Bibliography of Published Sources relating to University History

Published sources are often useful background reading before 'plunging' into in-depth, archives-based research. The following list is not exhaustive but is being added to as we identify useful texts to direct people towards.

Some have begun to appear online at the Internet Archive and links are provided to these. Others can be consulted here and links are given to the main Library Catalogue.

Institutional Histories

• History of the University of Edinburgh, from 1580 to 1646 : to which is prefixed the charter granted to the college by James VI of Scotland, in 1582 (View) - Thomas Craufurd (1808)
• The History of the University of Edinburgh: Chiefly Compiled from Original Papers and Records ... (View) - Alexander Bower (1830)
• History of the University of Edinburgh from its foundation (Volume 1 :: Volume 2) - Andrew Dalzel (1862)
• The story of the University of Edinburgh during its first three hundred years (Volume 1 :: Volume 2) - Sir Alexander Grant
  covers the period 1583-1883
• Edinburgh University, A Sketch of its Life for 300 Years (View) (1884)
• University of Edinburgh : Charters, statutes, and acts of the Town council and the Senatus, 1583-1858 (1937) (not available online - local copies)
• History of the University of Edinburgh, 1883-1933 - Sir Arthur Logan Turner (not available online - local copies)
• A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556-1889 - David Bayne Horne (1967) (not available online - local copies)
• Four Centuries: Edinburgh University Life, 1583-1983 - Gordon Donaldson, Ed. (1983) (not available online - local copies)
• The University of Edinburgh : an illustrated history - Anderson, Lynch & Phillipson (2003) (not available online - local copies)

Subject areas, Divisions, Departments

• Britain's first Chair of Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh,1790-1990 : a history of the Chair founded by William Johnstone Pulteney - Fleming & Robertson (1990) (not available online - local copies)
• Engineering at Edinburgh University : a short history, 1673-1983 - Ronald M. Birse (1983) (not available online - local copies)
• Science at the University of Edinburgh 1583-1993 : an illustrated history to mark the centenary of the Faculty of Science and Engineering 1893-1993 - Ronald M. Birse (1994) (not available online - local copies)
• Edinburgh University Library 1580-1980 - Guild & Law, Eds. (1982) (not available online - local copies)
• The Polish School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh : an album - Wiktor Tomaszewski (1983) (not available online - local copies)
• Fifty years of the Polish School of Medicine, the University of Edinburgh : 1941-1991 ; jubilee publication - Wiktor Tomaszewski (1992) (not available online - local copies)
• Moray House and professional education : papers to mark the college's 150th anniversary - Gordon Kirk (1985) (not available online - local copies)
• Edinburgh University Library : an account of its origin with a description of its rarer books and manuscripts - David Cuthbertson (1910) (View)
• Revelations of a library life, 1876-1922 : including recollections of Edinburgh professors; student life, past and present, with many personal adventures and anecdotes - David Cuthbertson (1923) (not available online - local copies)

People

• A catalogue of the graduates in the faculties of arts, divinity, and law, of the University of Edinburgh since its foundation (1858) (View)
  a list of all graduates (except Medicine), 1587-1858
• Alphabetical list of graduates of the University of Edinburgh from 1859 to 1888 (both years included) with historical appendix (including present and past office bearers) and separate lists of honorary graduates and graduates with honours (1889) (View)
  a list of all graduates, 1859-1888 with various appendices
• Nomina Eorum Qui Gradum Medicinæ Doctoris in Academia Jacobi Sexti Scoturum Regis .... (Graduates in Medicine 1705-1845) (1846) (not available online - local copies)
• List of Graduates in Medicine in the University of Edinburgh 1705-1866 (1867) (not available online - local copies)
• Quasi cursores; portraits of the high officers and professors of the University of Edinburgh at its tercentenary festival (View) - William Hole (1884)
• Medical women; a thesis and a history - Sophia Jex-Blake (1886) (View)
  the battle for women's right to attend and graduate
• Roll of honour, 1914-1919 (1921) (View)
  Roll of the fallen and of war service - staff, students, alumni
• The University Portraits, with biographies (1957 & 1986) (not available online - local copies: Vol. 1, Vol. 2
• Edinburgh University worthies : biographies of selected pre-1901 alumni and staff of the University of Edinburgh (1999) (not available online - local copies)
• Medical education in the Age of Improvement : Edinburgh students and apprentices, 1760-1826 - Lisa Rosner (1991) (not available online - local copies)

Campus and Buildings

• The past hundred years : the buildings of the University of Edinburgh - Charles H. Stewart (1973) (not available online - local copies)
• The Building of Old College: Adam, Playfair and the University of Edinburgh - Andrew Fraser (1989) (not available online - local copies)
• Saint Cecilia's Hall in the Niddry Wynd; a chapter in the history of the music of the past in Edinburgh - David Fraser Harris (1899) (View) See also the 1984 reprint with foreward by Peter Williams
• The Temple of Harmony: A New Architectural History of St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh - Joe Rock, Martin Hillman & Antonia J Bunch (2011) in Architectural Heritage, Volume 20, Page 55-74

Student Life, Clubs and Societies

• College echoes : sketches and scenes of university life at Edinburgh - David Cuthbertson (1890) (not available online - local copies)
• The Story of Edinburgh University Athletic Club - C. M. Usher (1966) (not available online - local copies)
• Edinburgh University Tea Club 1920-45 - Clara Ashworth (1946) (not available online - local copies)

Please note that the page is still being developed