Historical Glasgow map reproductions now available

We are very pleased to announce that high quality reproductions of some of the highlights of the Map Collections covering Glasgow are now available from the Online Shop of the University.

You’ll find privately surveyed maps showing Glasgow in 1778 and 1828, as well as the first Ordnance Survey of Glasgow in 1865. This initial selection is rounded off with two sheets from the second edition of the Ordnance Survey Town Plan series for Glasgow showing the Royal Botanic Gardens and our own Gilbert Scott Building.

Sheet VI.6.16 of the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Glasgow showing the Gilbert Scott Building in 1894-5

The reproductions are supplied on high quality matt paper which is well suited for displaying or framing. Whether you have an interest in the history of Glasgow, or are looking for a birthday or graduation gift, we hope you will find something of interest.

We will be adding more maps over time so keep checking the shop for new additions, or this blog for further announcements.

If you have any questions about these maps, or any other maps held by the University Library, feel free to contact the Maps, Official Publications and Statistics Unit.

Scottish Government consultation on Independence

The Scottish Government has today published a consultation document to gather the views of the Scottish people on the format of a referendum on Scottish independence. The consultation will collect public opinion on the mechanics of how a referendum would be carried out, and also the rules which would govern the funding and campaign practices of participating parties or individuals. The consultation paper is available from the Scottish Government at the following link:-

Your Scotland, Your Referendum

The consultation paper is also available in HTML format with links to alternative language versions. The deadline for responses is Friday 11 May 2012 and full instructions on how to respond are contained in the consultation.

The UK Government consultation to gather public opinion on the proposed referendum on Scottish Independence is also still in progress. The consultation will run until Friday 9th March and is open to all members of the UK public. The consultation document is available from the Scotland Office at the following link:-

Scotland’s constitutional future: A consultation on facilitating a legal, fair and decisive referendum on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom

For any further information on UK and Scottish Official Publications feel free to contact the Maps, Official Publications and Statistics Unit on level 7 of the library.

Robert Burns in the Archives

Drybrough Burns Beermat (D11_10_8)

To celebrate Burns Night tonight, we thought we’d have a search through the archives for mention of Scotland’s favourite poet. Robert Burns has long been a patriotic figure for Scotland and his presence is felt here in the collections of University of Glasgow Archive Services.

Drybrough & Co Ltd was a firm that had been brewing in Lothian for some time already by 1750 and the firm expanded over time. The brewers manufactured a type of ale called ‘Burns Ale’ and used the image of The Bard to promote their brand. As can be seen above, they produced beer mats with extracts from Burns’ works and they even published a special Drybrough’s Burns Songbook. Burns ale was clearly a popular choice in pubs and it won second prize in the 1950 Brewers’ Exhibition.

Drybrough Burns Songbook (D12_3_5)

Not only did we find traces of Burns in our brewing archive, but he popped up in the records of Stoddard and Templeton. When searching through the files of carpet and rug designs, we came across this fine specimen:

STOD/DES/51/28

This fantastic rug was designed by a company called William C. Gray & Sons Ltd. The company grew from small beginnings in 1876 in Ayr, where William C. Gray produced carpets on two hand looms. The company expanded and moved to Newton-on-Ayr in 1877. It was here that their factory would be built in the 1880s. Production increased in both amount and variety during the 1880s and 1890s and the company grew in success, with showrooms all around the UK by the 1930s. Eventually the company became Gray’s Carpets in 1967, trading up until 1971.

We looked up our corporate records of the company and found the design in an order book (GUAS Ref STOD/204/2/7). The dimensions were 5.8 x 3.0 in feet and it was first ordered in 1965. Unfortunately we do not have much more information relating to this specific rug design. If you recognise this rug, or even have one of your own, we would love to hear from you!

Happy Burns Night all, and enjoy your ‘chieftain o’ the puddin-race’!

