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February 4, 2026
Music for Esther Inglis: August events
The Esther Inglis project has been gathering momentum behind the scenes, with plans now in place for an international colloquium, an online exhibition taking shape, many new digitisations of Esther Inglis’ manuscripts which can soon be shared, and several academic conference papers having brought Esther Inglis’ work to new networks and scholarly audiences.
Title-page to Esther Inglis’ English Octonaries upon the Vanitie and Inconstancie of the World, translated from the French originals by Antoine de la Roche Chandieu. Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.91
For those who are already in Edinburgh, there are two events relating to Esther Inglis and her manuscripts taking place in August, both with a focus on the music which surrounded Inglis in Jacobean Scotland, and the songs which shaped her calligraphic and artistic practices. Music was an important influence on Esther Inglis’ early construction of herself as a woman artist and writer; in her earliest self-portraits she depicts herself at her writing-desk together with a lute and an open book of music, following the 1567 portrait of the French Huguenot poet, Georgette de Montenay (1540-1581), from which Inglis works.
Self-portrait by Esther Inglis (1599), and engraved portrait of Georgette de Montenay (1567) by Pierre Woeiriot.
Bodleian Library, MS 990
On the 17th August, the beautiful Gothic space of St Vincent’s Chapel will host “Nil Penna Sed Usus: A Quartercentenary Event for Esther Inglis”. This immersive event will have two parts; the first will be a recital by the Sacred Arts Festival Singers, directed by Calum Robertson. The Festival Singers will perform selections from the works of Antoine de Chandieu and Guy du Faur. Chandieu’s Octonaires sur la vanité et inconstance du monde, and du Faur’s Quatrains are works of devotional poetry which Esther Inglis copied frequently into her own calligraphic manuscripts.
Octo XXIV from Antoine de la Roche Chandieu’s Octonaires sur la vanite et inconstance du monde, with facing English translation by Esther Inglis
Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.91 (1600)
Of her 63 known books, 26 contain copies of these religious verses; either their French originals, or (in three cases) English translations of Chandieu’s Octonaires which Esther Inglis composed herself. Of these 26 mansucripts, 9 are made in Esther Inglis’ floral, illuminated style, embellished with painted botanical imagery and the verses copied in her characteristically wide range of calligraphic scripts. These devotional verses were set to music within Esther Inglis’ lifetime; settings of the Quatrains de Guy du Faur by Paschal de l’Estocart were published in 1582, for example, while Claude le Jeune (1530-1600) composed settings for Chandieu’s Octonaires.
1641 publication of Claude le Jeune’s settings of the Octonaires sur la vanite et inconstance du monde, originally written by Antoine de la Roche Chandieu
Selections of these settings will be performed in St Vincent’s chapel, together with a series of metrical psalms and canticles which would have been sung in the services attended by Esther Inglis and her Scottish and French contemporaries. The second part of this event, taking place in the undercroft of the chapel, will be an introduction to the manuscripts of Esther Inglis, with particular focus on her copies of the verses which have been set to music. The result will be an immersive, multimedia event in which to understand the aural world which surrounds Esther Inglis’ work.
The second musical event, on the 30th August, will take place at South Leith Parish Church, a medieval church now 533 years old. This location must be close to where Esther Inglis herself lived; she died at Leith on the 30th August 2024. The event is entitled “In My Maker’s Book”, a line from the Nine Haiku for Esther Inglis written by Gerda Stevenson. These Nine Haiku have now been set to music by Sheena Phillips, and this event will offer the world-premiere performance of this newly-commissioned work, performed by Sally Carr (soprano), Juliette Philogene (piano) and Calum Robertson (clarinet and bass clarinet). Again directed by Calum Robertson, the Sacred Arts Festival Chorus will also perform musical pieces from Esther Inglis’ lifetime, including selections of the metrical Psalms, and further settings of the Octonaires sur la vanitie et inconstance du monde and the Quatrains de Guy du Faur.
For further details of this unique concert, please see the Eventbrite page.
Sir James Young Simpson
In light of the upcoming 300th anniversary of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Medicine in 2026, volunteer Ash Mowat looks to the archives to find out about Sir James Young Simpson.
In this blog we shall explore some items in the University of Edinburgh’s Heritage Collections, featuring the work of the pioneering medical figure of Sir James Young Simpson.
