FIRST TO THE POLE? POLAR PUNCH-UP IN THE PRESS The magazine of the National Library of Scotland | www.nls.uk | Issue 14 Winter 2009 The Lyon in Mourning An insider’s account of the 1745 rebellion THE LIBRARY’S QUEST FOR SPACE THE FIGHT AGAINST VOTES FOR WOMEN GIANT ATLAS ARRIVES AT NLS A CELEBRATION OF SCOTLAND ON STAGE Scottish theatre and its international impact welcome Historic tales to treasure 18 P see , from shelf to stage chhead s the cliché says, the winter nights have well and z Lo I y L truly drawn in but there is plenty in this new issue B ff o A of Discover NLS to keep the cold from the door. We find out how the struggle to claim the North These are opped unique pieces Ch Pole was depicted in the postcards and cartoons of the time. Then closer to home, theatre critic Mark Fisher enjoys displayed in a sneak preview of the Library’s new exhibition, Curtain Up: a special space DISCOVER NLS Got Her Head S Issue 14 wInter 2009 40 Years of Scottish Theatre, taking in bold works from the CONTAcT Us heady 1970s right up to recent stage hit Black Watch. We welcome all comments, We also have the first in our new series of articles on questions, submissions and subscription enquiries. NLS treasures. These are unique pieces displayed in a Please write to us at the special space at the George IV Bridge building. In this Mary Queen of Scot National Library of Scotland F o address below or email issue we explore the first-hand history of the 1745 Jacobite N o [email protected] cti rising and the flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie as told by a u D FOR NLS o EDITOR-IN-CHIEF clergyman, Robert Forbes, in his Lyon in Mourning. pr S ’ Alexandra Miller Every item in the Library is a treasure to some degree, MANAGING EDITOR tland Julian Stone however, and that’s why we think carefully about how we o C Director of DEvElOpment S store them all, as well as how we can free up yet more space to F AND EXTERNAl RElATIONS o Teri Wishart contain our growing collections. I was given an insight into EDITORIAl ADvISER heatre Willis Pickard the challenge facing us as I discovered just how many miles of T space – and how much money – are saved using innovative nal CONTRIBUTORS o John Bowles, Mark Fisher, ati storage methods, as my article in this issue explains. N Chris Fleet, Clare Harris, he It is one of the satisfactions of being a member of the Board T Sally Harrower, Brian Hillyard, in Rab Jackson, Andrew Martin, ts of Trustees to learn of practical down-to-earth initiatives as o Cate Newton, Willis Pickard, C S Steve Scott, Chris Tabraham, well as the scholarship displayed by members of staff. F o Helen Vincent, Duncan Welsh, Paula Williams een y Qu EDITOR Jack Kibble-White ar [email protected] M Design Matthew Ball as Sub-editorS Anne willis pickard reer Boyle, Andrew Littlefield, Clare Harris member of the national Library of scotland’s Board of trustees Jo F publisher John Innes and [email protected] ADvERTISING Julie Twaddell BesT corPorate publication cUsTomer mAgAzine oF the yeAr abeth 0141 582 1280 z CorpComms Awards 2009 PPA Scotland Awards 2009 li E PUBLISHED By as y Think Scotland arc Woodside House D 20-23 Woodside Place Glasgow G3 7QF Three ways to interact with NlS online ngela 0141 582 1280 A ring ISSN 1751-5998 (print) u 1 2 3 ISSN 1751 6005 (online) feat , Twitter yoUTube tt national Library of scotland FAceBook o George IV Bridge Keep up to date twitter is the watch films from bl Edinburgh EH1 1EW with the Library, online social nLs’ scottish teLephone 0131 623 3700 and become our network service screen archive via chris y Fax 0131 623 3701 fan by adding your that allows users the Youtube B o email [email protected] own comments. to post brief news website. You can T o remember, you updates. rate your favourite ph The National Library of need to set up You can read reels and leave ver Scotland is a registered your own nLs tweets comments on o C Scottish charity. Scottish Facebook account on twitter at www.youtube. nt Charity No. SC011086 http://twitter. com/user/ o before you can fr www.nls.uk access us. com/natlibscot nLofscotland www.nls.uk Winter 2009 | discover nls | 3 CONTENTS 6 USING NLS Your guide on how to find your way around Controversy raged as the Library’s collections two teams lodged and services competing claims to 8 NEWS being first at the top The latest NLS news of the world and comment. In this issue: Library acquires Page 16 giant atlas, NLS wins awards, latest accessibility initiatives and upcoming events 16 FIRST AT THE NORTH POLE: COOK OR PEARY? The debate surrounding which explorer was first to the North Pole spilled out into a range of printed paraphernalia, as John Bowles illustrates 18 THEATRE IN THE SPOTLIGHT Curators Sally Harrower and Andrew Martin guide us through NLS’ new exhibition celebrating modern Scottish theatre 24 END OF A REBELLION The Library’s treasures display features