Category: Library
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Highlights from Smellie’s Book Catalogue
There I am, staring directly at an Eighteenth century book collection, arms length from titles someone in 1750 would consider a ‘must have’ in their home. This is William Smellie’s library, all 300+ volumes, half of which are reference works for a teaching physician and the other half…for leisure? Two…
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Dr Smellie’s Treatise and Anatomical Tables
When one first sees William Smellie’s personal library, an Eighteenth century collection of 300+ volumes, stacked nicely into 24 shelves…it’s a little overwhelming. It’s a lot of books. Yes, but it’s dwarfed by Sir Walter Scott’s personal library at Abbotsford House, near Melrose, for example. That’s huge and almost unreal,…
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William Smellie’s Early Career & Book Collection
Keys in hand, librarian Elena Focardi makes her way to the locked door protecting the precious and valuable books at Lanark Library. I’ve come to see a book collection that’s 275 years old – owned by the town’s famous Eighteenth century son, William Smellie. He bequeathed his book collection, after…
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Book Collection Explorer: William Smellie
The book collection of Eighteenth century doctor William Smellie lies behind a locked door one might mistake for a janitor’s closet. You walk up the stairs, across the lobby, through one room, through another room, to an inauspicious, but secure entrance, beyond which is a temperature and humidity-controlled room, conditions…
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Artifacts of Pre-Computer Library Book Borrowing
Ninety five per cent of the books I buy are second hand, and they often have marks of the previous owners – many of whom were libraries. The postie delivered a book the other day, The History of Scottish Literature Volume 2, 1660-1800, and when I opened the cover I…
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Finding Boswell in the Mitchell Library
This afternoon’s mission for an Eighteenth century experience ended in disappointment. And then satisfaction. I went to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow to see the collection known as the Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle in the Collection of Lt. Colonel Ralph Heyward Isham. (This privately funded and…
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Bookcase For You, Bookcase For Me
We’ve been discussing buying a second bookcase, but where to put it is vexing us. The most obvious place for a new bookcase is the spot currently occupied by the exercise bike (which we use as a clothes drier) bought during Covid lockdown. There’s no direct sunlight and its away…
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Library Fantasists! Visit Sir Walter Scott’s Home
The world’s largest personal library – still intact – consists of more than 9,000 volumes and fills two rooms in Abbotsford House, near Melrose, Scotland. That’s the former home of the amazing best-selling Victorian author of the Waverley novels, Sir Walter Scott. It’s delightful to approach the building, with its…
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Coveting Two Eighteenth Century Best Sellers
If a bolt of lightning should strike me, leaving me dead, the person who discovers my smoking corpse (it’s always a dog walker) may notice the faintest smile on my blackened lips. If they’re perceptive they’ll read that smile as ‘satisfaction’ – and they’d be right for I now own…
Genius Fan 