Crime writer Denise Mina recently joined NRS archivist Bruno Longmore at General Register House to research the 1909 trial of Oscar Slater, who was charged with the murder of an elderly woman in Glasgow. Slater’s trial was highly controversial at the time, attracting critical comments from across the United Kingdom including from Sir Arthur … Continue reading Voices from our Archives: Oscar Slater (1872-1948)
From Disorder to Order: Cataloguing the 19th Century Criminal Case Papers of the High Court of Justiciary, with Simon Johnson
Have you ever wondered what an archivist does? In this week’s podcast, NRS archivist Simon Johnson opens up the case papers of Scotland’s supreme criminal court in the early 19th Century. Case papers from the High Court of Justiciary provide endless research potential, both as a record of individual cases and as a tremendous … Continue reading From Disorder to Order: Cataloguing the 19th Century Criminal Case Papers of the High Court of Justiciary, with Simon Johnson
Trailblazers: The world’s first football club, with John Hutchinson & Andy Mitchell
Long before there was an Edinburgh derby; before the offside rule and the Wembley Wizards or pies and Bovril there was the Football Club, founded in Edinburgh by John Hope in 1824. It was the world’s first dedicated football organisation, active until 1841, and John Hope’s meticulous records have been preserved among his personal papers here … Continue reading Trailblazers: The world’s first football club, with John Hutchinson & Andy Mitchell
In From The Cold…
National Records of Scotland recently welcomed a group of staff and history students from the University of Iceland at General Register House, Edinburgh. The visit involved an introduction to Scotland’s archives and a seminar to consider Scotland and Iceland’s respective national histories, and the nature and survival of historical records. As part of the visit, our Heads … Continue reading In From The Cold…
St Kilda: The Edge of the World, with Dr Alison Rosie
This is the third episode of Open Book, a Podcast by National Records of Scotland dedicated to preserving Scotland’s past, recording its present and informing our future. This week, we’re off to the lonely isle of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, forty miles west of Benbecula. This craggy isle once supported a small but … Continue reading St Kilda: The Edge of the World, with Dr Alison Rosie
Podcast: Inspiration from the Archives, with ES Thomson
Crime and Punishment: How Archives Can Inspire Fiction, with Dr Elaine Thomson. In this week’s Open Book Podcast ES Thomson, author of “The Peachgrowers’ Almanac”, “Beloved Poison”, “Dark Asylum” and others, tells us how archives have inspired her and how the stories of real people from the past can help to develop and inform creative … Continue reading Podcast: Inspiration from the Archives, with ES Thomson
Pastures New: Scottish Emigration to Australia
It is common knowledge that Australia was originally treated as a penal colony by the British Empire. In May 1787 the first fleet of convict ships set sail from England and arrived in Botany Bay some 8 months later in January 1788. As a punishment for persistent offenders – most commonly crimes of housebreaking, theft … Continue reading Pastures New: Scottish Emigration to Australia
Open Book Podcast – Episode One
In the first Open Book Podcast, Professor Gerard Carruthers looks at the radicalism of Robert Burns and what newly-discovered documents reveal about his working and artistic life during the turbulent 1790s.
“D Day” 1971 – All Change
Our archivists have retrieved some items from the NRS archives to mark the 47th anniversary of decimalisation in the UK on 15 February. The first is a still from the film “All Change”, produced in colour in 1969 by World Wide Pictures Ltd. for the Central Office of Information, on behalf of the Decimal Currency … Continue reading “D Day” 1971 – All Change
Home From The Front
National Records of Scotland holds a wealth of military records from many conflicts dating back to the start of the seventeenth century. As these records sometimes reach us in a disorganised state, our archivists catalogue them to make them more accessible to the public. We recently began a project to catalogue First World War Pensions … Continue reading Home From The Front
Open Book 