The University of Aberdeen

Library, Special Collections
and Museums

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Collections

	George Washington Wilson Collection The George Washington Wilson and Co. photographic collection consists of over 37,000 glass plate negatives, produced by the Aberdeen firm between the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century... more
	Aberdeen Bestiary The Aberdeen Bestiary (MS 24) is considered to be one of the best examples of its type. The manuscript, written and illuminated in England around 1200, is of added interest since it contains notes, sketches and other evidence of the way it was designed and executed... more
	The Papers of Thomas Reid Thomas Reid (1710-96) is internationally known as the chief representative of the Scottish School of Common Sense. Appointed to a Regentship at King's College Aberdeen, his duties required him to teach a wide range of subjects, but his principle interest lay in philosophy... more
	Aberdeen Harbour Board Collection The Aberdeen Harbour Board Collection consists of about 6,000 glass plate negatives dating from the 1880s to the 1930s. They are mainly images of the harbour and surrounding area, but include some of Aberdeen city and further afield... more
	The MacBean Jacobite Collection The MacBean Stuart & Jacobite Collection is a resource of international importance. Some 3,500 books and 1,000 pamphlets cover every aspect of the Jacobite rebellions, the causes and effects, and the personalities, royal, national and local... more
	Frigg UK: 30 years on The Frigg UK collection at the University of Aberdeen contains over 1,500 individual items, including engineering drawings, technical manuals, operational records, staff magazines, photographs, and film and video footage... more
	'Lives in the Oil Industry' Oral History Project An oral history project which collected and preserved the first-hand experience of the North Sea Oil and Gas industry from people working in virtually every aspect of the oil and gas industry, conducted by the University of Aberdeen, in conjunction with the British Library. It contains nearly 200 interviews totalling over 700 hours of recordings... more
	In Memoriam This resource tells the stories of the soldiers and sons of Aberdeen, the Northeast, and farther afield who were involved in both world wars and did not survive to tell their own. It provides details of each soldier's name, rank, regiment, honours, date of birth, date of death, and burial along with a brief biography... more
	The Burnet Psalter Composed in the first half of the fifteenth century, The Burnet Psalter contains the categories of material common to psalters of the time: a calendar, devotions for personal use, the Psalter itself, and liturgies for personal use... more
	Photographs of Dr W. Clark Souter's Antarctic Trip 1903-1904 Dr William Clark Souter (1880-1959) was opthalmic surgeon to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and lecturer in opthalmology in Aberdeen University from c.1920 to 1946. He received the polar medal for his services as ship's surgeon on the Terra Nova relief expedition to the Antarctic... more
	The St Albans Psalter Project The St Albans Psalter, owned by St Godehard's Church in Hildesheim, Germany, is one of the finest examples of English Romanesque art. It is connected historically to Christina of Markyate, a hermitess living near St Albans Abbey, Hertfordshire, in the early 12th century... more
	University of Aberdeen Oral History Archive Begun in 1985 as part of the Aberdeen University Quincentenary Project, the interviews were originally intended to aid historians working on monographs commemorating the University's Quincentenary a decade later... more
	Research Resources in Medical History Special Collections received funding from the Wellcome Trust’s ‘Research Resources in Medical History’ scheme to catalogue our extensive early medical records, which date from the 15th to 19th centuries. Cataloguing of more than 100 collections was completed by early 2009... more
	The Music of James Scott Skinner James Scott Skinner (1843 – 1927) was a key figure in Scottish traditional music. He took the art of Scottish fiddle music to a new height through his playing and his compositions... more
	The Voice of Radicalism The Voice of Radicalism traces the changes in democratic rights in Northeast Scotland from 1800 to 1930. Materials include political articles from 19th and 20th century newspapers, prints, squibs, ephemera and song sheets... more
	The Sir Walter Scott Collection assembled by Bernard C. Lloyd The collection is generally understood to be one of the most comprehensive collections of Sir Walter Scott printed books ever assembled... more
	The Brown-Lindsay and Christ's College Pamphlet Collection The collection encompasses 300 years of the history of the dissenting Presbyterian Churches but also includes rarities reflecting wider religious issues... more
	Charting the Nation The Charting the Nation is a collaborative digital imaging and cataloguing project with the aim of widening access to the maps of Scotland... more

In all, the Special Collections Centre cares for over 200,000 printed volumes, dating from the 1460s to the present day. There are some 50 discrete printed collections, which fall into two main administrative groups: chronological and named.

Follow this link for details of all our Printed Collections.

Our major Chronological Collections are:

Inc: incunabula (i.e. books printed pre-1501)

π (pi): 1501 to 1600 (mainland European), to 1640 (English), or to 1780 (Scottish)

SB: all other pre-1841 material, and, additionally, scientific and medical material to 1860

SBL: books printed locally in Aberdeen to 1800

Lib R: other rarities from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, including topographical material to 1860.

