At the weekend I posted an article from the Scotsman about some treasures in the Scottish Catholic Archives, and noted how non-historians are increasingly interested in original documents. The recent advent of digitized newspaper archives has transformed much academic research: full-text searches and pdf downloads are now possible from a desktop computer, rather than weeks expended poring over microfilm or crumbling originals. And for the ever-growing army of family historians, it has made life easier too. An unexpected spin-off of this has been that primary materials relating to popular events are now available, often as the freebies, hoping to entice a sale. For example The Times offers reporting from the trial of Oscar Wilde in that same vein; that archive even has its own blog, with a top twenty archive pieces accessed in 2008.
A cache of letters written by Mary Queen of Scots expressing concern about Scotland's political turmoil has recently been discovered in the Scottish Catholic Archives. Other hidden gems, including some papers on the founding of Hibernian Football Club's founding are discussed in the Scotsman article. Perhaps the interesting thing is that archival finds of this nature can hold interest far from the main research user groups.
Posts
All Comments
