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April 10, 2026
Free access to ProQuest Black History Resources for Black History Month #blackhistorymonth
ProQuest are offering free access to the following Black History resources throughout February 2013. (University of Edinburgh users please note that the links below do not give access to existing resources already available for UofE users from ProQuest)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers™ – Black Newspapers—The voice of the people, culture, politics, and issues in those communities that too often received little to no attention from other papers. They give students the complete story with nine full-image titles that are cross-searchable with other ProQuest Historical Newspapers, ProQuest Civil War Era, and with the Black Studies Center. Access it free now.
Black Studies Center—Start here…for primary and secondary sources for Black or African American studies. It includes the only periodical resource focused exclusively on African and African American studies, two historical Black studies indexes: the Marshall Index to Periodicals and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s Index to Black Literature, and the full Chicago Defender newspaper from first issue to 1975. Access it free now.
ProQuest Civil War Era—Comprehensive full-image primary source materials, previously unavailable digitally, cover a vast range of topics including the formative economic factors and other forces that led to the abolitionist movement and the emancipation of nearly 4 million slaves. Access it free now.
ProQuest African American Heritage—Groundbreaking digital resource that not only brings together records critical to African American family research, but also connects to a community of research experts. See the video. Access it free now.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is on trial now
Proquest’s Dissertations & Theses database is now available on trial for University of Edinburgh users until on March 9, 2013.
We have been subscribing to Proquest’s Dissertations & Theses – Abstracts & Indexes for some time now. This new trial gives access to the full subscription which offers full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997.
To access, look under D for ‘Dissertations & Theses’ in the A-Z list of databases http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-a-z
Your feedback is gratefully received and is key to putting together a case for purchasing this very expensive resource.
New books at New College Library – February
New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks. We have a bumper crop this month so please do stop and have a look if you’re in the library.
A new title already out on loan is After imperialism : Christian identity in China and the global evangelical movement edited by Richard R. Cook and David W. Pao, 2011 (NCL BR1285 Aft. ) This book was purchased for World Christianity, recommended by a PhD student.
Also new is The cross in the dark valley : the Canadian Protestant missionary movement in the Japanese Empire, 1931-1945, by A. Hamish Ion, another recommendation from a Divinity postgraduate student.
You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet.
Princeton Index of Christian Art now available
The Princeton Index of Christian Art is now available to University of Edinburgh users – see the list of Image Databases.
The Index of Christian Art, produced by Princeton University, is a thematic / iconographic index of Early Christian and medieval art objects, from early apostolic times up to A.D. 1550. While there is a focus on art of the western world, the database also has significant holdings from Coptic Egypt, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia, and the Near East. There are about 140,000 images in the database. For copyright reasons approximately 35,000 of these are restricted access to the Princeton campus only, but the bibliographic reference to the image in the citation should allow a book that contains the image to be traced.
UK Press Online now on trial
UK Press Online is now available on trial to University of Edinburgh users, accessible on campus or off campus via VPN via the eresources trials webpage. The trial ends on 24 February.
The trial includes newspaper archives to the Daily Mirror (1903-1980); Daily Express (1900- current); Daily Express (1900- current); Daily Star Sunday (1863-1889); the Watchman (1835-1884); Daily Worker (1930-1945); World War Two (1933-1945), which comprises wartime editions of the Church Times, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Fascist Week, Action!, Blackshirt, Yorkshire Post and Daily Worker. This resource includes over 2 million pages of the 19th-20th Century newspaper, from 1835 to today.
Walking with Angels? Exploring Death in Modern Scotland
Song School St Mary, 1897, f.13r
by Phoebe Anna Traquair, (b.1852, d.1936) . Edinburgh University Library
There are still places available at the forthcoming conference on Death in Modern Scotland , 1855: beliefs, attitudes and practices at the School of Divinity, New College Edinburgh, on 1-3 February 2013. Among the speakers is Dr Elizabeth Cumming (Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh; Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Glasgow) on ‘Phoebe Anna Traquair, angels and changing concepts of the supernatural in fin-de-siècle Scotland’. This image of one of Phoebe Anna Traquair’s works is taken from a volume in Edinburgh University Library’s Special Collections, with further images available online.
The Rescue that never was – remembering Holocaust Memorial Day #HMD2013
![Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords /William Temple. London : Victor Gollancz, [1943] Z.h.30/24](https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/newcollegelibrarian/files/2012/12/6-nov-010.jpg?w=225)
Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords /William Temple. London : Victor Gollancz, [1943] Z.h.30/24
New College Library holds this pamphlet, Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords. The author, William Temple (1881-1944) was a bishop in the Church of England who served as Archbishop of York Archbishop of Canterbury between 1942–44.
One of the founders of the Council of Christians and Jews in 1942, Temple was at the forefront of the Church of England’s campaign to draw attention to the plight of the Jews in Europe and to demand that the British Government provide rescue and sanctuary for Jewish victims. His speech urges:
“The Jews are being slaughtered at the rate of tens of thousands a day on many days … we cannot rest as long as there is any sense among us that we are not doing all that might be done.”
Sadly no changes to refugee policy were made by the British Government and after William Temple died in 1944, the impetus for rescuing the Jews did not continue.
This item is part of the Pamphlets Collection, and it was catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library
The earliest missionary editions
Interesting blog entry on Protestant missionary material in Chinese by David Helliwell, Curator of Chinese Collections, Bodleian Library
Context of Scripture Online on trial now
Context of Scripture Online is now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 19 February. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
Context of Scripture Online is a reference work aiming to provide access to a broad, balanced, and representative collection of Ancient Near Eastern texts that have an impact on the interpretation of the Bible. These ancient Egyptian, Semitic, Akkadian and Sumerian writings form the rich background to the literature of the Hebrew Bible.
Jewish Historical Newspapers on trial now
Jewish Historical Newspapers – ProQuest
Jewish Historical Newspapers via ProQuest are now available on trial access to University of Edinburgh Users. Access is available on campus and off campus via the VPN. The trial ends on 1 March. See the eresources trials web page for more information.
The following Jewish Newspapers are available on trial:
The Jerusalem Post (1932 – 1988)
The Jewish Exponent (1887 – 1990)
The Jewish Advocate (1905 – 1990)
The American Israelite (1854 – 2000)
The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857 – 1922)
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
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
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