Detail of rug design (STOD/DES/51/28)

New books in the Library – Week Beg. 23rd Jan

Below is a selection of books recently received by the Library. This selection is part of a larger collection of recently received books currently on display on Level 3 of the Main Library. Books are available on this display for one week before being returned to the shelves. See also: Full listing of all new books received by the Library week beg 23rd Jan 2012 [PDF]

	Pedagogy of the poor : building the movement to end poverty / Willie Baptist, Jan Rehmann	Teachers College Press, c2011	Economics B1085.L55 BAP
	The community development reader : history, themes and issues / edited by Gary Craig … [et al.]	Policy, 2011	Sociology C135.C6 CRA2
	Analog design and simulation using OrCAD Capture and PSpice / Dennis Fitzpatrick	Elsevier/Newnes, 2012	Engineering KR120 2012-F

	Chasing empire across the sea : communications and the state in the French Atlantic, 1713-1763 / Kenneth J. Banks	McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006	History LL100 BAN
	Computational aspects of cooperative game theory / Georgios Chalkiadakis, Edith Elkind, Michael Wooldridge	Morgan & Claypool Publishers, c2012	Mathematics 9070 2012-C
	Empires and indigenes : intercultural alliance, imperial expansion, and warfare in the early modern world / edited by Wayne E. Lee	New York University Press, c2011.	Politics C4160 LEE
	The strategy and tactics of pricing : a guide to growing more profitably / Thomas T. Nagle, John E. Hogan, Joseph Zale	Pearson Education, c2011.	Economics S417 NAG2
	Franz Schubert : sexuality, subjectivity, song / Lawrence Kramer	Cambridge University Press, 1998.	Music HS300 KRA
	The true wealth of nations : Catholic social thought and economic life / edited by Daniel K. Finn	Oxford University Press, 2010	Theology MP110 FIN

Inspiration for new writing about Glasgow

This week Special Collections hosted a creative writing workshop led by Glasgow-based author Louise Welsh. As inspiration for those attending, we selected a number of items from our collections. These included a public notice warning of hydrophobic (‘rabid’) dogs, a map illustrating the fever epidemic of 1843 and eye-witness accounts of the ‘Glasgow Earthquake’ of 1910. For more ideas see our subject page about Glasgow.

Louise, who is writer in residence at the University and at the Glasgow School of Art, is currently working on an anthology of work by staff and students. Same City Different Maps will be published in May 2012 and submissions will be received until 31st January. The theme is The City of Glasgow. Submission guidelines: Up to 2000 words of prose / 3 poems / 3 pages of graphic novel (the working area (printing area) on the page for a graphic submission will be 188mm x 119mm portrait and mono print). Send to samecitydifferentmaps@gmail.com 

Robert Perry, Facts and observations on the sanitary state of Glasgow, 1844. Sp Coll Mu26-a.29

‘Time of One’s Own’: Leisure and Young People, 1960s

How did young Scots use their free time in 1964? Pearl Jephcott (1900-1980), a remarkable University of Glasgow researcher, tried to find some answers to this question in the mid-1960s.

Dancing class (DC127)

She interviewed 600 young people in the 15-19 age range in Armadale, Dennistoun and Drumpchapel and consulted another 2400 in discussion groups and through written work. The research period was October 1963 to June 1966.

Her extremely readable conclusions are a fascinating insight into the period. Her book: Time of One’s Own, Leisure and Young People was published for the University by Oliver and Boyd in 1967.

The previously unpublished images from the archive were rediscovered earlier this year by the sociologists Dr John Goodwin and Dr Henrietta O’Connor of the Univeristy of Leicester and we have since published a selection of these fabulous drawings and photographs on our Flickr page. Please do take a look!

Armadale Town Friday Night (DC127)

We would love to hear from anyone who was involved in the study in the 1960s – maybe as interviewers or interviewees, youth leaders, health visitors, artists, photographers or colleagues of Miss Jephcott. The story has been covered in the Sunday Post and the Scotsman, who used information from our press release, and the story was also covered on Radio Scotland Newsdrive last night. We hope that this will prompt some responses. Please get in touch!

