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December 14, 2025
Cut it out!
I have been making my way through the manuscripts collection in an effort to identify material, see what conservation needs there are and generally acquaint myself with the collections. This week I have been struck by the quantity of material from the 1600s, which has, of course, come about as a result of the Covenanters. While a good proportion of the manuscripts are sermons there are a few which are copies of letters or the last words of Presbyterian martyrs.
My heart was in my mouth when I opened one such volume (ref. MSS NOT) and found that in several places pages had been cut out. As I went through the notebook in search of the name of the person who had carefully copied down sermons by Laurence Charteris and James Good, Latin tracts and proclamations, my heart resumed its usual position when, quite unusually, I found an explanation for the missing pages:
“Nota: I lent this book to Mr Samuel Nairne when he was passing his tryalls for the Ministrie which he keept four years & some more; & when removed from the parish of Moonzie and went to Arroll, he tooke the booke with him; And all the thankes I got was the cutting out of thir leaves as is to be seen in the following part hereof Which was neither done lyke a Gentleman nor a Minister. Whereupon I ame resolved here after to take heed to whom I lend the use of my booke, especially of a manuscript.”
Author’s explanation for missing notebook pages.
While the notebook’s author is as yet unknown, the reference to Samuel Nairne dates it to around 1690 and one can assume that the author was living in the parish of Moonzie or nearby.
The inside cover of the notebook tells us that it was later owned by a James MacGregor. However, at another point in the notebook, where Samuel Nairne had been busy with a blade, James wrote the following:
“Fhuair Seumas McGriogair an leabhar so am Peairt am Bliadhna ar Tighearna 1778 ar son 2sc[illin]”
Translation: “James MacGregor bought this book in Perth in the Year of our Lord 1778 for 2 pence.”
Not only does this give us more about the provenance of the book but also shows that James MacGregor was literate in Gaelic.
James MacGregor notes when and where he bought the notebook (ref. MSS NOT)
Missing pages can be frustrating and sometimes even heartbreaking but for our unknown Fife scribe their absence was clearly just plain annoying: annoying enough to write about it.
Kirsty M Stewart, New College Collection Curator
Information on Samuel Nairn from Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae , vol 5, p 169: SAMUEL NAIRNE, M.A. ; ord. before 22nd July 1690 ; trans, to Errol 12th Jan. 1692.
Trial access to Statista
We have trial access to Statista until 30th December 2015 and this has now been added to our e-resources trials webpage.
Statista is one of the world’s largest statistics and market data platforms with access to more than 1,5 million statistics, forecasts, dossiers, reports and infographics on 80.000 topics from more than 18,000 sources. From the rabbit pet food market value in the UK, to the number of registered buses in Alaska, a survey of most needed changes for the Cuban population to the a breakdown of mobile gamers in China. The platform combines economic data, consumer insights, opinion polls and demographic trends.
All data can be downloaded within seconds in 4 different office formats. On top, every student, lecturer and member of staff receives full publication and usage rights of the data (useful if you present at a conference or want to publish sth. for example) as well as access to Statista data journalists. Automatic Citation output is included, too. Last but not least, in terms of entertainment, the infographic section can definitely compete with a youtube-evening on a cold winter evening at home!
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this e-resource as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Update: This trial will continue through 2016
Trial access to Medieval Family Life and Medieval Travel Writing databases
We have trial access to Medieval Family Life and Medieval Travel Writing databases from Adam Matthew until 29th December 2015. Both databases have been added to our e-resources trials webpage. Update 2016 – we have purchased Medieval Family Life
Medieval Family Life – The Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh Papers. This resource contains full colour images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise these family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available. The original images and the transcriptions can be viewed side by side. Along with the letter collections themselves there are many additional features useful for teaching and research. These include: A chronology, a visual sources gallery, an interactive map, a glossary, family trees and links to other scholarly free to access digital resources useful for researching the medieval period.
Medieval Travel Writing – this project provides direct access to a widely scattered collection of original medieval manuscripts that describe travel – real and imaginary – in the Middle Ages.
