From the Baskets of Travelling Pedlars to Abbotsford:

Walter Scott’s Chapbook and Popular Print Collection

The library in Scott’s home, Abbotsford: a large, book-lined room with windows through which trees can be seen.
The logos of the University of Aberdeen, Abbotsford, The Faculty of Advocates, the University of Glasgow, the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

This exhibition is the culmination of a project involving the Abbotsford Trust, the Faculty of Advocates Abbotsford Collection Trust, the Walter Scott Research Centre at the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Glasgow.

Generously funded by a network grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, this project aims to explore the significance of Walter Scott’s collection of popular print materials and to enhance understanding of Scott’s work and his collections at Abbotsford.

Given the breadth of the collection and our deepening awareness of its national and international significance, this exhibition can only give a flavour of the key highlights of it and illustrate how it might further enhance our understanding of Scott’s creative processes.

Launched in this, Scotland’s Year of Stories, and during a year of celebrations to mark WalterScott250, it reminds us that Scott was interested in the lives, culture and folk traditions of ordinary people throughout his life, and that he saw this as part of a living tradition worthy of preservation and remembrance.

An oil painting of Walter Scott with two dogs.

Curated by: Alison Lumsden, Kirsty Archer-Thompson, Gerard Carruthers and Ainsley McIntosh

Thanks to: The Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Faculty of Advocates Abbotsford Collection Trust, the Abbotsford Trust, Edinburgh University Press, Anna Fancett, Sally L.K. Garden, the late Douglas Gifford, Lindsay Levy, Andrea Longson, Chris McBey, Lynsey Macready, John Nicol, Rosemary Paterson, Angela Schofield, Natalie Tal Harries, and all those who were part of the Abbotsford Chapbook and Popular Print Network.

All images unless otherwise stated are reproduced with the kind permission of the Faculty of Advocates Abbotsford Collection Trust.

TopBuilt with Shorthand