This super Directory and Voter’s Guide to Edinburgh and Leith compiled by William Sinclair in 1893 features a beautiful interpretation of the Arms of Leith, although the real treats are the advertisements!
@signetlibrary.bsky.social
Signet Library followers will be familiar with the work of our conservator, @johockey.bsky.social , who has created a new website bringing together both her Signet Library research and conservation work - it's at johockey.substack.com
An hour away from Jen and Ben's Mixed Doubles Curling Bronze Medal match - we've a new online exhibition on the literature of Scotland's Ain Game - see our new blogpost about it at www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/2026/02/10/s...
Still many more stories to be told, and thankyou to @lixmount.bsky.social for putting this all together and presenting it so beautifully!
llustration from 'The Channel-Stane or Sweepings from the Rinks (Edinburgh: Richard Cameron, 1883)' showing curling stones and a curling broom in a winter landscape with a church in the background on a snow-covered hill. The sun is low in the sky showing that the day's play has ended. The title, 'The Roaring Game' is written in a fancy script
New on the blog: 'The Curious Case of the Missing Curling Stone' - a Tale from the Session Papers of @signetlibrary.bsky.social: www.kgbaston.co.uk/2026/02/05/t... #TalesFromTheSessionPapers A curling stone has been missing for three years, but now it's been found. Or has it?
We recently finished the research phase of our project on the archive of John Watson's Institution funded by the @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social Jean Guild awards. Dive in here: www.wssociety-heritage.co.uk/2026/02/02/t... Research by @kgbaston.bsky.social and @johockey.bsky.social
Dr. Baston's paper on the Bibliotheca Polonica was one of the highlights of 2025 at the Signet Library as part of our early-year lecture series.
The front cover of November 2025's Who Do You Think You Are magazine showing two children leaning against a tree.
The BBC's "Who Do You Think You Are" Magazine new November 2025 issue's "Gem from the Archive" features the Signet Library's @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social funded project on the records of John Watson's Institution, research undertaken by @kgbaston.bsky.social @johockey.bsky.social
Before and after of this cracker from the Trials Collection at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social
And yesterday, this account of the trial of those involved in the Battle of Bonnymuir, during the Radical War of 1820. Part of the spine was detached, so a very satisfying fix!
Part of the Trials Collection at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social
www.maggiecraig.co.uk/2020/04/05/t...
A small display of decorative books, maps, manuscripts and photographs for an academic society visiting the Signet Library this afternoon.
Signet Library graffiti left by craftspeople from the 1850s into the Great War period behind the cases in the Upper Hall. The names and signatures of painters, glaziers and related trades in paint and pencil on the unpainted timber surface.
The three blue hardback volumes of Coke's notebooks with the Signet Library's Upper West Library visible beyond.
Coke's 1612 "Book of Entries" alongside three volumes of his Institutes of the Laws of England with engraved portraits of Coke.
Today's bookpost: the final three volumes of Sir John Baker's magisterial Seldon Society edition of the notebooks of the great English lawyer Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), shown beside a selection of Coke's works from Signet Library collections.
A spotlight on this book on ‘Auld Ayr and some of its Characters’ by the prolific artist Robert Bryden in 1897. Bryden was granted the title of Royal Engraver in 1899. The engravings are such expressive portraits. From the Burghs and Shires Collection at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social
A progress report on our John Watson's Institution archive project, funded by the fantastic Old Edinburgh Club Jean Guild grants scheme. We are on the hunt for a portrait - can you help?
An elderly man sits on a stone wall cradling a young child.
Alexander Mill, "Prince of Indexers", assistant librarian at the Signet Library for over sixty years (1873-1935), with his grandson c. 1930. The last here to remember David Laing, Mill's index to Scottish Court of Session Papers is still in constant use, the only one of its kind.
The Society of Procurators in Perth are celebrating their bicentenary. Writer to the Signet Robert Macduff Duncan tells the story today for Scottish Legal News: www.scottishlegal.com/articles/our...
From the 1934 Revision through to the first few post-colonial years and the merger with Tanganyika, but no earlier unfortunately. (And ironically still found only on an in-house card catalogue)
This copy of the Scottish Licensing Act of 1903 at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social today, with some very on topic advertising.
Our upgrade is complete (and we have also resolved issues accessing our catalogue via the new Firefox v.140 and this is now back to normal).
A screenshot of the front page of the Signet Library's online catalogue.
A quick heads-up that our online catalogue will be offline for an upgrade on Wednesday morning (9th July) - all being well, we'll be back by lunchtime.
A screenshot of the front page of the Signet Library's online catalogue.
A quick heads-up that our online catalogue will be offline for an upgrade on Wednesday morning (9th July) - all being well, we'll be back by lunchtime.
The domed and arcaded frontage of Robert Adam's proposed College of Justice, incorporating a new Signet Library.
Diagram of the floorplan and wall elevations of Robert Adam's Signet Library
Elevation of part of Robert Adam's design for new premises for the Signet Library and Advocates Library within the College of Justice, with a rusticated lower level.
To commemorate the 297th birthday of the great Scottish architect Robert Adam, his drawings - amongst his last - for a new Signet Library in Royal Mile premises for the College of Justice in Edinburgh.
This book of instruction for newly qualified legal clerks in 1727, discovered yesterday by @lixmount.bsky.social at the @signetlibrary.bsky.social has several detailed pages on how to ‘write well’. Anyone who has toiled over a page of Secretary Hand might find it of interest..
Congratulations to all involved in the superb new Aberdeen Student Law Review, especially to our former WS Summer Scholars Christiana Cameron, Valentina Menendez Ron and Matthew Paton. Lady Dorrian writes that it “demonstrates the strength of legal scholarship and analysis at the University”
Title page of 1777 pamphlet reading A scheme for establishing and carrying on the woollen manufacture in Dundee. Printed by T. Colvill 1777.
Internal pages of a 1777 pamphlet about woollen manufacture in Dundee. The pages are decorated by printer's borders and indented capitals.
The final page of a pamphlet encouraging the establishment of woollen manufacture in Dundee, which ends in saying that printed copies were to be handed out for free and subscriptions to be taken at the shops of James More and Robert Nicoll, booksellers in Dundee. Dated April 28th 1777.
This may be the only surviving copy of this 1770s proposal for woollen manufacture in Dundee: we can't trace more, and given that this predates jute in Dundee, we wonder if a digital facsimile might be of interest to e.g. the Verdant Works, the universities and city library, the McManus Gallery etc?
Examining application forms of 1836 for entry to the John Watson Institution as part of @kgbaston.bsky.social’s project to document and research the archive of the School held by the @signetlibrary.bsky.social
This form has a letter still attached by a sealing wafer.
Two men carry a sofa upholstered in dark leather up a grand staircase.
Two sofas in a pilastered apartment with a large round table on the carpet between them. Portraits line the walls.
Looking up at a grand staircase under a toplit cupola with a pair of men carrying a large sofa upholstered in dark leather. The walls are panelled and carry pictures.
The return of our historic c. 1820 Regency sofas after restoration and reupholstering. They were originally made by the Chippendale of Scotland, William Trotter, at his manufactury on Canal Street. Photographs by @johockey.bsky.social
An exhibition of work by photographers Thomas Annan, James Craig Annan and Country Life staff photographer A.E. Henson prior to Professor Godfrey Evans' lecture on Hamilton Palace at the Signet Library last night.
