Robert Smail’s Printing Works opening 2024

The Nation­al Trust for Scot­land’s Robert Smail’s Print­ing Works opens for the sea­son on 29 March 2024. For full details of open­ing times and how to get there see the NTS website.

OTD 5 March 1822

The Soci­ety of Book­binders in Edin­burgh was formed in 1814, as a relief soci­ety for sick and unem­ployed mem­bers. On 5 March 1822 the name changed to the Union Soci­ety of Edin­burgh Jour­ney­man Book­binders. The Soci­ety con­tin­ued for 50 years, remain­ing inde­pen­dent of the Book­binders’ Con­sol­i­dat­ed Union until Sep­tem­ber 1872 when the two organ­i­sa­tions amalgamated […]

Unfinished business’: Print Networks 2024

This year’s Print Net­works con­fer­ence, Unfin­ished Busi­ness: Progress, Sta­sis and New Direc­tions in the study of the Book Trade since Peter Isaac, will be held at New­cas­tle Uni­ver­si­ty on 9–10 July 2024. Details of the call for papers are on the Cen­tre for Print­ing His­to­ry and Cul­ture web­site. Please sub­mit abstracts of 200–250 words by February […]

Printing Historical Society grants 2024

The Print­ing His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety is cur­rent­ly invit­ing appli­ca­tions for research grants under their annu­al grant scheme. The total amount avail­able this year is £3,000, and the dead­line for sub­mis­sions is Fri­day 22 March 2024. Eli­gi­bil­i­ty and appli­ca­tion details are on the Soci­ety’s Grants page.

OTD 25 January 1817

The first ever edi­tion of The Scots­man, or Edin­burgh Polit­i­cal and Lit­er­ary Jour­nal was pro­duced on Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 25 1817, from premis­es in Edin­burgh’s High Street. It was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished week­ly, and became a dai­ly news­pa­per in 1850. The pro­pri­etors announced that their ‘first desire is to be hon­est, the sec­ond is to be useful’.

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

Found­ed in Kel­so in 1796, James Bal­lan­tyne was found­ed 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, […]

Conference on printing by subscription

Book­ing is now open for Pre-paid Print­ing: a con­fer­ence organ­ised by the Baskerville Soci­ety on the role of pri­vate funds and pub­lic sub­scribers in the issu­ing and cir­cu­la­tion of print­ed mat­ter, to be held at Win­ter­bourne House and Gar­den at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Birm­ing­ham on Sep­tem­ber 14 and 15, 2023. For more details see the […]

Talk by Helen Williams

As part of the Nation­al Trust for Scot­land’s Glad­stone’s Land Lec­ture Series, the Trust’s Hon­orary Sec­re­tary, Helen S Williams will be giv­ing a talk on August 31 on Edin­burgh’s Print Work­ers and their Organ­i­sa­tions. Print­ers had a tra­di­tion of col­lec­tive organ­i­sa­tion: the typo­graph­i­cal soci­eties, which lat­er became the print unions, oper­at­ed as wel­fare organ­i­sa­tions for […]

Print Networks 2023

The annu­al Print Net­works / CPHC Sym­po­sium takes place in part­ner­ship with St Bride Library in Lon­don on 19 July 2023 The theme this year is ‘Print net­works between Lon­don and the regions, look­ing at looks at phys­i­cal and metaphor­i­cal book trade con­nec­tions between Lon­don and the regions from the ear­ly mod­ern to the present. […]