Classics at Edinburgh is a lively community of staff and students. And whether it is artefacts or student societies, Classics has something to enhance your experience at the University. Dr Donncha O'Rourke delivers the opening lecture of the 2025/6 acacdemic year, ‘Sorry not sorry: the ethics of wrong-doing in Virgil and Augustan culture’. Classics students can access an extensive teaching collection of ancient artefacts and statuary as well as spaces to study them in. The department forms a lively and welcoming community, and the active and friendly Classics Society is the perfect way to relax and enjoy Edinburgh with. Sellar & Goodhart Classics Library Sellar and Goodhart Collection (1.82 MB / PDF)The Sellar & Goodhart Classics Library is the largest book collection within the School and is currently located on Floor 1 and on both levels of the Student Research Rooms (Floors 2M and 3). William Sellar and Harry Goodhart were successive professors of Humanity (Latin) at the University of Edinburgh at the end of the 19th century.Goodhart’s predecessor William Young Sellar (1825–1890) was a Scottish classical scholar born in Sutherland and educated at the Edinburgh Academy and afterwards at the University of Glasgow. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, as a scholar and graduated with a first class in Classics. He was elected Professor of Humanity at the University of Edinburgh in 1863 and occupied the chair till his death.Harry Chester Goodhart (1858–1895) graduated from Cambridge University in April of 1881 with a BA in Classics and then completed his MA in 1884. He joined the University of Edinburgh as Professor of Humanities in 1890 where he remained till his death due to pneumonia in 1895, aged 36.The Classics collection named after these two distinguished professors has grown over the years through donations and was previously housed in Old College and at 40 George Square. 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 booksThe 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.ukOnline Book CataloguesCurrent students and staff can view catalogues at the link below. Book catalogues (login required) SuggestionsSuggestions for the improvement of the SRR are welcome. Please send these to Clare Wilson, clare.wilson@ed.ac.uk. BlogThe SRR has a blog where you can find out more about the collections and activities. SRR blog Teaching collections The School has a number of teaching collections of historical artefacts.Gordon Childe Archaeology CollectionThe 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 CollectionThe 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 CollectionThe collection curator is Dr Linda Fibiger. Dr Linda Fibiger's staff profile Document collectionsThe 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 CollectionSir 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 FacsimilesFalconer 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 PapersDuring 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 Classics Society The University’s popular student-run Classics Society organises regular daytrips, seminars and social events throughout the year. Classics Society website (EUSA) Follow the Classics Society to find out more: Instagram Twitter Facebook Literacy Through Latin Literacy Through LatinLiteracy Through Latin organises outreach projects to local primary schools, introducing the world of Classics to students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to do so and using short, fun lessons to broaden vocabulary by using Latin to show how many of English words have Latin roots.Literacy Through Latin External societies Staff in Classics are actively involved in a number of classical societies based in Edinburgh and Scotland.Scottish Hellenic Society of Edinburgh Classical Association of Scotland (Edinburgh & South East Centre) At the heart of the collection in the Student Research Rooms is the Sellar & Goodhart Classics library. William Sellar and Harry Goodhart were successive professors of Humanity (Latin) at the University of Edinburgh at the end of the 19th century. This article was published on 2024-08-01
