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 […]

On 2 Nov 2015, the CRC hosted a seminar which looked at the figure of William Henry Playfair (1790-1857), discussing his life and work and looking in some detail at a range of architectural drawings which had been selected from our collection. Playfair was born was born in Russell Square, London, July 1789. On the […]

AT THE BUDONGO LECTURE THEATRE, EDINBURGH ZOO, SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER 2015 This past weekend – Saturday 31 October – saw Dr. Graeme D. Eddie of the Centre for Research Collections (CRC) participate in the Penguin City Meeting of the South Georgia Association (SGA), held at the Budongo Lecture Theatre, Edinburgh Zoo. The SGA is a […]

140th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH THE EVE OF SAINT AGNES – RECENT ACQUISITION AT CENTRE FOR RESEARCH COLLECTIONS, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Saturday 10 October 2015 marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Charles Oppenheimer, craftsman and artist. Oppenheimer was born in Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Manchester, on 10 October 1875. He was a prize-winning student at Manchester […]

For the past few years, we have had one of our volunteers, Fiona Donaldson, working with Deputy University Archivist, Grant Buttars, to develop a usable catalogue to our Tovey Collection, one of our larger collections of personal papers we hold.  We are now able to offer an unfinished but usable ‘pre-release’ to allow researchers and […]

THEIR BIRTHS IN NOVEMBER 1924 WERE ANNOUNCED IN THE SCOTSMAN ON THE SAME DAY… AFTER CAREERS IN THE USA, JACOBUS LOUW POTTER BECAME EXECUTIVE DEAN, FACULTY OF MEDICINE, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY, 1981, Recently added to our collections are the Papers of Dr. Jacobus L. Potter (1924-2015) and Dr. Elizabeth M. Potter (1924-1979), donated by the surviving […]

II – IN THE HUGH MACDIARMID COLLECTION…: MS LETTER FROM THE PROJECT THEATRE, GLASGOW… NEW PLAYS ‘PROJECT’ NEW IDEAS Among the many letters to Hugh MacDiarmid from producers and directors  of theatre companies across the UK and Europe,  and from editors of journals and reviews, is a couple of pieces of correspondence from the Director […]

I – IN THE HUGH MACDIARMID COLLECTION…: MS LETTER FROM DYLAN THOMAS AND MS POEM For several months work has been going on to bring order within the collections created over a number of decades around the great figures of the ‘Scottish Literary Renaissance’ of the 20th century. This work builds on the recommendations made […]

In 1936, Julia Stephanie Evadne McGregor was in the final year of a five-year medical degree and showed all the signs of a highly motivated and conscientious student who would do well.  In January 1936, she was admitted to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, again in May and then June.  She died on 4th July […]

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO REFLECTED IN OUR ARCHIVE COLLECTIONS On Sunday 18 June 1815, on the muddy fields of Waterloo just outside Brussels in today’s Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte with his French Imperial Guard faced off the Duke of Wellington and the British and Allied army. The course of the Battle of Waterloo, notable officers and […]