Collection: University of Edinburgh Collections

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Collections of the University of Edinburgh have evolved over 400 years of collecting.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Musical Instrument Museums Edinburgh (formerly the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, EUCHMI)

  Musical Instrument Museums Edinburgh (MIMEd) is based at St Cecilia’s Hall and the Reid Concert Hall, with the research collection accessed from the CRC, Main Library. MIMEd houses one of the largest and most important collections of musical instruments in the world, including the Shackleton Bequest of woodwind instruments as well as early keyboards from the Raymond Russell Collection and Mirrey Collection. The Collection is open to the public at both St Cecilia’s Hall and the Reid Concert Hall. Staff are involved in University teaching (at undergraduate and postgraduate level) through the Reid School of Music, public outreach (for all age groups) and facilitating visits from an international audience of specialist researchers, academics and musicians. Highlights include harpsichords by the Ruckers family and Taskin, a recorder and violins from the mid-16^th century by the Bassano family, and the gong used for the recording of the Rank film opening credits.

  Art Collection

  The purpose of the Art Collection at the University of Edinburgh is to collect, interpret and make accessible works of art for teaching, research and exhibition, whilst also increasing the enjoyment and enrichment of the University environment for the University community and general public. The University holds around 8,000 works of art in its collections. The Art Collection is notable for its emphasis on Dutch and Flemish art of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Scottish portraits, and modern Scottish art. A significant addition to the collection is around 2,000 works from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), which merged with The University of Edinburgh in 2012. This strand of the Art Collection contains a unique insight to art education in the 20^th Century and comprises works by some of the most respected names in Scottish art, such as John Bellany, Anne Redpath and S.J. Peploe, as well as the addition of the highly regarded ECA Cast Collection.

  Cockburn Museum of Geology

  Originally defined in 1873 as ‘a museum for the teaching of geology’, the Collections are made up of objects which reflect the entire geological spectrum. Over 130,000 specimens including rocks, minerals, ores, fossils, historical documents, manuscripts and samples (e.g. the Hall collection of early experimental material), maps (geological and topographic), photographs and computer data. The collection is derived from global sources, with an emphasis on Scotland and the British Isles but not to the extent of excluding material from elsewhere. Mantle nodule material, for example, mainly comes from South Africa, Siberia and Brazil. The collection covers the time period from 1790 to the present in terms of the historical documents and maps, but covers the whole time period of Earth history in the case of the geological specimens.

  Natural History Collections

  The Natural History Collections contain several thousands of zoological specimens which are still housed in those areas of the Ashworth Laboratories originally created for them by Sir Robert Lorimer. Their national importance rests in part on the fact that they remain one of the few University Natural History Collections which are still largely intact with respect to the invertebrate material and much vertebrate skeletal material. The Collections form an integral part of the teaching of biological sciences in the University, as well as being open to view by the general public.

  Anatomical Collections

  The Anatomy Department has possessed a museum displaying aspects of human and animal structures since the 18^th century. Housed since 1884 in the north wing of the present Department, which is located in the Medical School, it originally occupied all 3 floors but is now restricted to the top floor only plus a small annexe on the first floor which contains a large collection of human skulls. This Museum in its original form displayed one of the finest collections of vertebrate material in this country and contained the premier collection of cetacea outside the British Museum. This cetacean material has now mostly been transferred to the National Museums of Scotland where it is presently stored.

  The Museum, now reduced in size, is used as the Anatomy Resource Centre and currently displays artefacts such as potted specimens which are used for the teaching of anatomy, while providing a valuable study and research area. It also has small historical displays of anatomical dissections, microtomes and microscopes.

  Chemistry Collection

  The School of Chemistry Collection contains equipment, archives, photographs, molecular models, crystals and other specimens, on display in the Museum and in cases in corridors. The collection is used for teaching and learning purposes and for outreach. Highlights from the Chemistry Collection include Crum Brown’s model of Sodium Chloride and an autographed reprint of Mendeleeff’s Periodic Table from 1879.

  Classics Collections

  The Classics Department is home to a teaching collection of Greek and Roman pottery, a gallery of casts, and a large collection of photographic slides which are used to illustrate its teaching in Classical Art and Archaeology.

