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December 16, 2025
A puzzle of Presbyterian history
Notes on the Presbyterian church in New Zealand. By P. B., fl. ca 1860. New College Library – Special Collections. P.f.14/24
Today the School of Divinity welcomes Dr Hugh Morrison, a visiting Fellow from Otago, who is speaking at the World Christianity Research Seminar on “Doing religious history ‘down under:’ challenges and opportunities in the New Zealand context.”
A recent challenge for the the Funk Cataloguing Projects here at New College Library was this nineteenth century pamphlet, “Notes on the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand”. Little is known about this item or its author, P.B. From clues within the pamphlet we have garnered that the writer was active in the 1860s and the item was probably published in Scotland.
The union catalogue of UK research libraries, COPAC, lists New College Library as the only known location in the UK for this pamphlet
Biblical reflections of Christina Rossetti
Letter and Spirit : notes on the Commandments. Christina Rossetti, London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, [1883]. New College Library, Unclassified Sequence, C5/b5
At this week’s Biblical Studies Research Seminar in the School of Divinity, the speaker is Dr Alison Jack, on“Reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son with Christina Rossetti”.
Down in the depths of New College Library’s Stack II, I found this slim volume by Christina Rossetti, Letter and Spirit, or, Notes on the Commandments.
Although better known in the twentieth century for her poetry such as Goblin Market and A Birthday, and for her associations with the Pre-Raphaelite group of painters and writers, in her later life Christina Rossetti also produced more sombre devotional writings.
Early twentieth-century Christianity in Korea
With Tommy Tompkins in Korea by Lillian H. Underwood, (Edinburgh 1905). New College Library sMS1 UND
Korean Sketches by Rev. James S. Gale, of the American Presbyterian Mission, Wunsan, Korea. sMS 1 GAL
The School of Divinity’s World Christianity seminar series continues with “No Neutrality for Brutality”: The Missionary Position on Indigenous Resistance Movements in Colonial Korea, 1910-1919 by Han Kang-Hee.
These two books from New College Library’s stacks give us contemporary views of Korea by missionaries, and describe their engagement – or otherwise – with Korean culture.
With Tommy Tompkins in Korea by Lillian H. Underwood is an attempt to describe the everyday life of a Western boy living in Korea “… Hoping that this book may serve to show the contrast, between the family of a happy little western boy, and the poor children born in the dark, so that the hearts of the readers may ask, “How can this be changed?”
Korean Sketches by Rev. James S. Gale, aims to give an idea of the Korean life and character, and is well illustrated with photographs and drawings. The original publishers’s flyer still in the book describes it as “A Missionary’s Observations in the Hermit Nation”.
Happy Birthday New College Library
Seventy six years ago on the 8th of October, New College Library, Edinburgh, was formally opened to students and staff in its current building, the former Free High Kirk. The earth under the church floor had been excavated to allow the three stackrooms below the Library Hall.
The New College Archive preserves this original admission ticket to the inauguration ceremony, as it also preserves the suggestions books, committee minutes and account books of the business of New College Library since its foundation back in the 1840s. The ticket bears the arms of Edinburgh University on the left and the Church of Scotland’s burning bush emblem on the right. This represents the union which had been effected in January 1935 of the Church of Scotland’s New College with the University’s Faculty of Divinity in the New College building.
Christianity in the Far East?
The Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the School of Divinity hosts its Research Seminar today, and the speaker is Andrew Kaiser, on:
” Lessons for Today from China’s Past: Timothy Richard’s Innovations in Mission.”
New College Library’s stacks bear witness to the activity of nineteenth and twentieth century missons in China and East Asia. I picked up these three volumes which all have attractive publishers bindings.
The Cross and the Dragon, or, Light in the Broad East by Rev B.C. Henry (London, Partridge & Co, 1885) announces the author as “Ten years a missionary in Canton”. It is beautifully illustrated and has endpapers printed in a pattern of Chinese fans. The introduction proclaims “There is no new and sacred sight open to the eyes of present generations better worth study than the rising of the unobscured orb of Christianity in the Far East …”
East of the Barrier, or, Side lights on the Manchuria Mission (Oliphant, Andrewson and Ferrier, Edinburgh & London , 1902), was written by J. Miller Graham, a missionary of the United Free Church of Scotland, Moukden, Manchuria.
