Children's books in the National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland has substantial holdings of children's books, acquired by purchase, donation and in the main through legal deposit.

The Library's holdings of early Scottish children's books, mainly primers and catechisms, for the period prior to the introduction of copyright legislation is somewhat patchy.

First book printed in Scotland for children

The first book for children printed in Scotland was possibly a grace book — a small first reading book which included the graces, to be used before and after meals, and the Ten Commandments.

This was mentioned in an ordinance issued by the Town Council of the Burgh of Edinburgh in January 1519. Unfortunately there is no trace of this publication.

Early books for children

A small number of early books for children did come into the possession of the Advocates Library, the forerunner to the National Library, founded in 1689.

These include 'Parvus catechismus', attributed to Robert Pont, which was printed in St Andrews in 1573, and Jean Despautère's 'Grammar' [National Library shelfmark: H.1.d.26] — no less than seven editions of which were published in Scotland between 1579 and 1684.

Aesop's fables in Scots

A unique and fascinating item is that by the Dunfermline poet and schoolmaster Robert Henryson — 'The morall fabillis of Esope', printed in Edinburgh in 1571. This is a translation into 'Scottis meter' of 'Aesop's fables' [Shelfmark: F.5.b.480]. The fables are set in an unusual French 'civilité' type, while the morals are in roman type.

The Lauriston Castle Collection of 11,000 items includes over 5,500 mainly Scottish chapbooks.

This collection was built up by John Fairley who was an assiduous collector of chapbooks and print ephemera. He was a family friend of an Edinburgh businessman William Robert Reid, and these chapbooks were incorporated into the bequest of the Reid family and received by the newly established National Library in 1926.

The School Prize Collection, which comprises over 650 books, originated in a small group of school prize books presented by Ian Grant of John Grant, Booksellers, of Edinburgh in 1964. It has since been built up by donation and purchase.

The schools were mainly, though not exclusively, Scottish and the books were awarded as prizes from 1775 to 1956. Most of the books were given as prizes in the late 19th century: authors such as Henty, Ballantyne, Scott, Oliphant and Stevenson feature prominently.

There are biographies of Scottish role-models — such as David Livingstone, Mungo Park, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the missionary Robert Moffat — and works in French and Latin for the more studious.

For the bibliographer as well as the children's book historian there is much of interest in this collection, including book bindings, with bookseller's labels, binder's tickets and colour bookplates much in evidence.

One book in particular to mention is 'A father's legacy to his daughters' [Shelfmark: SP.508], published in Worcester, Massachusetts, probably in 1795.

The author, John Gregory, studied in Edinburgh and Leyden, practised medicine in Aberdeen and in 1766 was appointed physician to the King (George III) in Scotland. The only other copy of this book traced belongs to the American Antiquarian Society. This book was presented to one Eliza Williamson, a pupil of Elizabeth Town Academy, in the US in 1802.

The Library also holds the Oliver & Boyd Collection. This consists of the file copies of the publications of this prominent Edinburgh publisher, deposited in 1978 at the same time as the first portion of their publishing records came to the Library's Manuscript Collections division.

There are over 2,000 items, mainly school textbooks from the 20th century.

Introduction

The largest collection of children's books held is the Eudo Mason Collection.

Eudo Mason (1901-1969), born in Colchester, was for many years Professor of German at the University of Edinburgh. He wrote extensively on Rainer Maria Rilke and German Romantic literature and was awarded the Goethe Institut's highest award, their gold medal, in 1967.

Mason was clearly knowledgeable about children's books. Many of the items in his collection have slips pasted in with notes about the illustrators, authors or publishers and references to the catalogue of the Osborne Collection in Toronto and the Gumuchian sale catalogue. It also includes his own set of secondary sources, including booksellers' and auction catalogues.

The collection was presented to the Library by his executors in 1969. It consists of over 3,600 items in English, French and German, primarily from the 19th century, and reflects the reading material of children during the period when the market for children's literature mushroomed.

Not only does it contain books, but there are also jigsaw puzzles, scrapbooks, card games, Christmas cards, a peep show and a toy theatre.

All of the major names in the children's book world in Britain from the late 18th to the mid-20th century are represented:

• The publishers Marshall, Darton, Harris, Dean and Warne and the Religious Tract Society
• The writers of moral tales — Mrs Ewing, Mrs Tytler, Mrs Sherwood.

There are chapbooks, toy books and annuals and there are some books which are of considerable interest and which are the only recorded copies.

These include 'Cendrillon', published by Benjamin Tabart around 1804, and the 1790 Edinburgh edition of 'Description of above three hundred animals' [Shelfmark: Mas.173] by Thomas Boreman, who is regarded as the first publisher and bookseller for children.

European children's books

Perhaps reflecting Mason's interest in continental literature, there is also a representative sample of French, Dutch and in particular German children's books.

Again the key names feature:

• Wilhelm Busch
• Ludwig Richter
• Oskar Pletsch
• Lothar Meggendorfer
• The Brothers Grimm
• Jean de la Fontaine
• Imagerie d'Epinal
• Münchener Bilderbogen.

An examination of the collection suggests that Professor Mason was interested in two areas — cheap or popular printing and illustrations.

There is a considerable amount of non-book material in the Mason collection.

Open a box and you will come across single loose illustrations (origin unknown):

• Part issues of 'Little Dorrit' in the original blue wrappers
• Chapbooks mixed in with board games, such as 'The hare and the tortoise' (Mas.1055), published by William Spooner in London in 1849
• A battledore published by Rusher of Banbury [Shelfmark: Mas.1046(33)]
• Card games.

From Germany comes 'Richter's anchor box' (1880) [Shelfmark: Mas.1060(23)] — a set of building blocks, moulded from a type of cement and made in three colours and various shapes which could easily be built into architectural forms.

More educational works contained throughout the collection include a couple of hornbooks [Shelfmark: Mas.1060(6-7)], and the massive Adams 'illustrated panorama of history' published by A H Walker in New York in 1878, which is over 20 feet long.

There is a shelf-full of scrapbooks apparently containing random illustrations pasted in. However on closer inspection there is some fascinating ephemeral material waiting to be discovered and evaluated.

There are a number of examples of children's pictorial sheets [Shelfmark: Mas.1072], known popularly as 'lotteries' or 'dabbities', dating from the very early 19th century.

Apparently they were produced by chapbook publishers such as James Lumsden of Glasgow. They were available plain or coloured and were used in a children's game.

The pictures were cut out and placed separately between the pages of a book. Tickets were then sold to the child's playmates and the lottery drawn by opening the book at the page corresponding to the number on the ticket.

The Library continues to acquire children's books. The criteria we apply for acquiring them is the same as for other material.

We actively purchase children's books by Scottish authors, illustrated or bound by Scots or with Scottish imprints or stories with a Scottish setting.