We are in the process of moving our blog in-house.  Although we’ve imported all the post titles, we still need to copy over the detail. Once we have finished the migration tasks, we will start blogging again.  In the meantime you can find the old blog at http://edinburghuniversityarchives.blogspot.co.uk/ Update, 4th July – blog content successfully […]

What connects Edinburgh, forensic medicine, public health and Sherlock Holmes? Many people would be tempted to say ‘Joseph Bell’, although they would probably wonder where public health fitted in. The answer is in fact ‘Henry Duncan Littlejohn’. Born in 1826, the son of a prosperous merchant, Littlejohn was also credited by Conan Doyle as having […]

In memory of astronaut Neil Armstrong, we are displaying the award by the University of Edinburgh to him of Doctor Honoris Causa. The ceremony took place a the British Embasy in Washington on 13 June 2008. We hold the certificate (shown here) in the University Archives.

On the night betwixt the 29th/30th October 1787 the door of the Library was broken open by thieves and the University Mace was stolen from the press where it was usually deposited. The Magistrates offered a reward of ten Guineas for the discovery of the Delinquents. So reads the inset entered between the College minutes […]

Although our registers of students who attended the Edinburgh / Royal Dick Veterinary College only begin in the 1860s, the college itself was established in 1823. Although, unlike the University, there is no easily-identifiable published list of early students, one does in fact exist. Included in William Dick’s ‘Occasional Papers’ (published 1869) is a list […]

The following letter was sent, we think to Prof T. C. Hope, Professor of Chemistry, by a student in 1844. Student misbehaviour is nothing new! Dear Sir, You cannot but have observed, and been annoyed, at the constant disorderly contact of some of the young gentleman of your class. You have hitherto been too forbearing […]

A recent enquiry threw light on the richness of information contained in the minutes of Library Committee. The enquiry itself related to Marjory Foljambe Hall, daughter of Hubert Hall, Assistant Keeper of the Public Record Office in London, who was meant to have been employed circa 1917/1918 as a Librarian at the University of Edinburgh. […]

We often get enquiries about what individual courses comprised. From 1858, the annual University Calendar is usually the best source of information on this. For example, the Diploma in Psychiatry in 1936 is summarised as follows: The Diploma consisted of 325 hours of course time, broken into two parts. Part 1: 1) Anatomy and the […]

The 31 club was a small group formed by the Honours Classics graduates at the University in 1931, to “perpetuate friendships made by the members while they were Classical students at Edinburgh University”. They first met in May 1931 and thereafter regularly for the next four years. A small reunion in 1966 is next minuted, […]

We get a lot of enquiries from individuals who know or think that their ancestor did some teacher training at Moray House. The history of teacher training and of Moray House is quite complex, one of various small institutions merging and then merging again before eventually becoming part of the University. Depending on the time […]