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Dicks Standard Plays no. 532 ‘The night of all the witches’
Hallow-e’een. [Shortened from All-hallow-even].
The eve of All-Hallows or All-Saints, the last night of October. In the old Celtic Calendar the year began on 1st November, so that the evening of October was ‘old-year’s night’, the night of all the witches, which the Church transformed into the ‘Eve of all Saints’... more

The Quatercentenary celebrations, 1906
100 years ago, on the 27th of September 1906, the City of Aberdeen welcomed King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to open the new buildings at Marischal College, amidst some of the most extravagant celebrations and expressions of civic pride ever demonstrated in Aberdeen... more

William MacGillivray. ABDUA 30780William MacGillivray
William MacGillivray, (1796 – 1852), was a former Professor at Marischal College, as well as one of the 19th century’s most outstanding ornithologists and natural historians.
Although a native of Aberdeen, MacGillivray spent his early childhood on Harris.  He returned to the City to continue his education and graduated MA from King’s College in 1815... more
Aberdeenshire and the Moray FirthHappy Holidays!
Holidays in Scotland by rail in the first half of the twentieth century illustrated by material from the O’Dell Transport Collection. On the early death in 1966 of Andrew O’Dell, Professor of Geography in the University from 1951, his private collection of transport material came to the University Library... more
Yokel Hero (2006), ACC 19985 Years of Student Show
The annual Student Show is an integral part of the Aberdeen Students’ Charities Campaign, helping to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for local charities. Written, produced and performed by students from all of the higher educational institutions in Aberdeen, it is the only show of its kind in the UK, and regularly performs to large audiences during its residence at His Majesty’s Theatre in April each year... more
Portrait of General Thomas Gordon, 5th Laird of CairnessThomas Gordon of Cairness
The philhellene, Major-General Thomas Gordon of Cairness and Buthlaw, (1788–1841), had a colourful career as a continental soldier and, subsequently, as a historian of great repute.
Following schooling at Eton and Oxford, Gordon embarked on a military career and served in British, Russian and Hanoverian armies... more
Detail from: L. M. Budgen, Episodes of Insect Life. 3rd ser.Bound to Sell: Victorian Commercial Book-Bindings
By the 1840s, publishers routinely used cloth for the covers of those works that they decided to sell in an already bound state.
Many factors had led to this development, which took place against a growing market for reading matter, and a tendency towards the production of larger edition sizes... more
Image: detail from cover of 'Your Baby Comes Home'.‘Bringing up Baby’
Public health information lectures and publications from the papers of Mary Esslemont (1891-1987), CBE (MS 3179).
Mary Esslemont is one of Aberdeen’s most highly regarded medical figures. A strong advocate of women’s rights, health education and family planning, her work touched the lives of most families living in the city during the middle years of the twentieth century... more
Image: T.F. Powys, Goat Green, or The Better Gift Waltham St Lawrence: Golden Cockerel P., 1937. Engraving by Gwenda Morgan.The Chapman Collection
John B. Chapman (1875 – 1949) graduated from Aberdeen University in 1897, and subsequently made his career at County Hall, London, as HM Inspector of Schools.
His circle of friends encompassed the leading British literary figures of the first three decades of the twentieth century. These authors frequently presented Chapman with copies of their works... more

Detail of image 'October' from Almanack 1929: with Twelve Designs Engraved on Wood by Eric Ravilious (London, 1929)The Watt Collection
In 1991, Dr Harold Watt (1921-2003) presented to Aberdeen University a substantial proportion of his collection of books on typographical design, illustration and printing practices.
Dr Watt graduated in classics from Aberdeen University in 1942. After service in the RAF, he studied at the London School of Printing, 1946-47, and became joint managing director of Aberdeen University Press Ltd in 1948 – a post previously occupied by his father, Theodore. In 1958, Dr Watt became (sole) Managing Director... more

 





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