Jacobites’ eyewitness accounts, as reported by church minister Robert Forbes 26 IN SEARCH OF SPACE Willis Pickard investigates how the Library manages to contain an unceasingly expanding collection of books, manuscripts and other objects Contributors to this issue include 28 MY NLS Historian Chris Tabraham on why the maps held in NLS’ collections mean so much to him 29 PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Rab Jackson on the Helen Vincent Clare Harris Rab Jackson Chris Fleet Library’s preservation A Senior Curator Clare writes on social Rab is NLS’ Chris is the Temporary and conservation work in the Rare affairs in Scotland Preservation & Map Collections Book Collections and beyond. She Conservation Manager at NLS and 30 LAST WORD Division, Helen has has contributed to a Manager and chairs a has been involved in Playwright and artist been researching range of newspapers national group on the Library’s digital ALAMY John Byrne women’s suffrage and magazines archival boxmaking mapping initiatives www.nls.uk Winter 2009 | DISCOVER NLS | 5 Using the National Inside Library of NLS With a collection of Scotland around 16 million printed items, two million maps, 32,000 films, three miles of manuscripts, plus thousands of photos and journals, getting around NLS requires a little navigation How to join utilities bill. Photos, for To use the Library’s reading identification purposes, can rooms and order up items be taken at Readers’ from the collections, you need Registration. The new to hold a Library Card. Visitor An application form can be Viewing Centre picked up at George IV Bridge or the Causewayside Building, material person, by telephone on request in advance of your or downloaded from www.nls. With a Library Card you 0131 623 3700, by email: visit to the Library. uk. To complete your gain access to the reading [email protected], or through application you will need proof rooms, from where you can the Library website at Online of identity (a driving licence, view material held in the www.nls.uk. If you know what NLS has a vast range of passport or matriculation card Library’s collections. Requests you’re looking for, we electronic resources, including are all valid) and a recent for items can be made in recommend you make your digital versions of reference Bibliography; Oxford Journals UK Periodicals - Part 2. Digital resources Online; Science Full Text Empire: Travel and Select; ✱ Standards Infobase Anthropology, Economics, From articles on sport to Parliamentary and Web of Knowledge. Missionary and Colonial; Papers, NLS’ licensed digital collections British and Irish Women’s Government Letters and Diaries; Celtic are a superb research tool Culture - A Historical and official Encyclopedia (via NetLibrary); Art and Reference Adviser; Factiva; A wealth of political InfoTrac - custom FAME - information on over information can be viewed newspapers featuring titles literature 2.4 million of the largest UK online, including 18th Century from around the world; John The Library’s digital and Irish companies; ✱ Frost Official Parliamentary Johnson Collection: an collections relating to art & Sullivan; ✱ Global Publications Portal 1688- archive of printed ephemera - and literature include Reference Solution; Hoovers; 1834; ✱ Early English Books Digitised images from the ✱ 19th Century UK Key Note Market Research; Online (EEBO); House of ephemera collection of the Periodicals Part 1. Women’s, product and services Commons Parliamentary Bodleian Library; ✱ Oxford Children’s, Humour and database Kompass Database; Papers; Public Information Dictionary of National Leisure/Sport; British Market Research Monitor and Online and ✱ Making of Biography (ODNB); India, Raj Literary Manuscripts Online Mintel Market. Modern Law - Legal Treatises & Empire; ✱ Sabin Americana, c.1660-1900; Naxos Music 1800-1926. 1500-1926; ✱ Making of the Library; Oxford Music Online; Education, Modern World; ✱ Times Perdita Manuscripts - Women science and History, Digital Archive; Waterloo Writers, 1500-1700; biography and Directory of English RILM Abstracts of Music social science Newspapers & Periodicals Literature; Scottish Women genealogy 1800-1900 which is a Poets of the Romantic Period Educational resources include bibliography of and SCRAN Digital Materials. ALPSP Learned Journals You can access publications, Collection; Blackwell ✱ 17th & 18th For more personal Business Compass Journals; Century Burney information: names, issuing NLS has a wide range of online Electronic Enlightenment; Collection; www.nls.uk/ bodies and resources for businesses, ✱ Environment Index; ✱ 19th Century collections/ subjects; and including Business Insights ✱ GreenFILE; JSTOR - a British Library digital/ ✱ Who’s Who (Reuters); ✱ COBRA-The collection of leading academic Newspapers; (and Who Complete Business journals; ✱ MLA International ✱ 19th Century resources Was Who).