Introducing 12 of the major plays and major playwrights of Scotland. See images from theatre productions and related archive material

Find out about the immediate impact of the First World War on life in Scotland

Scotland's first printed medical book (1568), written in Scots. Learn the history of the plague in Scotland. Downloadable learning activities

Volumes spanning over 200 years detailing mostly printed items, with some manuscripts, held by the Advocates Library

Items from 1891 onwards published by An Comunn Gàidhealach, which organises the annual Royal National Mòd

Listings of corporations, foreign residents and government agencies of all nationalities in Asia, 1917 to 1941

Read about the remarkable record of mapmaking and printing by the world-famous Bartholomew firm in Edinburgh from 1820 to 2002

Biographies of famous Scotsmen and some women, mostly of the 16th to the 19th centuries. Over 30 engraved portraits

Editions of two magazines published for Britain's fighting forces between 1917 and 1919, with pictures, stories, poems and humour

A report for each year from 1979 to 1989 summarising Britain's government policies, initiatives and public services

Explore more than 2,000 broadsides printed between 1501 and 1897 covering a wide range of subjects

Five volumes about the counties of Scotland, published in 1887. Includes parish histories and a dictionary of places

Photos, audio recordings, floor plans and more help tell the story of the famous Bartholomew mapmakers of Edinburgh

Medieval and early modern manuscripts from Scotland and beyond, including rare volumes and items with striking illuminations

Delve into the first 10 editions of 'Encyclopaedia Britannica', published from 1771 to 1903.

The First World War experiences of four very different people — the General, the Nurse, the Soldier, and the Conscientious Objector

Black-and-white photographs mainly of the Western Front during the First World War. From the papers of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig

Songs written by Gaelic bards Iain Lom and Sìleas na Ceapaich. Available in Gaelic and English. Downloadable PDFs for teachers

Browse and search 20 volumes of the most popular descriptive gazetteers of 19th-century Scotland, covering towns, counties, parishes, glens and more

Take a swing through golf's early history. Key documents, including the first 'rules' of the game, show how golf developed in Scotland

Read our rare copy of the first book in Europe to be printed with moveable type. Johannes Gutenberg printed it in Germany around 1455

Documents and drawings of Scottish castles, landscapes, churches and other religious buildings, collected by George Henry Hutton

Adventurous Victorian travel writer Isabella Bird took photographs as she journeyed in the Far East, Persia and Morocco

A set of 42 volumes of 'The British Poets' series (1773) with bindings by James Scott of Edinburgh

Magazines representing a key moment in Scottish women's history. Published between 1865 and 1880, with general interest articles, fiction and poetry

Publications produced by the League of Nations (1919-1945), covering non-political functions, statistics and background information

Manuscripts relating to Lord Byron (1788 to 1824), including poems, journals and selected letters

Volume one of Walter Macfarlane's collection of genealogies of ancient Scottish families, compiled around 1750

An interactive guide to reading historical maps and using them to learn more about your area. Downloadable PDFs for teachers

Search 426 volumes of rare official documents recording disease prevention and public health in India in the 19th and 20th centuries

Learn about John William Moir's collection of rare books on all aspects of bees and beekeeping, including how bees 'sing'!

Watch films from Scotland's national moving images collection, which preserves over 100 years of Scottish history on film and video

View each page of this book of prayer dated 1280 – one of the most richly illustrated manuscripts in Scotland during the Middle Ages

Volumes recording acreages of fields and land-use information for Scotland's parishes from 1855 to 1882

Read the journal written by Patrick ('Paddy') Leigh Fermor when he travelled on foot around Europe in 1933

Examine in detail Traquair's exquisite illuminated manuscript of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'Sonnets from the Portuguese'

Black-and-white photos of tenements and shops around St Leonards, Edinburgh, taken in 1929 by Alfred Henry Rushbrook

A selection of images of British Government propaganda which was used at home and in Europe during the Second World War

Books, pamphlets and chapbooks printed in Gaelic between 1631 and 1900. Includes songs, poetry and religious books

Books and pamphlets on education and the founding of libraries, printed between 1460 and 1900

A biography of story-teller and poet Robert Louis Stevenson, along with digitised early editions of 'Kidnapped' and other works

Castles, abbeys, battle grounds, harbours and landscapes in Scotland are among the subjects in this 19th-century book of engravings and descriptions

Move along the timeline of key events in Scottish history, and discover along the way some of the 'treasures' held by the Library

Photographs showing the building of the Forth Bridge, taken from 1886 to 1887, and the Tay Bridge after its collapse in 1879

Explore the spirit of enquiry, debate, and improvement which characterised the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century

Original source material illustrating Scotland’s history from the 12th to 20th centuries, published by the Scottish History Society, with authoritative commentaries

Scottish school exam papers from 1888 to 1963, education development information, and original creative 're-sits' of old exam questions

There are 17 of William Shakespeare's plays in these 31 books, printed in quarto format between 1600 and 1639

Dozens of zoomable engravings show us Scottish towns, castles and palaces from the 17th-century, as seen by military surveyor John Slezer

Volumes from two archives featuring 18th and 19th century Scottish printed music, and from one archive of the works of Verdi

Match programmes, club histories, handbooks, reports and other sports publications from the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Chapbooks about events from the 1790s to the Battle of Waterloo, mostly ballads about military conflicts with Napoleon Bonaparte

This London-based newspaper was a key title of the spiritualist movement in the 19th century

Photographs of Glasgow taken by Thomas Annan in the 1860s, with related maps and downloadable learning activities

This site charts the continuum of the Scots language in printed form, from the 15th century to the present day

Out-of-copyright Scottish poetry, prose and children’s stories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries

10 things you need to know about maps, how they are made and how we use them. Includes interactive quizzes and downloadable PDFs for teachers