At the National Library of Scotland we are fortunate to look after some of the best collections of manuscripts in the country. As well as the large groups of estate papers and personal papers we also bring together many individual items, such as letters and poems, into a single volume. Over the last few months I’ve been […]
Tag: Robert Burns
Robert Burns in America
The Library has acquired a collection of individual issues of the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser newspaper from 1787 through to 1788, which probably contain the first examples of Robert Burns’s work in print in the USA! Each issue prints a poem or song by Burns to give American readers a taster of his poetry. […]
Liz Mathews – inspired by Burns
Last summer we added to the collection some lovely Robert Burns works by the lettering artist Liz Mathews.
Temperance is the only solution!
We’ve been fortunate recently to buy a copy of a book which appears to be the only known copy! It’s called Whiskiana, or the drunkard’s progress. A poem. In Scottish verse (NLS shelfmark AP.1.211.06), and it was printed in Glasgow in 1812: Whiskiana deals with the “evil of habitual intoxication”. The author acknowledges the popular Scots poet Hector Macneill as an inspiration […]