A selection of items from the library of Professor Sidney TM Newman (1906-1971), Reid Professor of Music in Edinburgh University, 1941-1970. It comprises 1,157 books and maps relating to every aspect of roads and road travel, from early topographies of Raphael Holinshed and William Camden through to 19th century road books and itineraries by John Cary and others. The collection includes histories of road making and where possible, relevant government and official publications relating to the growth of the British road system. Newman sought bibliographical completeness, and there are often multiple editions of particular works, with the differences carefully recorded in a series of notebooks that also form part of the collection.

Maps include those illustrating many editions of 18th and 19th century guide books and itineraries, many antiquarian and topographical works, as well as copies of 18th century county maps of Scotland, where Newman saw a value in their delineation of the growing road system. There are multiple editions of John Ogilby’s 'Britannia' (1678), George Taylor and Andrew Skinner's 'Survey and maps of the roads of North Britain or Scotland', (1776), and Cary’s 'New Itinerary' (1798). There are copies of major folio atlases including William Roy's 'Military antiquities of the Romans in North Britain' (1793) and John Thomson’s 'Atlas of Scotland', finally completed in 1832. In the 19th century, works by Edinburgh map publishers such as John Bartholomew & Co, Adam and Charles Black, Gall & Inglis, and W and AK Johnston are well-represented, and many works which illustrate the development of railway, cycling and motor travel.

Organisation

The collection, which contains a copy of Newman's own catalogue of it, is held as part of the Library's map collections. The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'Newman.'.

Acquisition

The collection was purchased in 1973.

Online resources

Selective maps of Scotland, county maps and town plans, including William Roy’s 'Military antiquities of the Romans in North Britain' (1793), are online at Library's maps website.