Category Archives: Collections

Geology Gems

Letter from Alfred Russel Wallace to Archibald Geikie, 1869

Letter from Alfred Russel Wallace to Archibald Geikie, 1869

We recently acquired a number of interesting geology-related items via the Cockburn Geology Museum.

The Murchison Chair of Geology was instituted with the Faculty of Arts (there was then no Faculty of Science) in 1871. Archibald Geikie held the Chair until 1882 and was succeeded by his brother James, Archibald having been appointed as Director of the British Geological Survey. James went on to become Dean of the Faculty of Science (instituted in 1893) and retired in 1914.

Poster advertising lecture given by Sir Charles Lyell

Poster advertising lecture given by Sir Charles Lyell at the Athaeum, 1856

Archibald’s papers in particular contain a large portion of correspondence with many well-known scientists of the period. Amongst this recent addition there are further letters from individuals including Alfred Russel Wallace (shown), Thomas Henry Huxley and Joseph Dalton Hooker.

Photograph of two Victorian/Edwardian ladies in landscape

Photograph of two Victorian/Edwardian ladies in landscape

We also have further Sir Charles Lyell papers, including the poster shown here and numerous lecture texts from the 1840s.  We speculate that both the Geikie and Lyell material strayed from the main collections of their papers prior to these coming into our custody.  As such these recent additions are especially welcome.

Photographs of staff and students of the department also feature, some with names, others without.  This intriguing photo shows two ladies somewhat overshadowed by the landscape.  Given the period, we have speculated whether they may have been the wives of academics rather than students, although women were already making inroads into the University.

Understanding Student Records

We area about to begin a series of blog posts aimed at helping our users become aware of what information exists in different types of student records, how this changed over time and how the different records series relate to each other.

Understanding the records makes it easier to find all the relevant information and how to make best use of time when conducting research. The first post will relate to matriculation records and the three related records series which have recorded this over time.

Edinburgh’s first women graduates honoured 50 year later

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On 13 April 1893, eight women graduated MA, the first women students having been admitted the previous year following a lengthy battle to allow women admittance to the University.  The eight women had already completed most of their exams externally and were awarded their degree within a year of admittance.  The same year they graduated, a further 72 matriculated to study, with an additional 78 attending as non-matriculated students.
In July 1943, three of the eight joined Principal Sir Thomas Holland on the platform for the graduation ceremony in the McEwan Hall: Flora Stewart, nee Philip, Maude Elizabeth Newbigin and Amelia Hutchison Stirling. We blog this to mark 120 years since their graduation.

Quatercentenary Collection

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The Quatercentenary Collection came about as a result of an appeal that was made as the University of Edinburgh approached its 400th anniversary in 1983.  Former staff, students and others responded and sent in all types of university-related items, from student magazines to prize books, from lecture notes to memoirs, from photographs to degree certificates and much more. The scale of the response meant that it has taken until now to start getting a handle on much of it.

We have now begun a full survey of items in the collection was begun and to date nearly 850 items have been documented.  These will form the basis of new catalogue records.

Largely though not exclusively representing the ‘student experience, this collection is a real treasure trove and we are glad to being close to make it easily accessible for research.