Some Free Digital Resources 0n 18th and 19th Century Scotland

From time to time I shall blog details of digital resources useful for research into Scottish matters in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are a great many people with such an interest who cannot access in person the various historical sources available in Scotland, and in the course of my own work I have come across some excellent free online resources.

The National Library of Scotland has been working very hard in this area. One example of their industry is the availability of over 20,000 historical maps. Though many researchers will know of this amazing facility, I would emphasise how useful these high-resolution, zoomable maps can be. They can be browsed in several different ways; by theme, date, mapmaker, location etc:http://maps.nls.uk/

The NLS have also made the Scottish Post Office Directories online. These are particularly valuable for those interested in local or family history. The directories list the inhabitants of a town or county alphabetically, and online you can access 694 directories, listed by locality, covering the period 1773 to 1911:http://www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office

Another wonderful NLS resource is the Scottish Book Trade Index, which lists the names, trades and addresses of people involved in printing in Scotland up to 1850. This is seen as work in progress, but there is an impressive number of records available. PDF files are downloadable, amounting to 1,550 pages (4.8 MB):http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/resources/sbti

There is a wonderful collection of street literature available at the NLS website too. In the days before mass media news travelled on the streets by means of printed sheets or 'broadsides'. These are browsable by subject matter and give a fascinating insight on what concerned people in Georgian and Victorian Scotland:http://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/index.html

The above are only samples of the resources available at the NLS Digital Gallery, as a look at their list will reveal:http://www.nls.uk/digital-gallery