Scottish Records Association

Scottish Archives

Are you undertaking research using Scottish archives? Have you considered submitting an article to Scottish Archives, the journal of the Scottish Records Association? Articles in this annual, peer-reviewed journal, focus on the use of and interpretation of Scottish archives and historical sources both within Scotland and further afield. The Editor will consider any submission that makes use of archival material to explore historical matters relevant to Scotland. Article length should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words, but longer submissions may be considered. Under our Green Open Access Policy, articles are published on the Association’s website one year after print publication which enables your research to be disseminated to a wide audience.

Please contact the Editor, Carol Parry at: editorscottisharchives@gmail.com if you wish to propose or submit a paper.

If you have already published a book, you might like to consider sending a copy for review to our Reviews Editor who can be contacted at: reviewseditorscottisharchives@gmail.com.

The Editorial Team at Scottish Archives look forward to hearing from you!

Guidelines for authors (pdf)

Open Access Policy (pdf)

The contents for each volume of Scottish Archives are given below. Articles (from 2011) are available online minus images. Back copies of the journal with images can be purchased using the Publications Order Form. Why not become a member to secure your own copy of Scottish Archives each year? Further details are available on the Membership page.

Scottish Archives Volume 24 (2018)

J. Pelan, Archives Matter
F. Saunderson, The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
K. King, The Ballast Trust: Celebrating 30 Years of Understanding Technical Records
J.P. Ambuske, R. Flaherty and L.S. Moulds, Recovering Hidden Histories of Early America and the British Atlantic World with the Scottish Court of Session Digital Archive Project
F. Smith, ‘Hereby discerns and ordains’: Sheriff Court Registers of Decrees and Their Relationship to Other Records
C. Fletcher, ‘Meddle in any manner of way with the rents and you will repent it’: The Collection of Rents in the Regality of Grant
C. Cassells, Talking About Sewing Machines
M. Pallister, ‘The value to social history of the female perspective’: Letters from Lady Grace Campbell to Her Husband John Campbell, Lord Stonefield (1750s)
C. Bryce, Trades House of Glasgow Archives
R. Fyfe, Collections and Community: An Overview of East Lothian Council Archive Service

Scottish Archives Volume 23 (2017)

D. Brunton, Is There a History of Scottish Medicine?
F. Bourne, The Royal College of Nursing: Foundation and Celebration
J. Stewart, The Provision of Health Care Under the Scottish Poor Law: Urban Central Scotland in the
Late Nineteenth Century
I. Hutchison, Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children: Tracing its Journey from 1861
J. Cronin, The Schaw Convalescent Home at Bearsden: Not Another Costly Pile?
L. Reid, Midwifery Matters: Finding Sources to Shed Light Upon the 1915 Midwives (Scotland) Act
A. Kennedy, Military Rule, Protectoral Governance and the Scottish Highlands, c.1654-60
J. Turnbull, Venetian Glassmakers in the Prestonpans Area in the Seventeenth Century
I. Thomson, Glamis Castle Archives
V. Woodcock, The Harris Tweed Authority Archive Collection: Archiving an Industry

Scottish Archives Volume 22 (2016)

Scottish Archives Volume 16 (2010)

I Gray, Unravelling Orem's Descriptions of Old Aberdeen

S Hewer, Searching for evidence of the Scottish Baroque in William Roy's military landscape

L Levy, 'Long life to thy fame and peace to thy soul': Walter Scott's collection of Burns's books and manuscripts

P Cadell , 1822 and All That

D Barrie, Nineteenth-century Scottish police records and their value for the historian

A Pattie, C E Brett, D J Bartholomew, M Lawn, I J Deary, Reconstructing a Scottish School of Educational Research, 1925-1950

Around the Archives, Archives of the West Highland Museum, Fort William; The Lochaber Archive Centre, Fort William; Leisure, recreation and self-improvement in a Scottish mining community from the archives of Wanlockhead Miners' Library

Scottish Archives Volume 15 (2009)

I G Brown, In Paris without a Passport: Robert Sym's adventures in the capital of Bonaparte and Bourbon

A T Smith, Carta Falsa: an evaluation of No. 323 in the Bannatyne Edition of the Kelso Abbey Cartulary

