Modern Scottish Collections

With Christmas rapidly approaching you may be interested to hear about our small display of Christmas cards and festive catalogues from the early twentieth century.

The display contains Christmas and New Year greeting cards which were circulated in Scotland between 1910 and 1952. The cards, which are a fascinating contrast to those we send today, are from the Dewar Collection.

The display also includes a couple of beautifully illustrated Macfarlane Lang & Co Christmas catalogues dating from the 1930s. The history of this Scottish bakery is fascinating. James Lang established a bakery in Glasgow in 1817. After Lang’s death his nephew, John Macfarlane, took over the business. The company expanded throughout the nineteenth century, opening the mechanised Victoria Biscuit Works in the Calton area of Glasgow in 1880. In 1948 Macfarlane Lang merged with another Scottish biscuit manufacturer – McVitie & Price – to form United Biscuits.

The display is located on the upper floor of the General Reading Room at the National Library of Scotland. On entering the Reading Room proceed straight up the stairs to the wall opposite the door and you will find the display case. The display will run until the week beginning 7th January 2013.

The Scottish witch-hunts took place between 1563 and 1736. Over 3,800 Scots were accused of witchcraft and it is likely that around two-thirds of those accused were executed. If you are interested in finding out more about this fascinating subject why not have a look at our new film discussing the Scottish witch-hunts and related material from Modern Scottish Collections.

There is also a short article about the Scottish witch-hunts and how to use our free resource, Scottish Bibliographies Online, to locate related material in the Winter 2011 edition of the Discover NLS magazine.

(Image from Witchcraft in early modern Europe by Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts, University of Exeter Press, 2000)

With the dark nights upon us and Halloween recently past, you may be interested to hear about our small display of modern material relating to the Scottish witch-hunts. The display brings together a variety of books on Scottish witchcraft and related subjects, as featured in the Winter issue of Discover NLS (due out later this week). The Scottish witch-hunts have been explored not only in histories but in novels, children’s books, plays and music, all of which are represented in the display.

The display can be found in the cases outside the doors to the Reading Rooms in George IV Bridge during November 2011.

Should you wish to discover further material on Scottish witchcraft, you can find references to books, chapters and articles on Scottish Bibliographies Online.