National Library of Scotland Digital Archive

The National Library of Scotland has added several collections to its digital archive during the past year. Worth a browse even if you don't have Scottish ancestors. http://digital.nls.uk/index.cfm

Photographs of the south side of Edinburgh

138 black-and-white photographs taken in 1929 taken by Alfred Henry Rushbrook on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Improvement Trust. Show tenements and shops around St Leonards before buildings were pulled down for slum clearance. Half-plate gelatin-silver prints. Precise address of building is given where known.
14 December 2009

Morall fabillis of Esope the Phyrgia[n]

Moral fables of Aesop put into Scots verse by the poet Robert Henryson
14 December 2009

Jacobite prints and broadsides

Illustrations of people and events relating to the Jacobite Rebellions in Scottish history (1715 and 1745-46). Also includes portraits of Mary Stuart and earlier Scottish monarchs, and broadsides. Collected by Walter Blaikie. Material stored at the National Galleries of Scotland.
14 December 2009

Gutenberg Bible

The first book printed with moveable type. Printed in Mainz, Germany, around 1455 by Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, and Johannes Fust. One of around only 20 complete copies to survive out of the original 180. Two volumes. Also known as ‘The 42-line Bible’ or ‘The Mazarine Bible’.
02 March 2009

Scottish printing towns 1508-1800

Items from the first printing press set up in a particular Scottish town or village between 1508 and 1800. May be the first item printed on that press or a later product from the same press that is more important. Includes the first book printed in Scotland, dated 4 April 1508.
02 March 2009

Aberdeen Breviary

Prepared and edited by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen. Printed in Edinburgh in 1510 on Scotland’s first press set up by Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar. The largest product of that press. Two volumes, entitled ‘Pars hiemalis’ and ‘Pars aestivalis’. The whole breviary is also known as ‘Breviarium Aberdonense’.
02 March 2009

Soviet posters

The Woodburn Collection of around 70 posters issued between 1919 and 1930. A few relate to the Russian Civil War, but most deal with economic and social issues of the 1920s. Brought back from the Soviet Union by Scottish Labour MP Arthur Woodburn after his visit there in 1932.
02 March 2009

First World War 'Official Photographs'

Black-and-white photographs mainly of the Western Front during the First World War. Official British war photographers took many of them for propaganda purposes. Unless otherwise stated, titles are the photographs' original captions. From the papers of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig (1861-1928). The Haig Papers also contain Douglas Haig’s diaries.
02 March 2009

Kidnapped

The first published English edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure story. Published in London in 1886 by Cassel and Company Limited. View complete volume page by page.
02 March 2009

Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect

First collection of Robert Burns’s work to be published. Printed in Kilmarnock by John Wilson in 1786. Known as the ‘Kilmarnock Burns’ or the ‘Kilmarnock Edition’. The poems include ‘Scotch drink’, ‘The Cotter’s Saturday night’, ‘To a mouse’ and ‘To a louse’.
02 March 2009

Ordnance Survey One-Inch Popular edition of Scotland - 1921-1930

A series of 92 sheets mapping all of Scotland. Ordnance Survey aimed to produce an attractive contoured road map that would be popular with the 'man in the street'. The ‘Popular’ edition was particularly intended for the inter-war generation's leisure hours – cycling, touring or walking through the countryside.
02 March 2009

Genealogical collections concerning families in Scotland, made by Walter Macfarlane, 1750-1751

A collection of genealogies of ancient Scottish families compiled around 1750 by Walter Macfarlane. Re-published in 1900 as ‘Genealogical collections concerning families in Scotland’ for private circulation to members of the Scottish History Society. Edited from original manuscripts in the Advocates Library by James Toshach Clark.
02 March 2009

Early books of Scottish Songs

Three early books of Scottish songs with melodies and illustrations. Includes songs printed between 1739 and 1746, the first printed collection of songs with their melodies, and songs with words by Allan Ramsay.
02 March 2009