Simpson (1811-1870) was born in Bathgate (West Lothian, Scotland).[1] He became an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh in 1825 (aged just 14), and after several years elected to study medicine as his specialism. By 1830 he had become an approved practitioner with the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1832 achieved the MD (Doctor of Medicine Higher Degree). He began practices as a GP in Edinburgh, and at aged just 28 became the Professor of Medicine and Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh.[2]
(Dr Simpson’s family home in Bathgate where he grew up, situated on the left).[3]
Despite his academic achievements, in his personal life Simpson suffered from episodes of depression but managed to recover and continue to expand his medical knowledge and expertise. Given his specialisms of Midwifery and surgery, an obvious area of his interest became the pursuit of a suitable anaesthesia to use. In 1847 he employed the use of Ether during a complex childbirth, but was not content with the efficacy of the treatment. He and several of his colleagues then began the hazardous tasks of experimenting on themselves with various, often toxic, substances. Later that year Simpson had acquired some Chloroform and after sampling this and witnessing its instantaneous inducement of unconsciousness, went on to promote his “Announcement of a New Anaesthetic Agent” that received widespread coverage in media and medical publications. It was soon adopted and widely used and acclaimed during surgical and complex midwifery cases, but was not routinely used during childbirth due to then unhelpful views on the “naturalness” of such pain during labour. Whilst Chloroform was by far the most effective and least risky anaesthetic then available, it was by no means entirely safe. However, it paved the way before safer alternatives could later be developed, and in the process greatly alleviated useless pain and suffering for so many.[4] In addition, in his services to to advancement of midwifery, Dr Simpson helped develop improved surgical instruments such as “Simpson’s forceps” and the Air Tractor, the first vacuum extractor to help with problematic childbirth.
As a result of his achievements in this filed, he was appointed Her Majesty’s Physician in 1947, and in 1866 became the first practising Doctor in Scotland to receive a Baronetcy. Simpson has a bust held at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, together with a sculpture of him located in Princes Street Gardens. Almost fifty years after his death, in 1916 the Simpson family bequeathed his former family home and former GP Surgery on Queen Street Edinburgh to the Church, and it is currently managed by the Charity Crossreach, to deliver free counselling and support for those affected by substance misuse issues.
Notes of Midwifery lectures given by Sir James Young Simpson taken down by George Dickson.[6]
I viewed this handwritten notebook of Dr Simpson’s lectures on midwifery and use of chloroform as notated by one of his students, located within the University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections. It offers a fascinating insight into the then available procedures, some of which were radical and advanced for the period, but also reveal the limitations of the technology during this time which have mercifully since been surpassed.
On a section on the gestation period for successful live human childbirth, the term abortion is used in place of what we now refer to as miscarriage or premature birth where the infant does not survive. Simpson observes that any child born at six months or earlier during this era was not viable and able to be saved, resulting in death, whereas nowadays 89% of children born at 27 weeks can be expected to survive, often without lasting disability or complications. In his lecture Dr Simpson helps dispel the myth that the size of the child at birth is any determinant of their general health and their life achievement prospects, citing that Sir Isaac Newton was small at birth, but became a pioneer and polymath in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy and other fields, and lived until age 84.
Dr Simpson explains the vital need to carefully observe the patient during every childbirth to watch out for any emergence of problems and intervene swiftly and appropriately where they occur, cautioning that: “If you don’t and accident arise of complications, you get the blame for it. Therefore, set aside all engagements. In country may have to carry opium, in town nothing is required but a bottle of chloroform”.
Simpson goes on to challenge some assertions that have critiqued the efficacy and appropriateness of using chloroform as an anaesthetic. Under the charge that to do so is an unnatural medical intervention and that pain in childbirth is simply a matter for people (women only, obviously) to endure, he responds:” I mitigate suffering as well as prevent death”, hereby dismissing that charge and demonstrating the value of chloroform. Answering the accusation that using anaesthetic causes complications, Simpson responds “It stops convulsions. I cured a child of convulsions after 24 hours chloroform.” No anaesthetic including chloroform is every entirely safe, but this example of successful prolonged use of the drug is revealing as towards its comparative safety.
Another challenge that implies that using chloroform may precipitate bodily or mental diseases he simply rejects as “nonsense”. Interestingly he concedes under the Theories of how anaesthetics work to remark “can’t be explained”. Perhaps surprisingly this remains the case, with a full understanding on the exact mechanisms of general anaesthesia not yet established.[8]
(The above receipt for Dr Simpson’s fees following graduation. Totalling £25.00 for seven years of university arts and medical training, this is equivalent to around £3500.00 today, which seems surprisingly affordable).
Extracts of letters of Margaret Buchanan Robertson relating to treatment by Professor James Young Simpson 1857-1959.
