Rare Books - News archive

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A new special collection: the Stevenson Collection

This collection has 619 items from the civil engineering firm of Robert Stevenson, which designed and built lighthouses for the Northern Lighthouse Board. From the 18th to the 20th centuries, successive generations of the Stevenson family constructed lighthouses, harbours, bridges, canals, roads and railways in Scotland and across the world.They were regular contributors to scientific journals and pioneered many innovations. Despite this, no patents were ever taken on any of their designs, as they believed their work to be for the benefit of all.

Robert Stevenson was born in Glasgow on 8 June 1772. He joined the office of his stepfather, Thomas Smith, engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board, and worked with him on the construction of several lights until his appointment as Sole Engineer in 1808. From the firm's offices in Edinburgh he practically inaugurated the Scottish lighthouse system. His greatest achievement was the Bell Rock tower, erected on a dangerous reef 12 miles east of Dundee. In 1814 Sir Walter Scott made his celebrated voyage round Scotland with Stevenson and the lighthouse commissioners. On 30 July he visited the Bell Rock, and inscribed some appreciative lines in the lighthouse album.

After this success Stevenson's place in Edinburgh society was assured, and he was called upon to help improve the links between the New Town and the Old. The result includes the building of Waterloo Place, Regent's Road and London Road. Stevenson died at Edinburgh on 12 July 1850, and was buried in the New Calton cemetery, close to one of the approaches to Edinburgh that he had designed.

Three of Robert Stevenson's sons would follow their father into engineering: Alan, David and Thomas. David's two sons, David and Charles, carried on the tradition into the twentieth century. The most famous member of the family was Thomas' son Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island. He began to train as an engineer but left the profession as his health and temperament were unsuited to the harsh apprenticeship. However his time spent on the island of Erraid during the construction of the Dubh Artach lighthouse would inspire him to use the location in his novel Kidnapped. Robert Louis Stevenson was proud of the family's achievements. Writing to his American publishers in 1886 he stated: 'My father ... two of my uncles, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather, have been engineers to the Scotch Lighthouse service; all the sea lights in Scotland are signed with our name ... I might write books till 1900 and not serve humanity so well'.

The collection was purchased along with the firm's manuscripts. (View Stevenson & Sons business records list in PDF: 40 pages) This supplements a group of some 2,500 plans, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly made by the Stevenson firm and presented to the Library in 1958. (Map material is held in the Map Library). The books are mostly 19th-century British, but there are some French and American imprints. The earliest item, concerning the rebuilding of the Eddystone Lighthouse, dates from around 1710. Many of the earlier items are inscribed by Robert Stevenson and his sons, there are several authors' presentation copies, and numerous works written by the Stevensons themselves.

This collection was acquired with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

The books have not yet been fully catalogued, but can be ordered for use in the North Reading Room using this list of titles arranged by shelfmark.

View Stevenson Collection list

Further reading

Bathurst, Bella. 'The lighthouse Stevensons'. London: HarperCollins, 1999. (Shelfmark: H3.99.3261)
Mair, Craig. 'A star for seamen'. London: John Murray, 1978. (Shelfmark: H4.78.5564)
Stevenson, Robert. 'Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse'. Edinburgh: A Constable, 1824. (Shelfmark: R.287.c)
Stevenson, Robert Louis. 'Records of a family of engineers'. London, 1912. (Shelfmark: F.5.e.23)
Scott, Walter, Sir. 'Voyage of the Pharos'. Hamilton: Scottish Library Association, 1998. (Shelfmark: HP2.98.7565)

New special collections available now

The Mercier Collection

The Mercier Collection is a fine collection of dramatic literature, produced by a man caught up in the most dramatic events of the eighteenth century. Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814) was an important figure in the French Revolution and the literature of the Enlightenment. This recent donation of 82 works by and relating to Mercier significantly enhances the Library's eighteenth-century French holdings. It will complement other important special collections we hold such as the Bute collection of early English plays and the Crawford collection of French revolutionary tracts. The Mercier collection includes some important early editions, many of which are attractively bound. Several of the plays contain handsome engravings, such as this scene on the right from Mercier's Jenneval ou le Barnevelt françois (Paris, 1769, Mercier.41)

Mercier started his literary career as a playwright and writer on the theory of drama, and used his writing to express radical political views. This led him into exile in Switzerland, and during the Terror he was fortunate to escape the guillotine. On the left is a scene from Mercier's 'Le déserteur' (Paris, 1770, Mercier.6), which suggests the awareness of violence with which Mercier lived and worked.

View list of Mercier Collection titles (PDF: 98.9KB; to view and print PDFs you need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader software.)

The Aitken Collection

The Aitken Collection greatly strengthens the Library's holdings of the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid. MacDiarmid, whose real name was Christopher Murray Grieve, fought to revive Scots as a vigorous literary language, and in doing so became the foremost Scottish poet of the 20th century. His major works, such as 'A drunk man looks at the thistle', have international importance in modern literature. This donated collection was formed by William Russell Aitken (1913-1998), MacDiarmid's friend, editor and literary agent. Aitken produced a comprehensive bibliography of the works of MacDiarmid, and edited, with Michael Grieve, the 'Complete Poems', published in 1978. Aitken and MacDiarmid are pictured together here.

The Aitken Collection contains some 125 items, particularly editions of MacDiarmid's poetry, many of them in their original dustjackets and inscribed by the poet to his friend. There is also a quantity of extremely rare MacDiarmid ephemera, including photographs, posters, political manifestos and cards. Many books have been annotated and corrected by Aitken. Along with Aitken's manuscript collection, donated at the same time, this represents one of the fullest and most interesting sources for the study of MacDiarmid. The National Library of Scotland gives a high priority to the collection of literary writing by modern Scottish writers, both in print and in manuscript, in the original Scots or English or in translation.

View list of Aitken Collection titles. (PDF: 86.9KB)

Ordering from the collections: These two new collections are now available for readers. Although the books have not yet been fully catalogued, and so do not all appear on the Library's main catalogue, the list of titles for each collection, arranged by shelfmark, can be used to order material. Please note that the collections will be undergoing conservation work in the near future, and some individual items may not be available when you first request them: we will provide the books as soon as possible.

The Moir Rare Book Collection

A private reception was held on Friday 22 November 2002 to mark the long-term deposit at the National Library of Scotland of 233 volumes owned by the Scottish Beekeepers' Association. It is one of the very finest collections of rare beekeeping books in the world, including items published as far back as 1525. A selection of items displayed at this reception is available for viewing.

Esperanto Collections

William Auld, one of the world's leading writers and translators of Esperanto, built up a major library of books in and relating to this international language at his Scottish home. He has generously donated his books to the National Library of Scotland, where they will constitute an important new special collection.
View some images relating to the collection.

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