J G Harrison, 'The Bread Book' and the Court and Household of Marie de Guise in 1549

N Dickson, Researching the Brethren Movement in Scotland: Problems and Possibilities

A Ritchie, The 'naval policy' of the Free Church of Scotland, 1843-1853

M Castrillo, 'In Union is strength': Trade Union records of the printing and bookbinding industrie in the NLS

Around the Archives, The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections; Publishing, Oral History and the SAPPHIRE Archive; Perth Local Studies Department and 500 years of Printing in Scotland; In the Beginning was the Word: The Archives of William, Collins, Sons & Co Ltd and Blackie & Sons Ltd, Printers & Publishers, Glasgow

Scottish Archives Volume 14 (2008)

K Bowie, Popular resistance and the ratification of the Anglo-Scottish treaty of union

T Clarke, A parish church on paper: in search of Tibbermore, Perthshire

PF Burton, Using Quaker records for social history

B Talbot, The use of the Scottish Baptist Church Archives in writing a history of Stirling Baptist Church

A Cameron, The fate of the Old Parish Registers under the Registration Act of 1854

A Lewis, Archival sources for the builders of the Library and Hall of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 1776-1782

Around the Archives, The Dumfries House Papers, The Legacy of a Fellowship of Independent Churches, 1725 to 1989: the voluminous Glasite Archive.

Scottish Archives Volume 13 (2007)

A Smith, ‘South of the border’? Some great British family and estate collections

P Blom, ‘Cabinet full of papers’: archival sources for the Scottish nation in Veere

A Hoyer, Thematic and linguistic changes of ‘Oor Wullie’: the dynamics of a popular Scottish comic

JI Robertson, Slavery and the Stewarts of Garth

M Davis and A McGibbon, Approaches to the digitisation of the Richard Demarco Archives

Around the Archives, From here to prosperity: preserving Scotland’s moving image heritage, Presenting the past: the Threipland Papers, The Atholl Experience

Scottish Archives Volume 12 (2006)

Volume Now Sold Out

C Shaw, ‘To the Glorie of God and the Weill of our Vocatioun’; the early years of the surgeons of Edinburgh, 1505 to 1666
A Ritchie, Finding Scottish Burgh records
C Swan, ‘A life of debauchery, vice and drunkenness’ the journal of Jonathan Troup, or two years in the West Indies
JG Harrison, The Justices of the Peace of Stirlingshire, 1660 to 1706
A Murray, The Exchequer Cat, 1715 to 1842
C Hill, ‘A Company of Four’: The Waste Book of a 1764 Kirkcudbrightshire Co-partnery in Trade
H Blair-Imrie, The ‘Ordinary Processes’ of the Sheriff Court: an important source for eighteenth-century agricultural and society history.
Around the Archives, The Archives of the School of Scottish Studies, the University of Edinburgh, The Diageo Archives – capturing the spirit of the past, ‘One of our main shop windows to the world at large’; The Scottish Catholic Archives.

Scottish Archives Volume 11 (2005)

C Parry, Web-based access to Scottish Health Records

M Greenan, The forensic Medicine Archives Project a the University of Glasgow Archives

G Davis, Some historical uses of clinical psychiatric records

A Cameron, A unique source for the history of midwifery in Scotland: the Minutes of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

M Park, Art in madness: Dr Browne, Joseph Askew and art activity at Crichton Royal Institution in the nineteenth century

M McCrae, Enquiry into the ‘Deficiency’ of medical men in the mid-nineteenth century Highlands

V Habib, Eighteenth-century upholsterers in the Edinburgh Old Town

S Jackson, Edinburgh Cabinet Makers’ wage agreements and wage disputes, 1805 to 1826

M Rorke, The Scottish Customs Books as a source for sixteenth-century mercantile studies

Around the Archives, Faces of Scotland: the Reference Section at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, ‘Unlocking the Medicine Chest’ – medical records at the University of Dundee, The Royal College of Nursing Archives’ Historical Nursing Journals Project.

