“Manuscripts rare for the writing” and The Skeleton in the Library Cupboard: the Early Library Records Project   The Library holds a very rich collection of the records of its own activities, stretching right back to the charter of Clement Littil’s bequest in 1580, which started the …Continue reading →

The Perils of Technology: Aviation During the First World War TAGS: aeroplane recognition | aeroplanes | air warfare | aircraft | First World War The First World War was the first in which air warfare played a significant part. While aircraft were ultimately to change the face of warfare, the demands of the war …Continue reading →

Alice’s Adventures in the Rare Book Stacks TAGS: Alice in Wonderland | book illustration | Children's stories | John Tenniell | Lewis Carroll | printing history Happy 150th anniversary of the second edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland! (This week’s blog post has been contributed by Tess Goodman, a doctoral student in the Centre for the History …Continue reading →

The Battle of Jutland – 100 years on TAGS: Battle of Jutland | German Fleet | Grand Fleet | High Seas Fleet | My boy Jack | Navy | Rudyard Kipling | Scapa Flow | Sea Warfare | World War I | WW1 This week sees the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, the largest and most important naval engagement of the First World War, and also a particularly Scottish event, as …Continue reading →

The Greatest Gaelic Book Collector? Professor Donald MacKinnon (1839–1914), the University of Edinburgh, and the MacKinnon Collection TAGS: Book collecting | Crofters | Gaelic | Highlands | Professor of Celtic | Scotland We have recently completed the online cataloguing of the MacKinnon Collection, of books of and about Scottish life and literature, and rich in books in Gaelic.  Our colleague and expert …Continue reading →

‘Der Tag’, Grand Fleets, and ‘Kia ora’: HMS New Zealand and the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, 21st November, 1918 TAGS: Armistice | Der Tag | Forth Estuary | German Fleet | H.M.S. New Zealand | Kia Ora | Navy | new zealand | P. J. Voysey | Scapa Flow In March 1991 the Government of New Zealand presented Edinburgh University Library with the Library of New Zealand House, London. The New Zealand Studies Collection has recently been catalogued and …Continue reading →

Where Did Fairbairn get his books? TAGS: Books | circulating libraries | medical libraries | Psychoanalysis | reading It has often been commented that Fairbairn, in Edinburgh, was working a long way from the main centres of development in psychoanalysis. This must have made keeping abreast of the …Continue reading →

Rare Books De-mystified TAGS: pop up library | rare books If you have ever fancied using old or rare books as the basis of a project, or come upon the location “Main Library – Special Collections” in the catalogue, for …Continue reading →