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On the 27th of September 1906, the City of Aberdeen welcomed King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to open the new buildings at Marischal College, amidst some of the most extravagant celebrations and expressions of civic pride ever demonstrated in Aberdeen.

Although the University was founded in 1495, the completion…

In 1641, twelve paintings representing the Sibyls were gifted to King’s College by Principal William Guild. A receipt found in the archives implied the identity of the original artist to be George Jamesone (Pryor 2002:61) but affirmed that during the 18th century the works had been restored and repainted by the…

Around 70 museum collection items at the University of Aberdeen come from Sierra Leone. It is one of the most significant African collections at the University, alongside those from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Most of the collection has been in Aberdeen for over 100 years, and our…

Written by Dr Alison McCall, former Chair of Women’s History Scotland and a participant in the Mapping Memorials to Women project, this blog post explores one of the most striking photographs in the online exhibition, Envisioning Women’s Places: Photographs from the George Washington Wilson Collection. Alison documents her…

Envisioning Women’s Places: Photographs from the George Washington Wilson Collection – an exhibition of photographs of women from the Victorian and Edwardian eras – was due to be on display in the Sir Duncan Rice Library this year. But, due to Covid, the display had to move online instead.

When the Covid 19 restrictions prevented us from filming on campus, we got animated!

Back in early summer, UoA Collections received funding from the Scottish Book Trust to develop a series of filmed micro-tutorials with the award winning children’s author, Alex McCall as part of the annual Book Week Scotland festival that…

Introducing Safekeeping, an online exhibition curated by students on the University of Aberdeen’s Museum Studies MLitt.

There is a mystery, a sense of excitement walking into an exhibition space. Whether it is art or history, the cool room, low lights and pristine glass protecting what is behind it make…

The term gauffered edges is often seen in the catalogue descriptions of bindings in our collections. This is a lovely decorative feature of some books, where the edges of the text block are decorated like this:

The term is thought to come from the French gaufre, meaning to impress or iron; and that…