Conference on printing connections

The Cen­tre for Print­ing His­to­ry & Cul­ture is has issued a call for papers From ‘Provin­cial’ to ‘Region­al’ A con­fer­ence in mem­o­ry of Peter Isaac and John Hinks to be held on 23–24 July at Win­ter­bourne House & Gar­den, Uni­ver­si­ty of Birm­ing­ham. The dead­line is 31 Jan­u­ary 2025. For more infor­ma­tion see the Cen­tre for […]

OTD 19 January 1757

Thomas Rud­di­man was born near Banff in 1674, son of a farmer, and was edu­cat­ed at the local gram­mar school and at Aberdeen Uni­ver­si­ty. After a peri­od as a pri­vate tutor, and as the school­mas­ter at Lau­rencekirk, he moved to Edin­burgh in 1700 to become the assis­tant librar­i­an at the Fac­ul­ty of Advo­cates. He was […]

OTD 15 January 1826

James Bal­lan­tyne found­ed his print­ing firm in Kel­so in 1796. Archibald Con­sta­ble, Scot­t’s pub­lish­er, com­mis­sioned Bal­lan­tyne to print his Min­strel­sy of the Scot­tish Bor­der, which led to the fir­m’s move to Edin­burgh in 1802. After set­ting up near Holy­rood, they moved to Foulis Close in the Canon­gate before set­tling in Paul’s Work, north back of […]

OTD 28 December 1804

On 28 Decem­ber 1804 Alexan­der Kei­th John­ston, of the Edin­burgh map-print­­ing firm, W & A K John­ston, was born.

OTD 27 December 1638

George Ander­son, the first print­er in the city, was admit­ted as Burgess and Guild Broth­er in Glas­gow on 27 Decem­ber 1638.

OTD 19 December 1904

On 19 Decem­ber 1904 the Scots­man and the Edin­burgh Evening Dis­patch moved from Cock­burn Street to new­ly built premis­es on North Bridge, now the Scots­man Hotel.

OTD 11 December 1862

Edward Clark, son of Robert Clark of the Edin­burgh print­ing firm R & R Clark, was born on 11 Decem­ber 1862. On his death in 1926, he left funds to sup­port the teach­ing of print­ing in Edin­burgh, includ­ing fund­ing a col­lec­tion of books for the use of the stu­dents. The Edward Clark Col­lec­tion is in […]

OTD 7 December 1749

Patrick Neill found­ed the com­pa­ny which was to become Neill & Co on 7 Decem­ber 1749 in Edin­burgh. It occu­pied premis­es in Old Fish­mar­ket Close off the High Street for many years.

OTD 6 December 1752

The Edin­burgh sta­tionery and print­ing firm of George Water­ston & Sons was estab­lished on 6 Decem­ber 1752. Orig­i­nal­ly seal­ing wax man­u­fac­tur­ers, the com­pa­ny soon moved into sta­tionery production .

OTD 23 November 1712

Andrew Foulis was born on 23 Novem­ber 1712. With his broth­er Robert, he found­ed the Foulis Press, print­er to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Glas­gow. The Foulis Press was known for the high qual­i­ty of the books it produced.