Scottish Book Trade Archive Inventory

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

Acc 5811

Description

Johnston family papers, including letters and photographs, 1796-20th century; ‘The Johnstons’, a family history in manuscript, 20th century; Records concerning the Ruddimans by George Harvey Johnston, 1887-1901; Miscellaneous family papers, 18th-20th century; Papers of W & A K Johnston, Ltd., contract of copartnery, 1839; Cashbook, 1839-1845; Notes, letters, press cuttings, and circulars, 1847-1889 and undated; Letters, notes, and diagrams concerning original art-work for the Johnstons’ 'Astronomical Atlas', (1855), 1855; Account books, 1868-1893; Cuttings, 1869-1876; Diary, 1877, 1888; Letters and letterbooks, 1886-1906; Notebook, undated; Specimens of printing and engraving of W.H. Lizars, 1856 and undated; Miscellaneous pamphlets, undated; Advertisements, 1923-1925.

History

W & A K Johnston were taken over in 1928 by Morrison & Gibb, a firm which had its roots in the mid-19th century, and which closed in 1985.

Extent

1.65 Linear Metres

Finding Aids

A list is available in paper and electronic form.

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

Dep 341

Description

Notebooks and literary manuscripts, 1799-1873 and undated; Letters, 1789-1945; Business and editorial correspondence, 1811-1956; Stock books, 1867-1945; Cash books, 1890-1949; Records relating to publications, 1830-1939; Business administration records, 1820-1950; Records relating to family trusts and executries, 1833-1934; Records relating to Cardney House, Perthshire, 1717-1904; W. and R. Chambers trade catalogues, library catalogues, 1851-1936 and undated; Press cuttings, 1820-1954 and undated; Miscellaneous records and printed material, 1819-1954 and undated.

Extent

22 Linear Metres

Finding Aids

A list is available in paper and electronic form. The Library also holds: Acc.9213 (a collection of proofs and engravings from works published by W. & R. Chambers), Acc. 8164 (papers relating to Robert Chambers), and Acc. 8785 (papers relating to Robert Chambers).

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 2142

Description

Miscellaneous letters, mainly to John Russell and other members of the editorial staff from John Ruskin, Andrew Lang, etc., c 1880.

History

Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal was a weekly paper, founded by William and Robert Chambers in 1832. It formed part of the brothers’ bookselling and printing business in Leith Walk, Edinburgh, along with works on local history and reminiscences and later Chambers’ Encyclopaedia. Robert died in 1871 and William in 1883, but Robert’s son, also Robert, took over the business and continued to produce the Journal until his own death in 1888.

Extent

0.03 Linear Metres

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 3551

Description

Twenty-six letters, 1824-5, 1828, of William Blackwood, Publisher (d. 1834); twenty-two are addressed to William Maginn and relate mainly to the affairs of Blackwood's Magazine,including the dispute between Blackwood and Richard Martin as a result of references to the latter in the 'Noctes Ambrosianae'. Throughout there are references to Scott, Lockhart, Gait, and other literary figures. At the end (f. 50) is an apparently unpublished review by William Maginn of William Thomas Brande's 'Pharmacy', Lond., 1825

History

Born in Edinburgh on 20 November 1776, William Blackwood was apprenticed to an Edinburgh bookseller at the age of fourteen. After a period in London and Glasgow, he established hinself as a bookseller and publisher in 1804. His firm grew rapidly in size and reputation, and in 1817 William Blackwood consolidated his firm's position as a major force in British literary publishing by starting Blackwood's Magazine, or 'Maga', a monthly journal produced as a Tory response to the Whig influenced Edinburgh Review. Blackwood published many of the leading authors of his day, both in book form and in Blackwood's Magazine. Authors associated with his firm included John Galt, Susan Ferrier, Thomas de Quincey and James Hogg. William Blackwood died in Edinburgh on 16 September 1834.

Finding Aids

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 2. The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 4895-4934

Description

Letters and papers of William Edmonstoune Aytoun which came on his death into the hands of John Blackwood as his executor. They were used extensively by Sir Theodore Martin for his memoir of William Edmonstoune Aytoun, London 1867.