Illustrated history of Glasgow’s Alhambra Theatre

A recent donation to the Scottish Theatre Archive, this fully illustrated volume documents the fascinating history of the Alhambra Theatre.

Sp Coll STA M.c.133

The Alhambra was designed by Sir John J. Burnet (1857-1938), a Scottish Edwardian architect who was noted for a number of prominent buildings in Glasgow and London. His firm designed the Empire Exhibition, 1938.

 The exterior was red brick banded with black panels of white glazed tiles topped with twin oriental domed lanterns. The foyer for stalls and circle patrons was a double height space with grand staircases on either side, recessed mirrors framed by columns at first floor height and a heavily panelled ceiling . The enormous auditorium was planned to accommodate 2,800 people.

With the latest system for flying scenery and a revolving stage the Alhambra could claim to be the best equipped theatre north of London.

The theatre opened on 9 December 1910 at 41 Waterloo Street, and until 1954  was owned by Glasgow Alhambra Ltd with Alfred Butt and R.H. Gillespie as managing directors. In 1954 the Alhambra was acquired by Howard and Wyndham.

The final show was a concert by Cilla Black on 24 May 1969 and the building was demolished in 1971.

You can find out more about the Alhambra Theatre  on the Scottish Theatre Archive Collection Description page.

Graeme Smith is an Honorary Research Fellow at Strathclyde University.  He is also author of The Theatre Royal : entertaining a nation Sp Coll STA M.c.130 

Images from the  Scottish Theatre Archive exhibition, currently on level 3,  are now available to view as a set on the Library’s Flickr page

Remembering Janey Buchan

It is with sadness that we learned of the death of former MEP Janey Buchan. Janey was a great friend to the Library, donating thousands of European Parliament documents during her tenure as MEP for Glasgow from 1979 to 1994.

The Library’s European collections were greatly enhanced by Janey’s generosity and I will remember with great fondness, my many visits to her Partickhill home to pick up documents. Janey was a warm, passionate and generous individual who will be much missed.

Kay Munro, College of Social Sciences Library Team

Cambridge Books Online Trial

The Library is participating in a 6 month trial of Cambridge Books Online, http://ebooks.cambridge.org/. This trial gives us access to 11,000 Cambridge University Press ebooks in many subject areas. Individual records are available for all available titles in QuickSearch.

You can access these titles directly on campus. Your GUID is required for off campus access. You can print, copy/paste and download to PCs, mobile devices and tablets.

Please pass any feedback regarding this trial to eresources@lib.gla.ac.uk

Visitor from Alburquerque researching Henry Darwin Rogers: Revisited

Back in August 2010 Dr Spencer Lucas, the Curator of Palaeontology and Geology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, visited us all the way from Albuquerque. He was researching the pioneering geologist Henry Darwin Rogers (1808-1866), who was Regius Professor of Natural History here at Glasgow University between 1858 and 1866. Dr Lucas was particularly interested to find out why Rogers, a US citizen, took this position in Glasgow.

Henry Darwin Rogers (GUAS ref: UP1/17/1)

Dr Spencer Lucas’ has now completed his research and he has published his article ‘Pennsylvania’s first Geologist: Henry Darwin Rogers’. The article covers the biographical history of Henry, his relationship with his famous brother William Barton Rogers, and the important discoveries and work they did in the field of geology. Lucas begins: ‘Geology made Pennsylvania what it is today’ and so the pioneer of geology in that region is certainly a very important figure to Pennsylvania. Not only this, but his research has left an important legacy, paving the way for further study in the subject.

You can read the article in the Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine Volume XXXVIII, Number 1, Winter 2012. We would like to congratulate Dr Spencer on his article and wish him every success with his further research.