There are, additionally, over 40 separate named collections. These cover a wide variety of academic subjects, and include major holdings on Jacobitism, railways and Sir Walter Scott.

Until the fusion of King's and Marischal Colleges in 1860 to form the University of Aberdeen, both hitherto independent institutions had their own students, their own teaching staff and, importantly, their own libraries. King's College was founded in 1495, and its library came into being shortly thereafter. Marischal College, founded in 1593, had to wait until 1614, when library accommodation was found for the first of a number of substantial seventeenth-century benefactions.

The University of Aberdeen’s older printed collections reflect the richness of these legacies from the two antecedent colleges, and several are now considered to be of international significance. Our older collections, enhanced by the donations, bequests and purchases of printed and archival material made especially since the mid-nineteenth century, enable the University to provide a set of resources of outstanding importance to scholarship and research.

Online Resources

Some of our collections are now available in digital format, for example The Drawn Sword: Engravings from the MacBean Collection. View our online collections.

A prayer of St Bridget, f28v from the Burnet Psalter, MS 25, early 15th century Special Collections is home to more than 5,000 collections of manuscripts and archives, dating from antiquity to the 21st century, and containing material in some 25 different languages.The University of Aberdeen is a 15th-century foundation, with King's College established in 1495, Marischal College in 1593, and the University formed in 1860 from their fusion. Collectively, their archives constitute a rich source for the history of higher education in Scotland and Europe, and illuminate the relationship between the University and the City and, indeed, the region.

It is one of only five institutions of higher education in the English-speaking world to have experienced fully the period from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment. This antiquity is reflected in the Archives which include: a fine collection of medieval and early modern manuscripts; outstanding 17th – 19th century collections relating to science, medicine, Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, and Jacobitism; as well as an important collection of oriental manuscripts, papyri and ostraca.

Moreover, until the 1970s, the University was the main repository for archival collections for the northern half of Scotland. As a result, it has acquired an unrivalled collection of written material relating to the history and culture of the North-East of Scotland. These diverse collections include the records of families, estates, churches, institutions and businesses, as well as the literary, academic and antiquarian papers of individuals. Additions continue to be made to collections where they complement the Archives collection policy.

Finding Aids and Catalogues
Collection and item-level descriptions may be viewed at the on-line catalogue. Please note though that not all catalogues are currently available on-line and some catalogues are only available for consultation in the Reading Room. Information on new accessions is sent annually to the National Register of Archives. Our full list of annual accessions is also available here.

Printed catalogues of our medieval manuscripts and collections of papyri and ostraca are also available. See:

M R James, Catalogue of the medieval manuscripts in the University Library, Aberdeen (Cambridge, 1932)
N R Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol.2 (Oxford, 1977)
E G Turner, Catalogue of Greek and Latin papyri and ostraca in the possession of the University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen University Studies, 116, 1939).

Many of the early records of King's and Marischal Colleges, along with lists of alumni and graduates, have been published. For information on the early archives see:

Fasti Aberdonenses: selections from the records of the University and King's College of Aberdeen, 1494–1854, ed. C Innes (Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1854)
Fasti academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis: selections from the records of Marischal College and University, 1593–1860, vol.1, ed. P J Anderson (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1889).

College officers and alumni are listed in:

Officers and graduates of University and King's College, Aberdeen, 1495–1860, ed. P J Anderson (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1893)
Roll of alumni in Arts of University and King's College of Aberdeen, 1596–1860, ed. P J Anderson (Aberdeen University Studies, 1, 1900)
Fasti academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis, vols. 2 and 3 (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1898)

After 1860 lists of graduating students only are published in:
Rolls of the graduates of the University of Aberdeen:

1860–1900, ed. W Johnston (Aberdeen University Studies, 18, 1906)
1900–1925, ed. T Watt (Aberdeen, 1936)
1926–1955, ed. J Mackintosh (Aberdeen, 1960)
1956–1970, ed. L Donald and W S MacDonald (Aberdeen, 1982)

Online Resources
Some of our collections are now available in digital format, e.g. The George Washington Wilson & Co. and Harbour Board Photographic Collections. To view our online collections, please see here.

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	The Sir Duncan Rice Library University of Aberdeen Bedford Road Aberdeen AB24 3AA Tel: +44 (0)1224 273330 Fax: +44 (0)1224 273956 Email: library@abdn.ac.uk

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The University of Aberdeen

King's College
Aberdeen
AB24 3FX

Tel: +44 (0)1224 272000

The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland No.SCO13683