I viewed the above, held by the Lothian Health Services Archive within the University of Edinburgh Library.[9]
The letters were written by Margaret Buchanan Robertson to her mother in Australia. Her mother had immigrated to Australia in 1822 with Margaret born there, only to return to Edinburgh with her sibling in 1826 aged 24. The letters reveal much about her health issues and of the treatment received as a patient of Dr Simpson.
In a letter of 9/3/1857 she comments, “providence has been very kind and many blessings I enjoy which I strive to be thankful for, but from bad health I am often sadly depressed, languid and ill, but lately I am better, and the Doctor says he hopes to see me quite well and strong, but I am not as sanguine as he is. It is an internal complaint which causes a constitutional delicacy. I have been under the celebrated Dr Simpson’s care for three years and must say he has done me much good and without receiving a proper reward for all his kindness. Twice I have staid (sic) with his family home that he might watch the complaints, but it must run its course.”
In a further letter of 11/5/1857 she writes: “Mrs Hogg has been a kind friend to me and loves me as a sister. I must tell you how we became known to each other. We were both attending the great Dr Simpson and you must know you can only see him by the ticket. She had number 40 and I had number 7, which would admit me several hours before she would. She told me her sorrows and also that she had lost her little girl a few months before…She had been advised to consult the greatest man of the age, so she had come and hoped he might be able to restore her and if God thought fit, she might be blessed with an heir. I exchanged my ticket (with her) and it was with reluctance it was taken. She saw the Doctor and he cheered her telling her that if her general health was restored, she might have a family, but she must not be impatient. She remained a week under his care and in about a year she wrote asking me to come and visit her and just before leaving for home she told me that I might expect to hear of the arrival of a wee stranger, so this is the foundation of our friendship”.
Some years later in a letter of 16/2/1859 she observes: “My health I am thankful to say is much better since I had a very severe attack of nettle rash (Hives). The eruptions were all over my body, fortunately my face excepted for the marks are still on my hands, arms and body. My kind friend Dr Simpson said he thought my health would ultimately be better, but that I must be very careful of myself. He has been like a father and has refused to take renumeration from me saying “wait until you are cured dearie” It is most kind of him, he is most generous and many are the good deeds he does that will never be known in this world, but in the next he will receive his reward.”
The testimony in these letters brilliantly demonstrate the expertise, compassion and generosity of Dr Simpson and of the importance of his specialism upon the lives of many women under his care. In summary, Simpson devoted his professional career in the field of alleviating pain and suffering, and in saving lives that could otherwise be lost in childbirth or surgical procedures. I should like to thanks all staff at the University of Edinburgh Heritage and Lothian Health Services Archives for enabling access to these documents, and to Laura Beattie (Community Engagement Officer) for supervision and support.
[1] https://ourhistory.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/Sir_James_Young_Simpson_(1811-1870)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young_Simpson
[3] Archives Space Public Interface | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections Seven photos relating to Sir James Young Simpson (Section DC.2.85s/DC.2.856
[4] https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/college-history/james-young-simpson
[5] https://www.crossreach.org.uk/our-locations/simpson-house-counselling-recovery-service
[6] Collection: Notes of midwifery lectures given by Sir James Young Simpson, taken down by George Dickson | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections
[7] Premature birth statistics | Tommy’s (tommys.org)
[8] General anaesthesia – Wikipedia
[9] Collection: Robertson, Margaret Buchanan | University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections
RESPIRE Fellowship
This is a guest blog post from Tapas K Mohanty, Informatics & Data Science Liaison Officer for the RESPIRE project, who recently dropped by for a visit. Tapas, who is based at the KEM Hospital Research Centre in Pune, India, was here on a RESPIRE Fellowship to meet with his Edinburgh-based RESPIRE colleagues. Of course, he was mainly here to hang out with the cool kids: viz. Research Data Support.
If that wasn’t exciting enough, Tapas was also one the many very amazing presenters at this year’s Edinburgh Open Research Conference. Amid the whirligig of fun and excitement, he found time to jot down some thoughts on what was a Very Good Day. These are they:
Wednesday 29th May: a good start. Setting out for Pollock Halls, where the Open Research Conference was being held, I found Kitty Flynn, a RESPIRE colleague, on the same bus. Kitty was coming along to cheer me on during my presentation.
The conference opened with a thought-provoking Plenary Panel featuring Nick Wise, Rowena Lamb, Malcolm MacLeod, and Katie Nicoll Baines. Together, they explored the intersection of research culture change and Open Research. Key considerations included the delicate balance between policies and international collaboration. Notably, while discussing the legacy of racism in scholarly research institutions, the panel acknowledged its existence and advocated for a shift from blame-culture to accountability as the only way to effect real change.
