Special Collections Centre: University of Aberdeen
Special Collections Centre: University of Aberdeen
The Sir Duncan Rice Library
Bedford Road
Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire
AB24 3AA
Scotland
Website
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/about/special/
Special Collections Centre: Reading Room
Special Collections Centre: Events
Telephone
Special Collections Centre
01224 272598
The Special Collections Centre is home to the University’s historic collections of books, manuscripts, archives and photographs.
Housed in climatically controlled facilities, the collections comprise over 200,000 rare printed books as well as 5,000 irreplaceable archival collections, with material dating as far back as the 3rd century BC. The collections cover all aspects of the history and culture of the University, the City of Aberdeen, the region and the relationship they enjoy with the wider world, and are available to be consulted in the Reading Room on the Lower Ground Floor of The Sir Dunca Rice Library.
The Centre also provides visitors of all ages with opportunities to learn more about the collections through seminars, workshops and educational activities. The adjacent Glucksman Conservation Centre carries out vital preservation and conservation work on our most fragile items, enabling wider access to these important collections.
Venue Type:
Library, Archive, Gallery
Additional info
The Gallery is on the Ground Floor of The Sir Duncan Rice Library and is fully accessible.
The Special Collections Centre is located on the lower ground floor of the library.
Access to the lower ground floor is by the stairs or lift by the Welcome Desk on the ground floor, you will need your library card or Access Pass to pass through the gates at the Welcome Desk. More information on Reading Room access can be found on the website - http://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/about/special/the-wolfson-reading-room/
Collection details
Archives, Law and Order, Literature, Medicine, Music, Natural Sciences, Religion, Science and Technology, Social History, World Cultures
Key artists and exhibits
- Family, estate, and business papers relating to the North-East of Scotland
- Hebraica and Judaica
- Humanism and neo-Latin literature
- Institutional history of King’s College, (founded 1495);Marischal College, 1593; University of Aberdeen, 1860)
- Jacobitism
- Law (and canon law)
- Nineteenth-century literature
- Science and medicine, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century
- Scottish balladry and folksong
- Scottish Enlightenment philosophy
- Theology from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century
Elphinstone: Renaissance in the North
- 2 October 2014 — 15 March 2015 *on now
Elphinstone’s distinguished career, in which he excelled as statesman, diplomat, lawmaker and churchman, ensured that his legacy within the region and beyond was far-reaching.
Elphinstone commissioned major building and infrastructure work in Aberdeen, including the construction of King’s College Chapel and improvements to St Machar’s Cathedral, while every day, traffic still thunders across the bridge he endowed over the River Dee. In 1509, Elphinstone brought the first printing-press to Scotland, and was entrusted with the creation of a national prayer-book, the Aberdeen Breviary. As Bishop of Aberdeen, he implemented a programme of much-needed reform. This dramatic reordering of his diocese, would lead to the foundation of what would become the University of Aberdeen.
Elphinstone was remembered with reverent affection within his diocese, with major relics of the bishop and his world surviving, including his portrait - the only surviving picture of an identifiable non-royal individual from the period. The exhibition features rare and fascinating artefacts of pre-Reformation Scottish art and culture.
Suitable for
- Any age
Website
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/about/special/exhibitions/
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