University of St Andrews Library Special Collections Visiting Scholars 2019

speccoll

Tuesday 7 May 2019

Since 2014, we have enjoyed hosting a number of visiting scholars to enable them to make research visits to make use of materials held in the Library’s Special Collections. These awards provide financial support towards the costs of travel and accommodation for scholars, while pursuing a research project directly relating to the Library’s collections. Special Collections is home to the Library’s historic collections of books, manuscripts, archives and photographs.

We look forward to welcoming the following four visiting scholars to Special Collections over the course of summer 2019:

Daniel Belteki (University of Kent) will carry out research based on the papers of the eminent scientist James David Forbes (1809-1868) who was Principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard at St Andrews from 1859. Daniel’s research will contribute to a number of projects including the ongoing digitisation of the journals of the seventh Astronomer Royal, Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892) and his work on the relationship between Forbes and the controversial Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900).

Dr Freya Gowrley (University of Edinburgh) will focus on the papers of Scottish marine zoologist William Carmichael McIntosh (1838-1931), and his two sisters Agnes and Roberta to inform her history of collage made in Britain, North America, and across the British Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The McIntosh collection includes scrapbooks, commonplace books and albums and photographic albums and is an unparalleled source in understanding how such manuscripts created, sustained, and reflected familial relationships.

Dr Karie Schultz (Queen’s University Belfast) will study the teaching of political doctrines at the University of St Andrews between 1600 and 1650 by examining Latin-language student notebooks, lecture notes, and library catalogues held in Special Collections. Karie hopes to clarify the connection between Scottish university education and political allegiance in civil-war Britain and to establish how those who would become Covenanters and royalists and who attended St Andrews in the early seventeenth century – such as Alexander Henderson, George Gillespie, and John Maxwell – were educated about political ideas, including the respective roles of the law, the magistrate, and citizens in a godly society. Karie is also undertaking similar research at the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow.

We will be arranging Visiting Scholar talks over the summer which are open to the public; please check the website for details over the next few weeks.