Reading the Collections, Week 30: A Jacobite Declaration, 1715
Today, 6 September, is the 300th anniversary of the raising of the Standard of the Jacobite army at Braemar by John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar: “in presence of the […]
Tag: Rare Book Collection
Wedderburn and Simson Collections now on SAULCAT
Special Collections is pleased to announce that the cataloguing of two of its rare book collections is complete. Both the Simson Collection and the Wedderburn Collection are now accessible […]
Reading the Collections, Week 29: Brontë Book Covers
For this post we will take a look at some of the different bindings and covers of Wuthering Heights in our collections. Some of these covers, pictured above, may look […]
Reading the Collections, Week 26: Discovery of the Microbial World
Antony van Leeuwenhoek is widely recognised as the person who discovered the microbial world and I have always been intrigued by this somewhat unusual and eccentric scientific pioneer. Although he […]
Reading the Collections, Week 24: Proverbs o Hell bi William Blake translated in Scots bi William Hershaw
This piece opens with a confession, offered by a penitent Sassenach: until very recently I thought that Robert Burns was a novelty poet, somewhat in the mould of an 18th […]
Reading the Collections, Week 22: Agatha Christie’s favourite detective novel
When looking for material to read for this blog series, I decided to look at the modern fiction within the St Andrews Collection. This includes books written by authors who […]
Reading the Collections, Week 20: Dame Wiggins of Lee, and her seven wonderful cats
Those who know of John Ruskin (1819-1900) as Victorian Britain’s preeminent art critic and author of titles such as The Stones of Venice, Modern Painters and The Seven Lamps of […]
“A complete victory gained with great bloodshed”
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, when the British under the Duke of Wellington and their allies from the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, joined with […]
Reading the Collections, Week 19: Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
Despite being a keen detective fiction fan, until recently I had never read any of the works of Wilkie Collins: Victorian author and early pioneer of mystery and detective fiction. […]
Lighting the Past completes the Shewan Collection
Of all the collections to be catalogued by the Phase 1 team, the Shewan Collection will probably be the only one where every item has passed through my hands as […]