These sources tell us much about the attitudes and preconceptions of people across Europe in the medieval period, shedding light on issues of race, economics, trade, militarism, politics, literature and science. They will be welcomed by scholars in both literature and history as well as by French and German studies departments.
The project combines:
- Multiple manuscript sources, detailing the journeys of famous travellers from Marco Polo to John Capgrave, and the stories of legendary figures such as Prester John and Sir John Mandeville
- Translations and supporting materials (all of which are fully searchable)
- Maps showing the routes of the travellers
- Introductory essays by leading scholars
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of these databases as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Trial access to Sovetskaia kul’tura Digital Archive
UPDATE – purchased Jan. 2016
We have trial access to Sovetskaia kul’tura Digital Archive via EastView. The trial can be accessed via the e-resources trial webpage and DiscoverEd until 31st December.
Kul’tura (Culture) is an important Russian weekly newspaper previously published under the titles Rabochii i iskusstvo (1929-1930), Sovetskoe iskusstvo (1931-1941), Literatura i iskusstvo (1942-1944), Sovetskoe iskusstvo (1944-1952) and Sovetskaia kul’tura (1953-1991).
An indispensable source of information on the developing and ever changing attitudes towards arts and culture in the Soviet and Russian societies. Throughout the years the newspaper articles reviewed major events in Russian cultural life, in literature, theatre, cinematography and arts. In the Soviet period it published critical diatribes against dissident writers Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Aksyonov and others, infamous articles condemning modern art exhibitions, chastising avant-guard composers and abstract painters. In modern Russia its reviews and event listings often focus on the cultural life of Moscow and regions, it is known for its topical commentaries on popular culture and politics.
Further information about this database can be found at http://www.eastview.com/files/EVSovetskaiaKulturaDA.pdf
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this database as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Trial access to IndiaStat
We have on campus access to IndiaStat until 11th December. This resource has been added to the e-resources trials webpage.
IndiaStat provides India-specific socio-economic statistical facts and figures from various secondary level authentic sources. Includes 19 sector specific information including industry, education, health, banks and financial institutions, companies, co-operatives, crime and law, population, foreign trade, labour and workforce, housing, media, power, transport, urban-rural. Provides socio-economic information on 31 Indian states and union territories. Provides comprehensive information on 6 main geographical regions of India. Data and statistics about India available on Indiastat.com can easily be downloaded in MS-Word/Excel/ HTML formats.
To access the site, click on the Login tab at the top banner of the site and select the IP Login option.
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this e-resource as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
UPDATE: Subscription scheduled to start April 2016
Trial access to e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection
We have trial access to all of the e-books published by Duke University Press hosted on the Highwire platform. This trial runs until 18th January.
The e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection consists of 2100 titles in humanities and social sciences. Key subject areas are Anthropology, Art History & Theory, Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Film & Television, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Latin American Studies, Political Theory and Science Studies. See the title list at https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/Downloads/dup_info_titles.xls (3rd tab).
Access the trial via our e-resources trial page. We have also added the individual e-books to DiscoverEd.
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this e-book collection as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Last chance to try out IBISWorld
Our trial to IBISWorld ends on Friday. Please fill out a feedback form if you would like the Library to subscribe.
IBISWorld is an online industry intelligence solution. Covering 432 UK industries at SIC L5, each of its industry reports provides the most detailed performance data and analysis on the market; supply chain information; forecasts; risk scores; operating strengths and weaknesses; analysis of external drivers; major player market strategies; and industry profit and costs benchmarks. Reports are updated three times per year on average ensuring the most up to date research possible.
Further details at https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/eresources/2015/11/10/trial-access-to-ibis-world/
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Hugh MacDiarmid introduces Lewis Grassic Gibbon (John Leslie Mitchell 1901-1935), author of ‘Sunset Song’, to publisher Stanley Nott
FROM LETTERS IN THE HUGH MACDIARMID (C. M. GRIEVE) COLLECTIONS HERE AT EDINBURGH
During this 80th anniversary of his early death, a new film adaptation of Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon is to be released on 4 December 2015. Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell who was born in Auchterless in February 1901.
