Family and local history

For those with an interest in heraldry, a new free database may be of interest. The British Armorial Bindings database, which was created by a late colleague, John Morris, is now available for researchers. It attempts to record all known British armorial bookbinding stamps used by personal owners to mark and decorate their books. Currently, the database reproduces over 3300 stamps, used in the 16th-20th centuries, by 1900 individual owners. The stamps depict coats of arms, crests and other heraldic devices.

NLS has collections of photographs on a wide range of subjects. Some of these have been digitised and can be viewed on our Digital Gallery for free. Two collections which may be of particular interest to researchers are the photographs of the south side of Edinburgh, taken in 1929 by Alfred Henry Rushbrook, and the official photographs of the First World War, from the Earl Haig collection.