Scottish Book Trade Archive Inventory

National Library of Scotland

MS 1938

Includes diary and poems. The narrative includes accounts of current events, education in adventure schools, printing in Edinburgh and Glasgow, notes on Edinburgh printers, literary and ecclesiastical celebrities, of whom there are many portraits. The illuminated title and dedication were written by James Watson, writing master
Access Status

He was a younger son of [John] Kinear, overseer of HM Printing Office, Blair Street in Edinburgh and Jean Wright, daughter of Colonel Wright of Dumfriesshire. He was born at 6 New Street, Canongate. His mother died after a long period of ill health when he was 12 and his education was mostly carried out by teachers in adventure schools. His elder brother David was a printer and active in the trade union movement. Samuel was apprenticed to Messrs Wlaker and Greig, printers in Edinburgh but left to work in a coachbuilders in Abbey Hill. this proved unsuitable and he worked as an apprentice for his father for 4 years. In 1834 he was sent to Glasgow to finish his apprenticeship with Edward Rhull, University Printer. His father died in 1835. He disliked Rhull's and left for Liverpool in 1836 with his apprenticeship unfinished. He then went to sea and after many voyages returned home to Edinburgh. In 1839 he married and settled down working firstly on the 'Evening Post' in Edinburgh whose Tory politics he found repugnant and then back in his father's old place of employment in HM Printing Works. He was a Liberal and joined the Free Church after the Disruption. His uncle was Robert Kinnear, reader to the Bible Board. He seems to have died around 1900.

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 2

University of Aberdeen

MS 2648 and MS 2471

Minutes, 1853 - 1958; cash books, 1892 - 1928; subscription books, 1858 - 1928; register of apprentices, 1905 - 1936; correspondence, 1854 - 1867.

The Aberdeen Typographical Society was formed in March 1853, with a membership of 39. It was dissolved little more than a year later, on 1 May 1854, and replaced by a new group called the Aberdeen Typographical Association (est. 22 May 1854). The Association became a branch of the Scottish Typographical Association in June 1885. Sarah C. Gillespie,A Hundred Years of Progress: the record of the Scottish Typographical Association, 1853 - 1952 (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1953) contains more details about the organisation and its activities. Further information about the development of the trade union movement and the history of individual trade unions in Aberdeen can be found in William Diack, History of the Trades Council and the Trade Union Movement in Aberdeen (Aberdeen: Aberdeen Trades Council, 1939), and in Kenneth D. Buckley, Trade Unionism in Aberdeen 1870 - 1900 (Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1955). Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical Directory of Trade Unions , 4 vols (Aldershot: Gower, 1980 - 1984) also contains useful information about the development of individual unions, at both the national and local level. Summarised details from each of these sources has been used in compiling this collection level description.

26 volumes and 1 envelope (0.66 linear metres)

National Library of Scotland

MS 23171-23192

A catalogue description is available in the North Reading Room at the National Library of Scotland.

National Library of Scotland

MS 23229

Letters to the firm of Smith, Elder and Co., 1861-1910

Smith, Elder and Co, publishers, was established in London in 1816 when George Smith (1789-1846) and Alexander Elder, both Scotsmen, formed the partnership Smith and Elder, booksellers and stationers. In 1819 the company added publishing to its business. At the age of fourteen George Smith's son George, assumed control of the publishing department. In 1846 George Smith died and his son George Smith (1824-1901) took over his position in the company, Smith, Elder and Co. Shortly afterwards the two other partners left and George Smith, the younger, became sole partner at the age of twenty two. The company was very successful and soon opened a branch in Bombay and agencies at Java and in the West coast of Africa. In 1859 Smith established 'The Cornhill Magazine', which featured literary works. In 1868 Smith retired from the foreign agency and banking work of the firm to concentrate solely on the publishing side, leaving his partner to continue that side of the business under the name 'Henry S. King and Co' in the existing premises at Cornhill. Smith moved the publishing business to new premises and continued working under the name 'Smith, Elder and Co.' The company published works by John Ruskin, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Darwin, William Makepeace Thackeray, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wilkie Collins, Matthew Arnold, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau, James Payn and Anthony Trollope, amongst others. The company also published the 'Cornhill Magazine' from 1860 and in 1865 founded 'Pall Mall Gazette'. From 1882 Smith, Elder and Co. produced the 'Dictionary of National Biography', which was completed in 1901. His son Alexander Murray Smith, was a partner in the firm from 1890-1899 and his son in law, Reginald K. Smith joined the company in 1894. From 1899 Reginald K. Smith was sole active partner.

A catalogue description is available in the North Reading Room at the National Library of Scotland. The NLS also holds other Smith,

National Library of Scotland

Acc 12604

Account Index; Estimates Book; Miscellaneous Letters; Cheap Additions Publications; Arrangements Ledger; Copyright Agreements; Correspondence and other Papers Concerning George Murray Smith II; Index to Publication Ledgers; Ledgers and Balance Sheets Relating to the Purchase of Smith Elder by John Murray in 1917; Letter Books; Letters to the Editor of Cornhill Magazine; Letters, Bills, and Receipts Concerning Copyright Agreements; Stock List; Publication Ledgers; Record of Newspaper Reviews Relating to Smith Elder Publications; Registers of Permission to use Extracts, Reprint Entire Works, or Publish Foreign Language Books.

Accession 12604 is part of the John Murray Archive . A fully searchable catalogue is available and a list is available in electronic form.