Mitchell was raised in Arbuthnott, Kincardineshire, and in his teens he started work as a journalist with the Aberdeen Journal (which would later become the Press and Journal) and also for the Scottish Farmer. In 1919 he joined the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and then in 1920 he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF). In 1925 he married and settled in Welwyn Garden City. He wrote a number of works under both his real name and his pseudonym before dying in his 30s of peritonitis brought on by a perforated ulcer – in February 1935.
Letter from Grieve to Stanley Nott (Grieve Coll-18)
His earliest writing is described in a letter from Christopher M. Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) to Charles Stanley Nott (1887-1978) author, publisher and translator, in what reads almost like a letter of introduction. The letter is dated 19 October 1933, and was written from Whalsay, Shetland.
Letter from Grieve to Nott (Grieve, Coll-18)
Grieve writes to ‘My dear Stanley’:
I’ve suggested to a friend of mine that he should call in and make your acquaintance. He is a young Scottish Writer, J. Leslie Mitchell, who has published histories of Mexican antiquities etc but also novels and imaginative romances over his own name, the latest being an historical novel…
Letter from Grieve to Nott (Grieve, Coll-18)
When referring to ‘histories of Mexican antiquities’, Grieve may have been pointing towards The Conquest of the Maya (1934). The historical novel mentioned was Spartacus which had been ‘well reviewed’ in the Times Literary Supplement, and which had been written under his own name, J. Leslie Mitchell.
Letter from Grieve to Nott (Grieve, Coll-18)
Grieve goes on:
…over the name Lewis Grassic Gibbon he has lately scored a great success with ‘Sunset Song’ and ‘Cloud Howe’, the first two volumes of a trilogy of novels…
Letter from Grieve to Nott (Grieve, Coll-18)
At the time of this correspondence to Nott – October 1933 – Grieve tells us that Mitchell’s publishers ‘are Jarrold’s, and Faber and Faber for a biography of the explorer, Mungo Park’, and that Mitchell and he ‘are collaborating in a miscellany on Scotland’. The Mungo Park work in question was Niger: The Life of Mungo Park (1934), and the collaborative work by Grieve and Mitchell was Scottish scene (also 1934).
Letter from Grieve to Nott (Grieve, Coll-18)
During these Whalsay years – island life in east Shetland – Grieve then writes:
Excuse haste. This is just being dashed off in time to catch the mail-boat […] Yours C.M.G.
Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives and Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections (Special Collections)
Home Front – Theatrical group – ‘The Eves’, 1916-1917
AN ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA TELLS THEIR STORY
For the war effort, various Home Front groups and organisations produced entertainments to raise funds for the Red Cross and other organisations. This happened all across the country. One such theatrical group – ‘The Eves’ – performed local entertainments in Perthshire. Rehearsals for ‘The Eves’ theatrical group were held at the home of Helen Wilson at Colquhalzie, or Kilcolquhalzie, in Perthshire.
Under the curation of the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library, an album of photographs and ephemera, including concert programmes and news clippings, offers an insight into the performances of ‘The Eves’.
One of ‘The Eves’ – Helen Wilson, wife of Capt. James R. Wilson (Coll-1668).
Most of the cast of ‘The Eves’ were female and the name of their group was derived from the fact that their husbands, brothers, and fathers (their Adams) were serving in the forces. They offered sketches taken from London musical theatre productions, songs, recitations, choruses and dances. They were accompanied by piano or by the Auchterarder Ladies Orchestra.
Most of ‘The Eves’ performers were women (Coll-1668).
Mrs. Helen Wilson of Colquhalzie was the daughter-in-law of Sir John Wilson (1844-1918) of Airdrie House, businessman, Unionist politician, Chairman of the Wilsons and Clyde Coal Company, and MP for Falkirk Burghs from 1895 to 1906. Her husband, Captain James R. Wilson – Sir John’s son – served with the Lanarkshire Yeomenry in Gallipoli and Egypt.
Military uniforms and Sailor suits and caps – HMS ‘Victory’ (Coll-1668).