Scottish Archives Volume 10 (2004)

C Jackson, 'Assize of Error' and the Independence of the Criminal Jury in Restoration Scotland

F Bigwood, The Courts of Argyll, 1664-1825

B Longmore, The High Court of Justiciary Databases: a 'Solemn Path' through Crime

B Inglis, 'Scottish Testamentary Inventories: a neglected source for the study of Scottish agriculture - Dunblane, 1660-1740

T Clarke, Scottish Soldier's wills, 1857-1965

D Webster, Little acorns and tall oaks: Project Pont and after

Around the Archives, The National Register of Archives for Scotland, the House of the Binns and Archival and Manuscript resources for Scottish history in North Carolina repositories Includes Indexes to volumes 1 to 10 of Scottish Archives by author and by archive repository.

Scottish Archives Volume 9 (2003)

M.Tyson, Digital Access to the records of Scotland's people

H.Anderson, ScottishDocuments.com - Testaments online

E Roads, Four centuries of visual identity: the Archives of the Court of the Lord Lyon

I G Brown, Filling the Holes in the Todholes Aisle

D Baptie, Apprentices in the north-east of Scotland

P MacInnes, The Greenock Cut - Past and Present

C Jones, The 'Squadrone Volante' deciphered, 1707-1714: the Correspondence of George Baillie of Jerviswood, the Duke of Montrose and the MArquess of Tweeddale, together with the Keys to the Ciphers used

Around the Archives, ARCHON and Scotland, Arniston House Papers and Blair and Glamis Castle

Scottish Archives Volume 8 (2002)

M Moss, The Archival Task Force - the charge

K M Forbes and R H J Urquhart, Records in the National Archives of Scotland Relating to Poor Relief, 1845-1930

R E Tyson, Poverty and Poor Relief in Aberdeen, 1680-1705

W W Groves, The New Poor Law in Nineteenth Century Scotland, with special reference to Lanarkshire

K Wilbraham and C Lodge, Responses to Poverty in Ayrshire, 1574-1845

J Rock, Richard Cooper, Senior, and the Beginnings of Rococo Taste in Scotland: documents from the Traquair Archives

M Nix, A Comparison of Published and Unpublished Records Relating to Trade Between Leith and Australia in the Early 1820s

E Williamson, Schoolboy Scribbles on a Burgh Court Book

Around the Archives: The Skye and Lochalsh Museums Service, and the Mount Stuart Archive

Scottish Archives Volume 7 (2001)

G Mackenzie, Continuity and Change - Challenges in Scottish Archives

G Dixon, Some Problems in Scottish Archives

J G Harrison, 'Policing' the Stirling Area, 1660-1706

M M Stewart, 'A Policeman's Lot' : Police Records in Dumfries and Galloway, 1850-1950

A Dinsmor and R H J Urquhart, The Origins of Modern Policing in Scotland

I Levitt, The Scottish Emergencies Organisation, the Scottish Islands and the Seamen's Strike, 1966

M Storrie, Recovering the Historic Designed Landscape of Islay Estate

Around the Archives: Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and Heriot-Watt University Archives

Scottish Archives Volume 6 (2000)

C Kitching, Archives at the Millennium: what we learned and how we can take it forward

P Cadell, Scottish Archives: problems and opportunities

I Barnes, The Scottish Archive Network and Future Issues for Scottish Archives

I Flett, Scottish Local Government Archives in the New Millenium: modernity and majesty or meltdown and mediocrity?

L M Richmond, Determining the Future of Scottish History: the challenge of digital records to Scottish archivists

R Bigwood, A User's View of the Archives

I Levitt, Scottish Papers Presented to the British Cabinet 1917-66: their archival and historical significance

A Jones, Rescued from Oblivion? The case of Mary Burton and Liberton Bank House

R J Tanner, Outside the Acts: perceptions of the Scottish Parliament

H Holmes, Viewing an 'Underworld': sources of evidence for Irish potato workers in early twentieth century Scotland

Around the Archives: Ayrshire Archives and the Scottish Jewish Archive Centre

Research in Progress: the third duke of Buccleuch, Adam Smith and the Entail Act of 1770

Scottish Archives Volume 5 (1999)

E Reid, Above the Parapet: some thoughts on the future structure of archives in Scotland

F Maxwell Stuart, Inside View

G Stamp, It Looks Like Carelessness, or, in Search of Alexander Greek Thomson

J Lowrey, Archives and Archaeology: the prehistory of Queensberry House, Edinburgh

