Facilities and community

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Access to the Student Research Rooms (SRR) is via Floor 2M and 3 of the School’s accommodation at Doorway 4, Teviot Place.

All staff and students of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology are welcome to use the SRR for study and consultation of the book collections.

Access to the SRR is linked to your access to the building.  For undergraduate students this is limited to the hours  from 08:00 to 17:50 (Monday to Friday) for safety and security reasons.

If you need help in finding Library materials for your courses, please contact the School’s Academic Support Librarian, Caroline Stirling, caroline.stirling@ed.ac.uk who is based in the Main Library, George Square.

Borrowing books

The SRR contains nine collections of books from previous class libraries and special collections donated over many years. The collections are listed below. Many are available for borrowing by staff and students of the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology. Find the ones relevant to your course by browsing the collections in-person or searching our online book catalogues on the link below. If you would like to borrow books or consult any  behind the locked glass doors, please speak to the SRR volunteer on duty, or email the Student Research Room Coordinator Clare Wilson, clare.wilson@ed.ac.uk

Online Book Catalogues

Current students and staff can view catalogues at the link below.

Book catalogues (login required)

Suggestions

Suggestions for the improvement of the SRR are welcome. Please send these to Clare Wilson, clare.wilson@ed.ac.uk. 

Blog

The SRR has a blog where you can find out more about the collections and activities.

SRR blog

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The School has a number of teaching collections of historical artefacts.

Gordon Childe Archaeology Collection

The School's Gordon Childe Archaeology Collection was begun by Vere Gordon Childe in 1927, when he became the first Abercromby professor of prehistoric archaeology. Additions were made by his successors, Stuart Piggott (1946-1977) and Dennis Harding (1977-2007), as well as by outside donations. Today, the collection houses c. 5000 archaeological artefacts from various periods and regions across Europe, the Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East and India, including textile fragments from Neolithic Swiss Lake villages, in addition to ethnographic items. You can browse the collection at the link below.

Childe Collection

Classics Teaching Collection

The Classics Teaching Collection of ancient objects — mostly terracotta vases — covers Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, and the Roman world, spanning from the prehistoric period to the Roman era. Although it has not been possible to trace the donor or original provenance of our collection, the complete state of the vases suggests that they come from a funerary context. Much of the collection is on public display on the first floor of the William Robertson Wing. 

The School also has a substantial collection of plaster casts of ancient works of sculpture also displayed throughout the William Roberston Wing particularly in the Student Resource Room. 

Classics Teaching Collection 

Osteology Teaching Collection

The collection curator is Dr Linda Fibiger.

Dr Linda Fibiger's staff profile

Document collections

The School hold several collections of documents, many of which have been digitised and which can be browsed and viewed at the links below.

Sir William Fraser Collection

Sir William Fraser (1816-1898) was a genealogist, archivist, and Scottish historian who trained as a solicitor.

A series of 288 facsimiles of charters and letters, spanning from the eleventh to the early nineteenth century was published by the Trustees of Sir William Fraser in 1903 and is held by the School. Another is held by CRC Special Collections in the Edinburgh University Library.

Sir William Fraser Facsimiles of Scottish Charters and Letters Collection

In the course of the digitisation of the Sir William Fraser facsimiles, a considerable quantity of facsimiles came to light which did not belong to the series published by his Trustees in 1903. A number of these were contained in packets marked as containing 'Residue of Lithographs of Letters' belonging to Sir William Fraser's histories of the Wemyss, Annandale, Douglas, Menteith and Haddington families. 

Residue facsimiles attributed to Sir William Fraser

Falconer Madan Facsimiles

Falconer Madan (1851–1935) was the librarian of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford from 1912 to 1919. He was the principal author of the first four volumes of 'A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts' in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Thirty-eight plates from Madan’s series of facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, produced as a teaching aid and published in 1907, are currently held by the School, and a complete set is held by the CRC Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library.

Falconer Madan Facsimiles

Kennedy Papers

During the course of the Sir William Fraser digitisation project a packet containing fourteen very fragile eighteenth-century documents was found, including a marriage contract from 1751, giving fragmented snapshots of the everyday lives of ordinary men and women in eighteenth-century Scotland. Apart from one accompanying note dated 1910 very little is known about this collection. The Kennedy Papers are now held by the CRC Special Collections in the University Library. 

Kennedy Papers