Mathematics at the CRC TAGS: CRC | geometry | Laing | mathematics Whilst preparing an introductory presentation for History of Science UG students, I came across this fascinating handwritten volume on geometry. It looks quite unassuming from the outside, but inside are the …Continue reading →

Fifty Shelves of Gray (and Nelson) TAGS: Annexe | CRC | Gowans and Gray | Nelson | Nelson Archive | New Century Library | Playbooks | Repertory Plays | Special Collections | Thomas Nelson While the cover of Fifty Shades of Grey displays a degree of restraint, publishers and consumers of the romance genre did not always have such a taste for understated dust-jackets. …Continue reading →

Fairytales & Chivalry at the Centre for Research Collections TAGS: CRC | Fairytales | rare books | Special Collections When I think of our rare book collections, I tend to think or row upon row of brown, leather bound volumes. This is true for a large part of the …Continue reading →

Godfrey and Hector Thomson TAGS: Centre for Research Collections | Childhood Photographs | CRC | Edinburgh university Library Special Collecions | Fathers Day | Godfrey Thomson | Hector Thomson | Intelligence | personal papers | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson (Coll-1310/1/2/2 Family Photographs) With father’s day coming up this weekend, I thought it would be interesting to blog about the father/son relationship between Godfrey and Hector Thomson. When Hector was …Continue reading →

The simple art of reference writing TAGS: CRC | Edinburgh University Library | Karl Ferdinand Braun | Professor Godfrey Thomson | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson | University of Edinburgh | William Henry Hadow As I am now coming to the end of my time in Edinburgh cataloguing the papers of Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson, references aren’t terribly far from my mind! But I …Continue reading →

A few of my favourite things V: a gift from ‘the Polish Teachers in Uniform’ TAGS: CRC | Edinburgh university Library Special Collecions | Polish School of Medicine | Polish Students in Uniform | Polonia Restituta | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson My favourite item from all the collections I have worked with in the past 10 months is a beautiful album in the Moray House collection.  The album was made for …Continue reading →

‘The old conditions cannot continue, and some new form of political and economic existence must be found’ TAGS: CRC | Dr Friedrich M Urban | Edinburgh University Special Collections | Nuremberg rally | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson | World War II All of history seems to be contained in the letters of ordinary people living in extraordinary times.  We may know what backdrop will emerge, but there are seldom enough traces …Continue reading →

The love story of Hector and Andromache… TAGS: CRC | Edinburgh University Special Collections | Hector and Andromache | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson | University of Aberdeen | University of Edinburgh | Valentines Day Valentines Day.  A wonderful time of year when  we can indulge in levels of cynicism and sarcasm simply unacceptable at any other!  However, here in the archives our hardened hearts …Continue reading →

The disgruntlements of old age… TAGS: CRC | D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson | differential birth rate | Edinburgh University Special Collections | Eugenics | Intelligence | natural history | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson | University of Edinburgh | University of St Andrews Disgruntlement.  The archives are full of it – though I should stress I am referring to the contents of our records rather than our lovely readers (or indeed my lovely  …Continue reading →

A letter from Pip TAGS: 20th century history | Birth control | Carlos Paton Blacker | CRC | Edinburgh University Library | Eugenics | Eugenics Society | Godfrey Thomson | Intelligence testing | Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson | Royal Commission on Population | University of Edinburgh | Wellcome Library | Wellcome Trust Some of the most interesting letters in Thomson’s collection were sent to his widow following his death in 1955.  The following, from psychiatrist and secretary of the Eugenics society Carlos …Continue reading →