Latest Posts
Numbers, Focus and Prioritisation
Over the last few weeks, the Books and Borrowing team have been working on a problem of which we were aware at the outset of the project, but one that has grown in prominence as we’ve discovered more library records and added further institutions to our list while conducting our research. Our target is to […]
Novel Reading in Post-Enlightenment Scotland: a PhD
Hello! My name is Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman, and I am delighted to be joining the Books and Borrowing team as I begin my SGSAH/AHRC-funded PhD this month, co-supervised by the Universities of Stirling and Glasgow. My PhD project centres upon analysing the relationships between novel reading and forms of ‘improvement’ within Post-Enlightenment Scotland. By combining […]
A First Look at the Aberdeen Theological Library
In 1826, the first of a series of royal commissions was established that would report on the condition and management of the Scottish universities at intervals in the nineteenth century. The range of materials gathered by the commissioners today provide historians with an extraordinary insight into the evolution of Scottish education, including the operation of […]
The Royal High School of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh
I’ve been so delighted to get started with the Books and Borrowing team and have really enjoyed getting stuck in and learning all about the project’s Content Management System (CMS) and what’s been achieved so far. ‘Books and Borrowing’ is a project close to my heart as my PhD focused on the pupil borrowing records […]
William Robertson (1721-1793): Minister, Principal, Historian
This year marks the tercentenary of the birth of a major figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. William Robertson was a leading moderate minister of the Church of Scotland, Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1762 until 1793, and a famous author of historical works. Robertson’s three major historical works, The History of Scotland (2 […]
Festival of Reading
Last week I spent a delightful few days at the Library of Innerpeffray’s inaugural Festival of Reading! From 8 to 11 September 2021, Innerpeffray hosted eight Tayside writers to celebrate the Past on the Page, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. In the run up to the festival, […]
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 […]
Agricultural Improvement at Westerkirk Library
One of the fascinating things about working on the records of Westerkirk Parish Library has been watching the way its borrowing records reflect a gradual transition from a miners’ library in the 1790s, to a rural subscription library by the 1810s. This long-term shift is suggested by descriptions of Westerkirk parish and its library in […]
Romantic-Period Book Circulation
I’ve long been fascinated by the idea of a salon – and the women who ran salons in the eighteenth century, such as Madame Geoffrin, Mlle de Scudéry, Madame de Staël, and Madame Necker in France, and Elizabeth Montague, Mary Berry, Lady Holland, and the Countess of Blessington on this side of the English Channel. […]
Writing One’s Own Story with Walter Scott
Your author’s quill commands no life to grow The codex mute remains in dusty gloom ’Till, tripping lightly thro’ the antique stacks A bookworm sings themselves in unison With inky song. Old Play [1] In 1816, the anglophone […]