Pamphlets – social media before the internet
My name is Rachel Scott, and I am a librarian and postgraduate student at the University of St. Andrews; I have just completed an internship with the Rare Book Department. Part of my internship has been to help audit pamphlets, including a vast collection of pamphlets bound by the Advocates Library, usually in related subjects […]
Map of the Month – 1574 map of the Americas
September’s Map of the Month is one of only seven surviving copies of Paolo Forlani’s 1574 map of the Americas. Beautifully engraved in a clear and legible style, this map shows the continents of North and South America as separate from Asia. Wind-rose lines surround the Americas; these would have aided navigation for sailors. To the south lies […]