Finding Aids

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 3.The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 4001-4734

Description

This section consists mainly of incoming letters addressed to the firm of Blackwood. It also contains letters passing within the firm between members of the family, between the family and their employees and between the employees, themselves. The correspondents include James Hogg, John Galt, John Gibson Lockhart, George Eliot, Lord Lytton, Anthony Trollope and Joseph Conrad but the majority were not writers of comparable distinction. Nor were all Blakcwood's correspondents professional authors. Several were notable men of affairs, others were men of various professions, clergymen, soldiers, lawyers and colonial administrators who wrote on matters they felt competent to deal with. As a result these letters are a source of information on a great many topics.

The letters have been arranged and bound in volumes according to the following system: (with the exception of MS.4731-4734) chronologically by year and within each year alphabetically under the name of the writer or occasionally under the name of the recipient: under each name chronologically with undated letters at the end. Undated letters which it has not been possible to assign to a year have been arranged alphabetically at the end of the series (MS.4709-4730). As a rule only writers of letters have been indexed, the recipient being regarded as the firm, itself even when letters are addressed to individual family members, the editor of Blackwood's Magazine, or to employees such as J M Langford, G Simpson, T Henderson, and A Allardyce. Letters not directly concerned with Blackwood's presumably enclosed with aother letters to the firm have been indexed under both writer and recipient wherever possible. Entries in the index are only to volume; a list of contents at the beginning of each volume indicates more precisely where letters will be found within the volume. Printed items containing no manuscript additions have been transferred to the Department of Printed Books.
Photostats of a few letters of George Eliot to John Balckwood, the originals of which (now in Yale University Library) had become separated from the papers prior to their being given to the NLS are to be found in MSS.4159, 4244, 4373 and 4389. These were presented in 1953 by Professor Gordon S Haight of Yale University, the editor of the George Eliot Letters, New Haven, 1954-55.

Finding Aids

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 3. The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 4735-4891

Description

This section contains manuscripts and proofs of a few of the works offered to Blackwood for publication. Arrangement The papers have been arranged alphabetically under the names of their authors, the anonymous works forming a section as the end.Generally references to publication give only the earliest traceable name and date. Printed items containing no manuscript additions have been transferred to the Department of Printed Books.

Finding Aids

Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 3. The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

National Library of Scotland

MS 4937-4940

Correspondence, 1817-1868, cheifly addressed to members of the Blackwood family. The subject matter is similar to that in the main section of correspondence. The letters in MS.4937 appear to include some of those abstracted in 1897 from the main Blackwood archives for the use of Mrs Oliphant when writing her history of the firm. The text of several letters are printed in her work, including those by S T Coleridge, Sir Wlater Scott and John Wilson. The papers have been arranged and bound in volumes. Printed items containing no manuscript additions have been transferred to the Department of Printed Books.

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 3. The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 4892-4894

Description

These volumes are intended to form a guide to the identity of the authors of the anonymous articles published in Blackwood's Magazine, 1817-1900. They have been compiled in the National Library of Scotland from information supplied by Messrs William Blackwood and Sons and from the researches of Professor Alan Lang Strout. The papers have been arranged and bound in volumes. Printed items containing no manuscript additions have been transferred to the Department of Printed Books.

Finding Aids

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 3. The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

Repository

National Library of Scotland

Reference

MS 4935-4936

Description

Accounts, letters and receipts relating to the financial affairs of Professor John Wilson ('Christopher North') which were dealt with by the Blackwoods. Arrangement These have been arranged in chronological order of payment.

Finding Aids

NLS Catalogue of Manuscripts Acquired Since 1925 Volume 3. The Blackwood Papers are searchable in the National Library of Scotland Manuscripts Catalogue.

National Library of Scotland

MS 8918

Copy of Shaw's Diary for 1864 used as account book, mainly showing accounts for books sent to Dundee Free Library and accounts rendered mainly for law books, 1869 - 1871.

Summary guide to contents of items within National Library of Scotland: Catalogue of Manuscripts acquired since 1925, Volume 7 (Edinburgh, 1989) (detailed persons and places index within the volume).