New resources - CAHSS - 2021/2022

In 2021/22 the Library extended its subscription to ProQuest Access 350 until 31 July 2023.

These databases allow you to explore 600 years worth of world history and, along with the wide and varied range of digital primary source databases the Library already gives you access to, can help enrich your learning, teaching and research.

Find out more about ProQuest Access 350

The following items, selected from CRC Annual Acquisitions Highlights 2021, are relevant to LLC subject areas.

Buddhist Conceptual Map of the World

Zuda Rokashi, Nansenbushuu Bankoku Shoka No Zu, 1710; Map.S.68

This is the first Japanese map of the world to include Europe and America, from a Buddhist cosmological perspective. It shows a mixture of geographical and mythological information: centred on India, the world is shown as a single landmass, with a few outlying islands. India and China are recognisable, with many place names, and the Himalayas identifiable in the centre. Mythologically, at the very centre of the map is a spiral showing the meeting of the four sacred rivers: the Indus, the Ganges, the Bramaputra, and the Sutlej – the site where the Buddha was legendarily conceived. Europe and America appear right at the edges of the map, as islands.

This map was compiled from many earlier Buddhist sources, and by making selective use of some European maps, which had reached Japan. Its influence was enormous; it formed the basis of the Japanese world view until well into the 19th century

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Sketching for Sir Walter Scott

Album of sketches by Sir James Skene of Rubislaw, 19th century; Coll-2019

This album of c. 420 sketches is the record of an extraordinary creative collaboration. A talented amateur artist, Sir James Skene of Rubislaw (1775-1864) was a close friend of Sir Walter Scott who accompanied him on riding trips to locations that Scott planned to feature in his novels and poems. There, at Scott’s suggestion, Skene made sketches of scenery and buildings that Scott then used as an inspiration and aide-memoire for his own work. Many of the sketches in this album can be linked to trips that Scott and Skene are known to have made together. Some later sketches date from excursions that Skene took alone at Scott’s request, as Scott himself grew ever busier and, with declining health, less physically mobile. The album also includes sketches that were clearly used as source material for published Scott illustrations by professional artists. It seems likely, then, that Scott’s publishers employed Skene to produce preparatory sketches of scenes that would make effective illustrations to Scott’s work.

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An Anniversary Acquisition

Portfolio of documentary photographs by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, 1992-2001; SSSA/JSH1-3

To mark the 70th anniversary of the School of Scottish Studies, the School of Scottish Studies Archive and the Centre for Research Collections teamed up with renowned Scottish photographer, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, to add a landmark collection of photos to the School’s documentary collections. Sutton-Hibbert has worked as a freelance photographer and photojournalist for over 30 years and in 2012 co-founded Document Scotland – a collective of Scottish documentary photographers.

Sutton-Hibbert’s work focusing on Scotland filled a natural gap in the Archive’s extensive photographic holdings, and the team worked with him to identify three series of photographs which would best suit the collection. Selections were made from his North Sea Fishing (1992-1995), the recently demolished Longannet Colliery (2001), and Paddy’s Market (2000) which echoed with coastal working life, Scottish industrial cultures, and urban living which can be found throughout the School’s Archive.

The SSSA70 acquisition includes over 50 beautifully hand-made prints by Sutton-Hibbert and digital files of each of these which can be viewed on our digital image database.