Catch up

Curator Paula Williams explores the National Library of Scotland's collections to find the voices of Scotland's women mountaineers and reveal their stories in this recorded webinar.

Women's writing and voices are often hushed in cultural heritage collections. Vanishing behind their husband's names, publishing for a socially critical audience, or simply being banished to a footnote, women are obscured. In preparation for our forthcoming exhibition, Library Curator Paula Williams explores our collections to find the voices of early female mountaineers and reveal their individual stories.

Talk given on 15 September 2020.

Professor Bettina Bildhauer and Dr Camilla Røstvik discuss menstruation, period poverty, and challenging taboos in this recorded webinar.

Scotland is leading the global campaign against period poverty, menstrual cups are fashionable, athletes are discussing their cycles, and trans activists are vocal about menstruating. But the old stigma remains.

Why have people long been ashamed of menstruating? How have artists, thinkers and activists challenged that shame? What drives Holyrood's current legislation for the free provision of period products?

Talk given on 3 September 2020.

Lisa Williams addresses how thinkers in the Scottish Enlightenment contributed to ideas of race and racial hierarchies in this recorded talk.

Ideas of race influenced the debates by Enlightenment thinkers concerning slavery and colonialism and lofty philosophical ideals of liberty and equality were often limited in their application. Enlightenment scholars of African descent were able to use these principles to critique the morality of chattel slavery and fight for the liberty of 'free coloureds' and enslaved Africans in the West Indies.

Talk given on 25 August 2020.

During what would have been the first week of the 2020 Edinburgh International Festival, we take you on a quick tour through Edinburgh Festivals of the past from the collections of Scotland's Moving Image Archive.

Look out for glimpses of Fonteyn, Menuhin, Dietrich, Burton and Bloom. There’s opera, theatre, art and classical music … Mid-century graphics, Mounties, the Military Tattoo … Hippies dancing in the street … A selection of clips that captures the mayhem and tranquillity of this great showcase for the arts.

Talk given on 11 August 2020.

Matthew Lee, a PhD student co-supervised by staff at the Library, examines Scotland's relationship with the Atlantic slave trade in this talk.

He shares interesting and complicated stories revealed by the Library collections during a recent cataloguing project.

Talk given on Tuesday 25 February 2020.