I just completed a volunteer project to recatalogue the Signet Library’s collection of pamphlets and publications by the early eighteenth-century Edinburgh eccentric William Mitchel. Mitchel, self-styled as the ‘Tincklarian Doctor’ was a remarkable autodidact and self-publisher of some of the most extraordinary tracts, sermons and ephemera ever issued by an individual. They were available to…
My most recent last day of paid work was 26 November 2025 so I’ve been without employment for nearly three months. My most recent job was a seasonal post in visitor services so the end was not a surprise and, in fact, I had a contract extension for an extra month. So, no complaints. I…
The Signet Library’s Annual Online Exhibition for 2025 is now available. You can find it at “1890” and All That: Towards a New History of the WS Society. The Signet Library’s annual exhibitions showcase research projects, conservation, and digitisation work. I had the privilege of contributing to two sections of this year’s exhibition, the John…
Last year I started transcribing a set of letters written as the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 was brewing. (I still was ‘of the University of Glasgow’ then so that description is accurate in the text of the link that follows!) The advocate Charles Cockburn of Sandybed was the Deputy Keeper of the Signet at this…
This post is about something I forgot to mention here when it happened last year. I contributed to the WS Society’s online exhibition, The Great Affair is to Move: Travel and Topography at the Signet Library. This was originally going to be an in-person event in early spring 2020, but had to be cancelled as…