Plenary panel discussion – Photo credit: Tapas K Mohanty
Session One focused on Education, Skills, and Recognition. Lee Murphy opened the session with a technician’s viewpoint on the dominant academic perspective, which rarely credits technical support staff. Second was Haley Eckel, who described the introduction of Data Management Plan requirements for PhD students at the University of St Andrews. Third and last, Nik Tahirah Nik Hussin & Veronica Cano talked about the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).
Next came the lightning talks, with me as the first presenter. Stepping up to the microphone, my heart raced and my throat felt dry. Brittany (another presenter) reassured me. Nervously, I wondered if I could finish within 5 minutes. My subject was an Open-Source Hardware initiative to enhance MRI accessibility in India’s low-resource areas. Ignited by last year’s Open Research Conference, the project will be hosted by Pune’s KEM Hospital Research Centre with support from PTB, Berlin, and GOSH (Gathering for Open Science Hardware). Utilising open-source designs, the initiative seeks to expedite the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries in rural regions, ensuring essential medical technology is available wherever it’s needed.
The other speakers in this session were:
- Nicola Osborne, ‘Nurturing responsible data practices in creative industries R&D through applied ethics and open research practices.’
- Rachel Steeg, ‘Making iPSCs FFAIR.’
- Tom Morley, ‘From compliance to culture: How can we address the barriers that are preventing a culture of Open Research in relation to Open Monographs?’
- Dominic Hewett, ‘Humanities researchers’ perspectives towards scholarly communication practices’
- Brittany Blankenship (on behalf of Kasia Banas), ‘See one, do one, teach one: Teaching Open Research Skills for Data-Driven Innovation in Health and Social Care.’
Stuart King opened the final session on Next Generation Metrics and Recognition with a talk on preprints and reimagined of peer review. Lucy Woolhouse followed, returning us to the topic of credit and attribution. The legendary Marta Teperek came next, outlining the Netherlands’ strategic investment in Open Science, an investment that seeks to cultivate a research environment which prioritizes quality, equity, and inclusivity. Marisa De Andrade closed the session by challenging traditional research metrics through the lens of her new book on knowledge justice. She argued for methodologies that consider the lived experiences of marginalized communities and promote research that tackles inequalities.
The conference closed with a poster session in which presenters delivered one-minute, rapid-fire talks on their posters.
I can honestly say that this trip to attend the Open Research Conference will forever be in my memory. I will always remember the presentations and the people I was able to meet. It was an exciting day for new learning and it left the mark of an enriching experience.
Highlights from The Witness
We’ve been working on digitising The Witness for quite some time now. Here’s a little background information from our previous post on the publication: ‘A twice weekly newspaper, The Witness was created by the Church of Scotland in 1840 and edited by Hugh Miller, an influential writer, geologist and stone mason. In 1843 The Church of Scotland was faced with 200 ministers walking out citing political interference, an event which came to be known as the Disruption and led to the Free Church being established. Presbyterianism is founded on the basis that the people make the decisions, not an elite hierarchy, and the only head of the church, is God. This makes The Witness newspaper a fantastic primary source covering a significant event in Scotland’s social and religious history, and as such, a prime candidate for digitisation.’
As the editions are bound into large format volumes, we decided to contract the digitisation to a company called Autodocs. Digitisation operators Miranda and Marian then took over the quality control and processing of the files and made some fun discoveries along the way – let’s hear from them!
AI vs the Imago Dei : views from US theological libraries
Computer17293866, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
On Tuesday 18 June, I flew half way around the world to attend the Atla conference in Long Beach, California. There were two questions that Atla delegates asked me that I had to pause and think about to answer. The first was ‘Why did you come such a long way to attend this conference?’ (the second was ‘Are you the library director? – well … no.). To answer the first, I was able to attend the Atla 2024 conference due to a generous travel grant from Atla itself, support from BETH (European Theological Libraries) and support from ABTAPL UK & Ireland. I was attending as a UK representative of BETH, but I also wanted to attend because of the unique theological library context, and because attending an international conference is a great learning experience. As at professional development events in the UK, AI dominated the agenda – here are some conference highlights.
Grand debut into Heritage: A Peek into my Collections Care Assistant Role
Isabela Tapia Hernandez
The Collections Care Assistant role was created for our students to explore the cultural heritage sector through employment and support their career aspirations post-graduation.
This is the second of three blog posts detailing their time with us!