  Polish School of Medicine Historical Collection

  The Collection contains many medals with relevance to the history of medicine, wartime memorabilia, artefacts and books about the Polish School of Medicine, written in Polish and English. Some of the medals commemorate well-known Poles who had Edinburgh and/or University connections, like the pianist and composer Fryderyk Chopin who stayed in Warriston Crescent in Edinburgh and the physicist and chemist Marie (Sklodowska) Curie who was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Edinburgh. There are a number of striking sculptures which are the work of the last Dean of the Polish School of Medicine, Professor Rostowski, and a number of bronze busts. The paintings in the Collection include a delightful small oil entitled ‘Warsaw Panorama – view from the Vistula’ by Josef Mlynarski. There are a number of other photographs, copper plaques and prints of varying artistic merit in the Collection. Other prints and photographs highlighting the story of the Polish School of Medicine and historical links between Scotland, Edinburgh and Poland were cut out from some of the books and framed. Ceramics, vases and other artefacts comprise a small part of the Collection.

  Museum Heritage Collection

  In January 2004, University Collections Advisory Committee recognised the need to conduct an audit of the University’s collections not in the formal sense of its museums and well-defined collections, but the numerous cultural items in offices, meeting rooms, corridors and laboratories across the University. The resulting Audit is a database of the distributed collection of the University. This information allows the University to make informed decisions about the care, conservation and insurance of its distributed collection. This collection does not include the historic silver, robes or furniture in the University, though a watching brief is maintained by appropriate curatorial staff. Museums staff are also gradually taking responsibility for objects of material culture which originally came into the University Archives e.g. certain medals, prints, costume and textiles.

  Archives

  Our Archives collections comprise both those created by the University itself and those we have acquired from external sources. They represent a rich record of human activity covering many disciplines, locations and periods.

  • University Archives: The largest single section within our archives collections, these are the records of the University of Edinburgh since it began as the ‘Tounis College’ in the late 16th century.
  • Merged Institutions Archives: Through the course of its history, the University has merged with a number of other institutions, all of which have their own distinct archives: Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Moray House Institute of Education, Edinburgh College of Art.
  • Personal papers and business records: Acquired from external sources, these collections include personal papers, the records of businesses, literary manuscripts and more.
  • Lothian Health Services Archive: LHSA is one of the leading National Health Service archives. The holdings comprise the historically important records of NHS Lothian hospitals and other health-related organisations, and have been managed by the University since 1980.

  Rare Books and Manuscripts

  Our earliest printed book is a commentary on the Chinese Yi Ching, printed in 1440. Our earliest Western printed book, produced using moveable metal type, is St. Augustine’s De civitate Dei, printed in about 1468. We have about 300 incunabula (books printed before 1501), many with important provenances and annotations. Early Scottish books are well represented, including the world’s finest surviving copy of the Aberdeen Breviary, the first substantial book produced in Scotland in 1509-1510. The collection is particularly strong in holdings of works relating to the European Reformation, such as the unique copy of Michael Servetus’ Christianismi restitutio (1553) formerly owned and annotated by John Calvin, who had Servetus burned. We also have the only copy in Scotland of the first book printed in Gaelic, John Knox’s liturgy of 1567.

  Edinburgh University Library came into being in 1580 when Clement Litill bequeathed his collection to the new college. Major donations followed including the library of the poet William Drummond in 1626. Early individual donations include a unique copy of one of the first books printed in America, John Eliot’s Indian Primer (1669). The Copyright Act of 1710 gave the library the right to claim a copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland, a right which was maintained until 1837, and which enabled us to build up the bulk of the early modern British collections. There are over 15,000 pre-1801 British or English language books listed on the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) as being in Edinburgh University Library. During the 19th and 20th centuries, we acquired some major collections such as the library of J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps with its Shakespeare quartos. More modern special collections books include poetry pamphlets (the Ramage collection) and translations of the novels of Alexander McCall Smith. We now have over 400,000 rare books and acquire up to 20,000 new items every year.

  We have books on almost every topic and in a range of languages, but we have a number of named special collections which give particular depth to certain areas. Modern literature and poetry is particularly-well represented, with the libraries of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Hugh MacDiarmid and Norman MacCaig, plus the W.H. Auden collection and the Corson Collection of works by and about Sir Walter Scott. The Scottish enlightenment can be studied through the libraries of Adam Smith and Dugald Stewart. Medical, veterinary and scientific books are found in the collections from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. There are extensive collections of printed music including the library of Donald Francis Tovey. The history of Edinburgh University is another key area, and we have archive copies of Edinburgh University Press books.

  • Printed named special collections: We have over 60 named special collections, which are normally kept together with unique shelfmarks. Pre-1900 printed books: All books printed before 1900 in the Main Library are formally the responsibility of Special Collections and processes are being developed to transfer them from general stock.
  • Western medieval manuscripts: Rare Books and Manuscripts maintains this collection of some 275 manuscripts, including books of hours.
  • Oriental manuscripts: Rare Books and Manuscripts maintains this collection of some 700 manuscripts, mainly Islamic.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2020

  Licence: CC BY-NC