Collection overview: Posters

The poster collection at the National Library of Scotland is more than a record of Scotland's ephemeral history. It captures how artists, organisations, political parties, and communities have chosen to present ideas, events, and identities to the public.

Posters are both information sources and artworks, providing endless opportunities for inspiration, research, and the formation of broader social and cultural connections. They are visual artefacts created to attract attention and communicate quickly, reflecting changing artistic styles, cultural priorities, and social concerns across the decades.

Spanning a range of disciplines, subjects, and artistic styles, our collection memorialises Scotland's rich social history. Whether you're a researcher, practitioner or curious visitor, the posters offer accessible and memorable points of connection.

In this overview of the collection, we explain what you can expect to find in it, how it came to be, and why it holds so much historical and cultural significance.

The posters in the Library's collection covers wide-ranging subjects, including:

• TV and film,

• Theatre,

• Music advertisements,

• Political propaganda,

• Public information announcements,

• Agricultural and health information,

• Hand-drawn rave and community event promotion.

The collection primarily covers the 19th century onwards. The posters vary in age, size, and format.

Throughout its existence, the Library has collected posters through various routes, including donations, purchases, and legal deposit. The Edinburgh Fringe posters have often found their way into the collection when Library staff have gathered handouts during the festival season. Some donations are the result of engagement. For example, 21 illustration and design students from Edinburgh College donated posters that were made for a collaborative project with the Library.

From folklore and local legends to ballet, experimental theatre, political commentary and public information, the posters reveal the breadth of voices that have shaped Scotland. Individually, they represent moments in time. Collectively, they form a visual narrative of cultural evolution in Edinburgh and beyond.

The collection also demonstrates its continuing relevance through creative engagement. Posters created become archival resources, archival resources inspire new responses, and those responses extend the life of the original material. Artists, graphic designers and illustrators may draw inspiration from typography and composition. Historians can explore shifts in public messaging and cultural identity. Performers and festival enthusiasts can rediscover past productions. And members of the public can encounter familiar or unexpected aspects of Scotland's creative life.

By preserving and sharing these materials, the Library ensures that what was once momentary ephemera continues to inform, inspire and provoke discussion. The poster collection is therefore both a historical record and a living resource, one that connects past creativity with present engagement and future possibility.

The posters may be considered in conversation with the Library's broader collections. The Library has rich stores of ephemera, maps, moving images, and more, which directly correspond to the content presented or promoted in many of the posters. Additionally, the social, medical, political, and theatrical histories preserved in these posters speak to a broader remembrance of Scotland's past.

These resources, much like novels or published research, are special in their ability to both educate and inspire users. As Scotland continues to engage in social messaging, the posters function as a reminder of our collective past and how it might inspire us as we shape the future.