I Gray, Dean of Guild Court Records: a unique source for Scottish urban history

I Gow, Archerfield: the reconstruction of Robert Adam's last interior

B S Skillen, Land Use and Urban History in the Glasgow Context

A L Murray, The Town Clerk of Perth's Liber Omne Gaderum 1425

I Levitt, Scottish Air Services, 1935-75 and the Scottish New Towns, 1943-75: a guide to records at the National Archives of Scotland

Around the Archives: photographic collections in St Andrews University Library and Scottish twentieth century architectural archives

Research in Progress: a seventeenth century description of herring fishing off the west coast of Scotland and sources for identifying and accrediting architectural sculpture

Scottish Archives Volume 4 (1998)

A T Wilson, Following Follett: some related issues in Scottish university archives

I Flett, The Genealogy of Archives: root and branch of the tree of administration

J Scally, The Hamilton Papers as a source for the history of the British Civil Wars

W Ferguson, Record Sources for the Electoral History of Scotland

I G C Hutchison, Archival Sources for the Study of Scottish Political History in the 19th and 20th Centuries

W H Fraser, Tracing the Rise of Independent Labour in Scotland

R J Finlay, The Anatomy of the Birth of the Scottish National Party, 1918-1942

C Burness, Tracing Women in Scottish Politics since 1880

P R McCleave, Family, Friends and Feminism: a mid-Victorian retrospect

A Murray, Dirty Work at the Exchequer: Inverness's charter and accounts, 1592-1594

S Kingston, A Previously Unremarked Clann Eoin Mhoir Genealogy

Around the Archives: The Scottish Brewing Archives and Aberdeen City Archives

Scottish Archives Volume 3 (1997)

R H Campbell and M A Crowther, The Scottish Records Advisory Council

R Saville, Banking Archives and Scottish History

A Durie, 'Notes Very Much Chattered with Mice': banking records as a source for the study of local history

S McDonald, Bank of Scotland Archives: past, present and future

V Wilkinson, Hidden Treasure: a brief insight into the Scottish archives of the royal Bank of Scotland

B Peters, Coutts & Co. - a Bank of Information

D J Withrington, Sources for Scottish Schooling Before 1872: challenges and opportunities

A Lindsay, Sources for the Study of Education in the Scottish Record Office

W B Marker, Sources for the History of Scottish Teacher Education in the Twentieth Century

L Moore, Researching the Education of Middle Class Girls: with particular reference to private schools

F Bigwood, A Database of sources for West Coast fishing and Trading enterprises 1750-1800

Around the Archives: Clan Donald Archives and Traquair House Archives

Scottish Archives Volume 2 (1996)

S Connelly, The Proper Place for Archives in the New Scottish Local Authorities

I G Brown, 'On Classic Ground': records of the Grand Tour

A J Durie, Sources for the Study of Tourism in Nineteenth Century Scotland

A Hiley, 'Scotland's Name is Poetry to our Ears': German travellers in Scotland c.1800-1860

P G Vasey, 'Visitors and Voyages': a personal selection of travel diaries and related material in the Scottish Record Office

R H Campbell, Irish Paupers in Wigtownshire after 1845

I Levitt, Henry Littlejohn and Scottish Health Policy, 1859-1908

Around the Archives: Aberdeen University Archives and the Highland Regional Archives

Scottish Archives Volume 1 (1995)

P Cadell, The Archives of Scotland

I Morrison, Evidence of Climatic change before and During the Age of Agricultural Improvement

A A Sclater, Picturesque Privacy: landscape improvement at Culzean from c.1750

I D Whyte, Before the Improvers: agriculture and landscape change in lowland Scotland c.1600-c.1750

A Hendry, Archibald Hamilton of Rozelle (1778-1848): the improving hand

R H Campbell, The Agricultural Revolution of the Twentieth Century

M M Stewart, 'In Durance Vile': crime and punishment in seventeenth and eighteenth century Dumfries

M A Crowther, Criminal Precognitions and their Value to the Historian

I Donnachie, Profiling Criminal Offences: the evidence of the Lord Advocate's papers

L Yeoman, The Devil as Doctor: witchcraft, Wodrow and the wider world

J Merchant, The Dundee Maidservants' Agitation 1872 Around the Archives: The Scottish Theatre Archive