Tag: <span>Scotland</span>

Published September 26, 2024 by

Highlights of the OneHealth Project

This spring the short but broad digitisation project, OneHealth, reached its end. The OneHealth project was focused on early animal welfare history, utilising new material brought in from a trio of organisations: Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, and the animal welfare charity OneKind. During those 6 months, we had a vast and diverse materials pass through our studios. From the historically rich early records of Edinburgh Zoo to morbidly curious Veterinary School implements to the delightfully pet centric magazines of the OneKind charity, the project spanned a wide range of items.

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Cultural Heritage Digitisation

CHDS Collections Cultural Heritage Digitisation OneHealth OneKind RZSS Scotland University of Edinburgh Library

Published April 11, 2024 by

Skene, Societies and Swedish Serendipity


How often do you walk past a 1000 year old rune stone?  The answer is every day, if you work or study near the Main Library!

Earlier this year I completed a project photographing  James Skene’s Album of Sketches in greater detail. When I came across his runestone illustration again I was intrigued and did some research, making the surreal discovery that the subject was a 3 minute walk away.  At 50 George Square behind the Scandinavian Studies Department, stands a Swedish runestone with a curious history. This 1.3 tonne granite stone found its new home here at the university in 2019, having been moved several times prior.

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Cultural Heritage Digitisation

CHDS cultural heritage Cultural Heritage Digitisation Edinburgh High Quality Photography James Skene leith runestone Scotland Skene Album sweden Swedish

Looking Ahead – Our 2024 Project Preview
Published February 8, 2024 by

Looking Ahead – Our 2024 Project Preview

A photograph of a highly decorative manuscript with art of flowers, insects, and birds
Esther Inglis Manuscript – Photo by Anna Pike, Project Curator

I began working with the Cultural Heritage Digitisation Services team last November, as a Digitisation Operator. Before joining the team, I was digitising plant specimens in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. I am also a photographer, with my work most recently appearing in the Accidentally Wes Anderson exhibition which opened in London December 2023.  

2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year, with several projects in the works. Some of these have been in the planning stages for a long time, and we really couldn’t be more eager to finally get started. With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to provide a ‘movie trailer’ of sorts, with a short preview of each project we plan to tackle in 2024: 

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Cultural Heritage Digitisation News Projects

CHDS Cultural Heritage Digitisation Digital Imaging Unit Edinburgh Esther Inglis High Quality Photography LGBTQIA+ Lothian Health Service Archive LUNA Lyell Notebooks Scotland Sir Charles Lyell The Witness Newspaper

Published March 7, 2023 by

Documenting I.C.28

Black and white composite image of the death mask of William Burke, overlayed with the image of his skull, matching up eyes to eye sockets, teeth to mouth etc.

Last summer, I spent five days photographing the skeleton of William Burke to document recent conservation as a record for future collection care. The remains had been conserved and cleaned for the first time since the 1800s and the skeleton was going on display at the National Museum of Scotland for their 2022 exhibition “A Matter Of Death and Life“. I also photographed the life and death masks of Burke, Hare and Robert Knox (“the man who buys the beef”).

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Cultural Heritage Digitisation Edinburgh Medical School

Anatomy bodysnatchers bones Burke burke and hare Centre for Research Collections Centre for Research Collections Digital Imaging Unit CHDS Collections composite Conservation crime cultural heritage Cultural Heritage Digitisation Digital Imaging Edinburgh edinburgh crime High Quality Photography Library medical history National Museum of Scotland Photography Scotland skeleton skull true crime University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh Digital Imaging Unit University of Edinburgh Library victorian

Published September 26, 2022 by

Witchcraft, Waulking & Will-o’-the-Wisps – Exploring the Maclagan Manuscripts

Have you ever been stuck for a good nursery rhyme to tell your kids? Or needed a cure for a headache that just will not go away? Or perhaps you’ve found yourself wondering – what is the best way to protect my butter from being cursed by witches? If the answer to any of these questions is yes (or possibly “why would a witch curse my butter?”) then let me introduce you to the collection recently  digitised by our Cultural Heritage Digitisation Service team that can answer all these questions and more – the Maclagan Manuscripts.

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Archive Collections College of Arts, Humanities & Social Science Manuscript Collections Projects School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures SSSA

Bookeye Dr Robert Craig Maclagan Folklore Gaelic Light Sheet Maclagan Manuscripts Paper Manufacturing Scanning School of Scottish Studies Archives Scotland SSSA Watermarks West Highlands

Published April 29, 2022 by

The Skene Album – An artistic partnership between author and artist

Collection: Walter Scott Image Collection; Persons: Scott, Walter; Event: N/A; Place: Scotland; UK; Category: Art; Description:

James Skene was a close friend of one of Scotland’s greatest and most influential writers. By profession  he was a lawyer, but he was also a keen amateur artist. Skene and Scott first met as fellow Advocates at the Scottish Bar and were brought together by their common love of German literature. They were subsequently joint co-founders of the Light Horse Regiment and the pair formed a close friendship.

This particular album appears to have fallen into obscurity over the years, as it had been in private collections and out of public view. Skene made these sketches for Scott to use as a reference or aide-memoire when writing his novels. Knowledge of its existence does not appear in any research or exhibitions relating to Scott or Skene. We were very fortunate to have this new acquisition and it was a pleasure to personally handle this beautiful album and see every drawing up close.

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Art Collections Library Museum Collections

Conservation High Quality Photography Illustration James Skene Landscape Scotland Sir Walter Scott Skene Album