Books and Borrowing 1750-1830

Author: Jacqueline Kennard

Libraries and Class Identity in Scotland, 1800-1842: A PhD

I’m back – and this time for the long haul! Books and Borrowing is a project that I’ve greatly enjoyed being involved with since receiving a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship in summer 2020, which enabled me to conduct three months of research with the project team (you can read about this research here, here, and here). […]

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The Leighton Library’s Water Drinkers: An Exhibition

When I applied for my scholarship from the Carnegie Trust earlier this year I committed to creating an exhibition displaying some of my findings. I’m so pleased to share that the exhibition has officially launched! Hurrah! It’s located in the Pathfoot Building at the University of Stirling in the A corridor (immediately to the left […]

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A Comparison of the Borrowings of Different Classes at the Library of Innerpeffray, John Gray Library, Haddington, and Selkirk Subscription Library

In my last blog post, I discussed the Library of Innerpeffray’s exceptional labouring-class borrowing demographic. Labouring-class people were the driving force for borrowings at Innerpeffray as early as the eighteenth century, contradicting narratives claiming that they only began accessing libraries in the nineteenth century, with access previously exclusive to scholarly, aristocratic, and professional elites. The […]

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Labouring-Class Borrowing at Innerpeffray Library, 1815-1833

Now that I’m in the final few weeks of my Carnegie-funded research with Books and Borrowing (I’m very sad about this!) I thought I’d share some of my findings with you. There’s too much for me to share in a single blog post, so this post will centre around labouring-class borrowings at Innerpeffray Library from […]

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The Most Borrowed Books of the Leighton Library’s Water Drinkers

by Jacqueline Kennard I’m thrilled about my temporary placement with Books and Borrowing and to be writing my first blog post! Funded by the Carnegie Trust’s Undergraduate Vacation Scholarship, I’ll be spending twelve weeks comparing and analysing early-nineteenth-century book borrowings from five libraries in provincial Scotland, namely the Leighton Library, St Andrews University Library, the […]

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