Trial access to Japan Digital Archives Center online collections
The Library has trial access to four online collections from the Japan Digital Archives Center:
- Records of Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO): Minro Shigaki Papers Online
- Prefectural Statistics Online
- Documents Related to Tokyo Trials and War Trials
- Collection of Magazines on Japanese Mass Entertainment and Sexual Customs Online (1950s – 70s)
For more information about these collections, and to access the trials, visit the E-resources trials page. Trials access for all four resources lasts until 15 August 2024. Please note that off-campus access is via VPN only.
Please remember to give us feedback to help us make a decision about subscribing using the E-resources Trial Feedback Form.
Reflections on a Journey in Conservation: My Time as a Collections Care Assistant
Back in March we welcomed our new Student Collections Care Assistants; Abigail Miskin, Ella Joyce and Isabela Tapia Hernandez. Four months on and it is time to say goodbye and thank you to the first, Abigail, who has been offered an amazing opportunity to shadow a team of conservators in Italy, learning Paintings Conservation and develop on the skills she has learned here with us.
The Collections Care Assistant role was created for our students to explore the cultural heritage sector through employment and support their career aspirations post-graduation. This inaugural year involved collaborative efforts to optimise the role for students, collections, and service. Abigail, Ella and Isabela exhibited exceptional communication, maturity, flexibility, and a willingness to learn, making the role’s first year highly successful. These qualities also allowed the established team members to learn and improve the role, which we aim to continue offering in 2024-25 and beyond.
This is the first of three blog posts detailing their time with us!
It’s audit time!
Anyone who has attended a meeting, had a conversation in the corridor, or bumped into me in one of our stores, knows that one of my main talking points for at least the past 5 years has been my ambition to undertake a campus-wide audit of the Art Collection. Obviously, there have been a few major world events that have hindered this, but it’s finally happening!
With over 8000 works in the collection, and at least 31% of them on display around campus (1845 works over 415 separate locations!), it’s not a straightforward job. We will have to gain access to office spaces, lecture halls, corridors, and seminar rooms, as well as taking a deep dive into the artworks held in storage.
Anna checking artworks in store
As usual, we rely on a spreadsheet to keep us in check. Although the most important detail is updating the location, we are also looking at the condition of the artworks, whether they need to be photographed, and what fixings are installed on the back. All of this will make it easier for us to provide access (online, for exhibition, teaching, or loan) or identify artworks that need further work to make them available. This information will be uploaded to our Collections Management Database (Vernon CMS) to enable greater location control and improve overall information on each of the artworks.
Artworks in store
The audit has begun in earnest, with 2313 works in storage listed and locations updated as of the beginning of this month. Alongside this work, our Documentation Assistant Gaby is also running trials on the use of barcodes on artworks for location control, which I’m sure you’ll be able to read about in a future blog post! We’ll be out and about on campus for the next year, so please say hello if you spot us.
Anna Hawkins
Museum Collections Manager
Edinburgh Open Research Conference 2024
This is a guest blog post from Emma Wilson, Emma is a final year PhD student in the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences. She is currently interning with the Library Open Research Team.
On 29th May 2024, we held the third annual Edinburgh Open Research Conference online and in person at the John McIntyre Conference Centre. Over 300 people attended the hybrid event, from Edinburgh and further afield, to listen to a jam-packed programme of talks and posters on all things open research.
This year’s theme was culture change, and thinking about how open research principles can steer us towards healthy and inclusive research environments.
Plenary panel – photo credit: Eugen Stoica
The events kicked off with a plenary panel featuring Nick Wise (University of Cambridge), Rowena Lamb, Malcolm Macleod, and Katie Nicoll Baines (all University of Edinburgh) discussing the ways in which we can drive healthy and sustainable culture change and how this applies in the context of open research.
Marisa de Andrade delivering her keynote – photo credit: Eugen Stoica
Presentations and lightning talks touched on the topics of education and skills, research culture change, and next generation metrics. We heard from a diverse range of perspectives including technicians, researchers in both STEM and the humanities, and professional services staff. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) was a strong theme running throughout each of the presentations.
The keynote lecture was delivered by Marisa de Andrade on ‘The Madness of Metrics and Possibilities of Pause in Open Research’, which offered perspective on research metrics, what they really mean, and what really matters.
Poster session – Photo credit: Eugen Stoica
Following a busy day, the conference closed with a drinks reception and posters. Each presenter gave a quick-fire summary of their poster in a round of ‘Minute Madness’.
We want to thank everyone who attended the conference, our fantastic presenters, and of course our organisers Kerry Miller and Nel Coleman for making the day enjoyable and insightful. And if you missed it, be sure to come along next year!
Stay up to date on open research activities and future conference announcements by signing up to the Edinburgh Open Research Newsletter and joining our Edinburgh Open Research Initiative Microsoft Teams group.
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