Printing is one of Scotland’s oldest and most important industries. The printing of books, newspapers and periodicals were mainly based in the largest centres, alongside other sectors such as banknotes, posters, stationery production, labels, packaging, all kinds of ephemera, and other aspects of the trade including binding. In the 19th century Scotland not only exported printed sheets and bound books to the rest of the UK and throughout the world, but also became an important supplier of machinery, type, ink and paper to the trade.
The printing industry is also a story of local businesses. In the nineteenth century, most local newspapers were printed by small local firms such as Robert Smail’s Printing Works and Stationery Shop in Innerleithen, now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.
You can explore our resources on the local history of printing through the links below.
You can also explore local printing throughout Scotland through the Spread of Printing in Scotland we feature. If you are trying to trace an individual who was active in the printing and allied trades before 1850, you can search for them in the Scottish Book Trade Index.
Companies often produced printed brochures or company histories to mark important points in their history. Some of these have been scanned with the help of students in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders: if you have any information about current copyright holders for any of these items, please contact us.
Aberdeen
Aberdeen University Press: Dr Iain Beavan’s article from the Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society; a list of the archival sources in Aberdeen University Library’s Special Collections; background to the relaunched AUP in 2014.
Arthur King: memoirs of an apprentice [PDF 9.4Mb]
You can download our history of printing in Aberdeen & the Northern Counties.
Central Counties
Robert Cunningham and Sons, Alva, 40th Anniversary [PDF 3.5Mb] and 50th Anniversary booklets [PDF 5Mb]
Dundee
Harley and Cox: printers & ataioners, produced their centenary history in 1968. [PDF 4.3Mb]
Valentine: best known as postcard printer, information about the company archive is online.
You can download our history of printing in Dundee and Perth.
Edinburgh
John Bartholomew & Son Ltd: George Bartholomew was apprenticed to the engraver Daniel Lizars in the 18th century, and later founded his own firm. Other members of the family followed in his footsteps and by the mid 19th century the firm was printing engrve and lithographed maps. In 1911 they moved to the ‘Geographical Institute’ in Duncan Street in Newington, which they occupied for most of the 20th century. Their archive is now in the National Library of Scotland.
W & R Chambers: The brothers William & Robert Chambers started out selling second-hand books in 181, after which William taught himself to print, producing tickets and other small jobs. The Chambers Edinburgh Jounral was founded in 1832, by which time the printing office was in the Old Town, with a shop on the High Street. The works eventually filled the area between Warriston’s Close where there is a doorway with the initials RC & WC, dated 1851, and Advocates Close, where there is another doorway, marked WC 1881 with the motto ‘He that tholes overcomes’. William Chambers’ Memoir is available online.
R & R Clark: R & R Clark was one of the biggest firms of book printers, but did not usually take responsibility for publishing, and therefore the bulk of its output was for publishers such as Macmillan. When Edward, son of the founder of the firm, Robert Clark, died in 1926, he left a number of legacies, including funding for teching apprentices, and the formation of a library for their use: this is the Edward Clark Collection, now housed at Edinburgh Napier University’s Merchiston campus. There is a short history of R & R Clark, printers, dating from their centenary in 1946. There is also an account of the social life of the firm on YouTube.
T & A Constable: a history of the firm was produced in 1937.
W & A K Johnston: the firm was founded in the 1820s, and produced a company history, 100 years of map making, to mark the centenary.
McLagan & Cumming: the British Printer published an account of a visit to the McLagan & Ciumming works at Warriston. The company was orignally established in 1872 in Carruber’s Close off the High Street, moving to Warriston in 1891. The building is now the Lady Haig Poppy Factory.
Morrison & Gibb: a short history of the firm
Neill & Co: The original partnership from which Neill & Co descended was establised in the mid-18th century. By the end of the 19th century the firm specialised in medical and law printing, as well as having a high proportion of government printing. From 1771 to 1898 the works, which included a typefoundry, were on the east side of Old Fishmarket Close just off Edinburgh’s High Street. The Neill family retained control of the firm for some time, but in 1828, Patrick Neill, grandson of the founder, took the firm’s manager, William Fraser into partnership. William Fraser was notable for his introduction to Edinburgh of large printing machines, and his support for the Edinburgh Compositors Friendly Society. By 1851, his sons Alexander Neill Fraser and Patrick Neill Fraser had taken over control of the firm, on the deaths of both their father and Patrick Neill. Alexander Neill Fraser (1830-1909) originally trained as a civil engineer but was diverted into the printing firm by the death of an older brother. According to the firm’s official history, he applied his training and ‘knowledge of mechanics’ to speeding up the process of setting type by hand, and patented machines for typesetting and distributing used type. 
These machines predated the better-known Monotype and Linotype machines by 20 years, and were used for some time in Neill’s own printing works, as well as being marketed to other users. Although they had long been superseded by the more sophisticated technology of the Monotype in particular, an order for two machines was received at Neill’s in 1948. The company moved to the Bellevue works at Canonmills in 1898. This factory was destroyed by fire in 1916, at which point Neill’s moved to the vacant printing works (formerly James Ballantyne’s) on Causewaysite. The company bought the Riverside Printing Co in 1935, and remained in business at Causewayside until 1973.
Thomas Nelson & Sons: the company was established in 1789 as a second-hand booksellers in Edinburgh’s Old Town. One of the sons of the founder, Thoams Nelson II, invented a rotary press that was exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851: it is now on display at the Museum of Scotland. The company archive is held at the University of Edinburgh.
Waddies: a ‘pocket brochure’ illustrating the range of work undertaken, probably from the mid-20th century.
You can download our history of printing in Edinburgh.
Fife
Allen Lithographic Company Ltd of Kirkcaldy: in 1959 the company produced a history Our Progress in Print [PDF 18.9Mb]
The Fifeshire Advertiser: website on the history of Kirkcaldy’s first newspaper
Glasgow
Aird & Coghill: Andrew Aird, of Aird & Coghill, wrote his Reminiscences in the 1890s.
Blackie & Son: Agnes Blackie wrote a history of the firm to mark its 150th anniversary.
William Collins: now part of HarperCollins, information is available about the company archive and a timeline.
John Cossar & Son: there is information about the firm on the page about the Crieff Cossar printing machine.
Glasgow Herald: the newspaper was originally established in 1783 as the Glasgow Advertiser, and is the UK’s oldest newspaper. A record of the celebrations marking its centenary year was published and in the 1890s Alexander Sinclair wrote his reminiscences of Fifty years of newspaper life.
Robert MacLehose & Co: printer to the University of Glasgow who now hold the company archive.
You can download the text of our history of printing in Glasgow.
Perth
Morisons: well-known 18th century publishers & printers feature in R H Carnie’s History of printing in Perth before 1807, available on the Abertay Historical Society’s website.
You can download our history of printing in Dundee and Perth.
Scottish Borders
Robert Smail’s Printing Works, Innerleithen: now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, there is a history of the works, as well as some information about the substantial archive which has survived.
John McQueen & Son, Galashiels: there is a short history of the company. on the McQueen Targets website.
Neidpath Press, Peebles: an outline of their history.
