The annual St Bride Foundation Wayzegoose will take place on Sunday 27th April 2025, from 11:00 — 16:00. Explore numerous stalls selling letterpress supplies, type and ornaments, paper, printed items, second-hand books and type specimens and there will of course be cake! For more details see the St Bride Foundation website.
OTD 5 March 1822
5 March 2025 by
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 […]
OTD 28 February 1803
28 February 2025 by
Memorial of the Edinburgh Compositors to the Court of Session. This was a request from the compositors of Edinburgh that they be allowed to convene a meeting: the Combination Acts were in force at the time, preventing workmen from acting together to improve their conditions. Permission was granted and a request for an increase in […]
Association of European Printing Museums conference, September 2025
5 February 2025 by
The Centre for Printing History & Culture and Winterbourne House, University of Birmingham, will be hosting the Association of European Printing Museums annual conference 3–5 September 2025. They invite proposals investigating the relationship between printing history and the heritage sites that are custodians of the material evidence of print (deadline 31 March 2025). For more […]
OTD 25 January 1817
25 January 2025 by
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 22 January 1935
22 January 2025 by
The Edward Clark Wing of Heriot-Watt College was officially opened by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir Godfrey Collins (of the Glasgow printing firm) on 22 January 1935. It had been newly refurbished with up-to-date equipment for training apprentice printers under the terms of Edward Clark’s will.
Conference on printing connections
21 January 2025 by
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
19 January 2025 by
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
15 January 2025 by
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
28 December 2024 by
On 28 December 1804 Alexander Keith Johnston, of the Edinburgh map-printing firm, W & A K Johnston, was born.
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