‘Eves’ performances took place at, for example, the local village hall in Muthill, August 1916, in aid of the National Work Party…
‘The Eves’ to perform at Muthill Hall, August 1916 (Coll-1668).
…and other performances were at Porteous Hall, Crieff, September 1916, in aid of the Scottish Red Cross, and at the Pavilion Hall, Glasgow, later in 1916.
Performance to be given at Crieff, September 1916 (Coll-1668).
In the album acquired by Edinburgh University Library, a photographic reproduction of a news clipping from The Strathearn Herald, 26 August 1916, describes the Variety Entertainment at Muthill Hall where ‘the seats were extensively booked throughout Muthill, Crieff and Auchterarder districts’. Indeed, ‘fully half-an-hour before the starting-time […] motor cars began to arrive with front-seat ticket-holders, as well as public vehicles which brought numbers more from populous centres’. The programme opened with Mrs Wilson and a Chorus offering a ‘fine rendering of Ivor Novello’s popular Keep the Homes Fires Burning.
The performance was ‘shown nicely under the special lighting arrangements regulated […] and worked from a dynamo driven by Mrs. Wilson’s private motor outside’.
Performance by ‘The Eves’ at the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow, November 1916 (Coll-1668).
A Special Matinee at the Pavilion Theatre on 7 November 1916 was held to raise funds to purchase Motor Ambulance Wagons for Glasgow and District. ‘The Eves’ Committee were indebted to the Pavilion Theatre Directors for giving the use of the Theatre, and to Mr. D. Y. Cameron A.R.A. for ‘so graciously having designed the cover’ of the Matinee Programme.
Special matinee programme cover, designed by D. Y. Cameron A.R.A. (Coll-1668).
David Young Cameron (1865-1945) – knighted in 1924 – had been a student of both the Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh School of Art.
Detail from Cameron’s programme for the Special Matinee performance of ‘The Eves’ in Glasgow (Coll-1668).
The Special Matinee at the Pavilion Theatre included performances by Mrs. Wilson and her son ‘little Jock Wilson’. With the Chorus she sang ‘Molly, the Marchioness’ from The Country Girl, ‘The girl with the brogue’ from The Arcadians, ‘The flower girl’, and ‘The lads who play the game’. Unaccompanied, and with Miss S. Bulloch Graham she sang ‘The girl with the brogue’ from The Arcadians, and ‘The Middy’ from ‘The Marriage Market’.
More detail from the Cameron work (Coll-1668).
Again, the album describes the Pavilion Theatre performances from news clippings. A feature of the charity event was the floral display – on the stage and in the Theatre – and the distribution of 3000 buttonholes. Apparently, one of the highlights ‘was the appearance of little Jock Wilson […] the little fellow presented a bouquet and ran off the stage with as little self-consciousness as if he had been in his nursery’.
Some of ‘The Eves’ at one of their performances (Coll-1668).
After their successful appearance in Glasgow, ‘The Eves’ gave a Grand Concert and Variety Entertainment at the Pavilion Theatre, Johnstone, a few weeks later on 7 February 1917.
Costumes of ‘The Eves’ (Coll-1668).
This was for a special appeal by the 38th Renfrew Voluntary Aid Detachment for the County of Renfrew Red Cross Fund.
Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections
New books for Social and Political Science
Thanks to recommendations from members of staff and requests via RAB from students the Library is continually adding new books to its collections both online and in print. Here are just a small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections this semester for the School of Social and Political Science and these demonstrate the wide range of subjects being taught, studied and researched within School.
Sexting panic : rethinking criminalization, privacy, and consent by Amy Adele Hasinoff (e-book).
Russia and the new world disorder by Bobo Lo (shelfmark: JZ1616.A5 Lo. Also available as e-book.)
Why India votes? by Mukulika Banerjee and Jonathan Spencer (shelfmark: JQ292 Ban.)
Challenging child protection : new directions in safeguarding children by Lorraine Waterhouse and Janice McGhee (shelfmark: HV713 Cha.)
Becoming salmon : aquaculture and the domestication of a fish by Marianne E. Lien (shelfmark: SH167.S17 Lie. Also available as e-book.) Read More
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
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Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
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Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
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Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
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