The National Library of Scotland's United States collections cover a wide range of topics, from the Civil War to the Cold War, Dixie to Dadaism, and Modernism to Motown.
Our American collections are the largest of the international collections, with material dating from the 17th century to the present day. Within the collections are rare books, manuscripts, periodicals, maps, microforms, and numerous recent publications.
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Subjects
Civil War display
In these collections you will find a range of topics represented, spanning centuries of history and a wide variety of disciplines. Among many others, subjects covered include:
- Politics and presidential history
- History
- Maps
- LGBT studies
- Literature
- Arts and culture
- Philosophy
- Film
- History of the book
- Libraries and librarianship
- Gender studies.
Scotland and the USA
Collecting is especially focused on material about Scotland and the Scots, with relevance to Scotland, or written by important Scots. The United States collections contain material about:
- Scottish-American history
- Scottish culture in the USA
- Scottish emigration to North America.
Highlights
The United States collections contain many treasures, including:
- 'Official Letters to the Honorable American Congress', 1795: Signed by George Washington, first President of the United States
- Henrietta Liston's North American journals, 1796-1801: The wife of British diplomat Robert Liston shares her observations on the newly-independent United States
- Union soldier's American Civil War diary, 1862: The pocket diary of an unknown private
- 'The Yosemite': A first edition of John Muir's travel guide-cum-autobiography, published in New York in 1912 [Library shelfmark: H2.78.861]
- 'Renascence and other poems': A first edition of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry, published in New York in 1917 [Library shelfmark: H.S.450]
- 'Gone with the wind': A first edition of the novel published in New York in 1936, signed by author Margaret Mitchell [Library shelfmark: H.S.705].
Contact us
Contact our United States and Commonwealth Collections Curator for enquiries, suggestions for acquisition, or if you wish to donate material. You can do this by asking a question online.
Additional
American Independence: Past display
In 2012, a small display of treasures from our collections marked the role of the American Revolution in the founding of the USA. See and read about some of the key exhibits used to tell the story
American Civil War: Past display
In 2015, echoes of Union and Confederate voices resonated in a display commemorating the American Civil War