Two Lady Missionaries in Tibet by Isabel S. Robson ( London: S.W. Partridge & Co 1910) is the story of two intrepid women missionaries – Miss Annie R Taylor and Dr Susie Carson Moyes.
New books at New College Library, Edinburgh – October
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.
Currently in the display is Christian faith and the welfare of the city : essays for Alison Elliot / edited by Johnston McKay (New College Library BV625 Chr). This collection of essays, which includes a number of contributions from staff at the School of Divinity, marked the sixtieth birthday of Dr. Alison Elliot, first woman Moderator of the Church of Scotland.
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.
Seventeenth century botanical illustrations discovered at New College Library
Exoticarum aliarumque minus cognitarium plantarum centuria prima by Jakob Breyne, 1678. New College Library Special Collections DPL 59.
Recently catalogued online and now on display in New College Library’s entrance hall is this seventeeth century botanical work, Exoticarum aliarumque minus cognitarium plantarum centuria prima.
Written by Jakob Breyne, it has full page plates drawn by Andreas Stech and engraved by Isaac Saal.
This rare book is part of the Dumfries Presbytery Library, which is currently being catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library.
With thanks to our rare books cataloguer Finlay West for sharing details of this item.
More images from this work …
To Africa with Love
Reports of the Glasgow African Missionary Society
New College Library Special Collections Z Collection Z.858/9-16
Today’s Centre for the Study of World Christianity Research Seminar is presented by Dr Jack Thompson, ‘African mission photography: Light on Darkness’.
This item, Reports of the Glasgow Missionary Society, from New College Library’s Z Collections, is a printed record of missionary activity, evidence of the hundreds of Missionary Scots at work across Africa. I was charmed to find that among them was a Dr John Love (perhaps an ancestor of mine?) one time secretary of the Glasgow Missionary Society. The Church of Scotland’s first important missionary station in Africa, at Kaffaria (established in 1830), was named Lovedale after him. New College Library also holds in its archives a volume of illustrations of Church of Scotland missions in South Africa (Gen. 827F), which features Lovedale. Further details can be searched online at www.mundus.ac.uk.
Israel, the Assyrians and a shoemaker’s gift
The sacred and profane history of the world connected : from the creation of the world to the dissolution of the Assyrian Empire …, and to the declension of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel …/ by Samuel Shuckford, D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty, George the Second. ; Revised … by James Creighton. Philadelphia, 1824.
New College Library [Special Collections] Z.2152
On that note, here’s an ambitious work of history from New College Library’s Special Collections that covers the Assyrian Empire and “the declension of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel”. Written by Samuel Shuckford in the eighteenth century, this edition was published in the nineteenth century and is the first American edition of this work.
What interested me the most was in fact the label inside the book (well, I am a librarian), which states:
“Presented to the Free Church of Scotland, by Thomas Aikman, shoemaker, a native of Scotland, near Sterling [sic], a citizen of the United States of America since 1794 – a member of the Presbyterian Church in full communion for more than fifty years. Burlington, N.J., 1844.”
With this provenance, the book must have been donated to New College Library as part of the first appeal for books that came with the founding of New College as the College for the Free Church of Scotland after the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843. It shows that Thomas Aikman, an emigrant of humble background, was following religious affairs in his homeland closely and that the principles behind the founding of New College were close enough to his heart for him to donate this book.
This book is part of the ‘Z’ Collection, currently being catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library.
Another Book Sale success at New College Library, Edinburgh
New College Library held another successful Book Sale of duplicate volumes and unsuitable donations this Freshers week in the David Welsh Reading Room, New College Library. We’re pleased to be able to tell you that we raised over £1200! All proceeds will go to support New College Library funds. Previous book sales have supported new book purchasing, rare book conservation and archive listing projects.
The Book Sale would not be able to happen without the support of helpers from the New College postgraduate student community, who staffed the sale and helped with setting up and clearing away. A big thank you goes out to them!
Students and staff often ask what will happen to the unsold stock. This year some books will be going to the Josophat Mwale Theological Institute (JMTI), in Zomba, Malawi, courtesy of Dr David Reimer. Other stock is being collected by St Columba’s Hospice Bookshop, Edinburgh.
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