The National Library of Scotland

We’re in Scotland! So far the weather has been rainy and cold, and everything that I hoped for! The city definitely has a different feel from London, and so far I am really enjoying it.

In the National Library of Scotland we did not tour the library, but were able to view the John Murrays exhibit where I found my idea for what I would like to research. In 1768, John McMurray, hailing from Edinburgh, set up a bookselling business in Fleet Street. He advertised, “Books of the choicest Editions, the best Print, and the richest Bindings.” He dropped the Mc from his name, becoming John Murrays. Some of the most famous authors that he published are: Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, David Livingstone, Charles Darwin, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The exhibit was fun to peruse, and had stations set up for each author, plus several that I had not heard of before. I learned interesting tidbits about each author. Sir Walter Scott invented the historical novel and was a very harsh critic of himself. Lord Byron worked for Greek independence, and the Greek people were distraught at his death. The Duke of Argyll, George Douglas Campbell wrote poems comparing science and religion, which were harshly reviewed at the time. Richard Ford wrote a handbook for travelers in Spain, which was the predecessor to the modern day guidebooks that we purchase. Jane Austen’s father and brother supported her writing career, which was a rarity at the time, and something that I would like to find out more about through research. More on the John Murrays archive can be found here.

The library itself grew out of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. It was granted the right to claim a copy of the every book published in the British Isles under the 1710 Copyright Act. By the 1920s upkeep was too difficult for a private body, and the collection was gifted to the nation. In the 1980s the fifteen floors of the building were not enough to house the collection, and additional storage was opened in the Causeway side Building. This building takes new deliveries and houses the map library. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act of 2003 has given the library the right to collect material published digitally, including journals and websites. This information was on display in the library, along with the John Murrays exhibit and an exhibit on golf.