Scottish Life Archive

About this Resource

The Scottish Life Archive collects, records and preserves documentary and illustrative evidence of Scotland's material culture and social history.

It was established in 1959 and the majority of the collection dates from the 1880s to the present day, but there is some material dating from 1700. The archive includes aspects of Scotland's rural, urban, maritime and industrial communities, such as housing, work, warfare, leisure, customs and religion, all arranged by subject.

The Scottish Life Archive consists of a variety of material: an extensive photographic collection and other illustrative material such as drawings, prints, posters, postcards and video recordings. It is also home to a unique collection of manuscripts, letters, diaries, books, leaflets, oral recordings, maps, plans, trade catalogues, paper ephemera and an extensive newspaper cuttings collection.

You can access examples of our collections in NMS collections search (https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/search-our-collections/) and SCRAN (www.scran.ac.uk).

The library holds the finding facility for the archive which contains photographs, references and press clippings.

Organisation

This resource is held by:

Contacts

Resource Details

Resource Type

Primary
Secondary
Online/Digitised
Images/Photographs
Maps
Film
Newspaper
Catalogued
Artefacts

Subject

Agriculture & Horticulture
Archaeology
Architecture, Surveying and Town Planning
Art
Business & Commerce
Crafts
Crofting
Ecclesiastical & Religious
Economic
Education
Emergency Services
Fashion
Gaelic
Gender & Women
Genealogy
Gypsy/Travellers
Historic Buildings
Islands
Manufacturing
Maritime (navy, lighthouses, commercial shipping, and fisheries)
Medicine & Public Health
Military & War
Mining
Monument/Graves
National Dress
Science & Technology
Social Movements
Sports
Television, Media & Film
Textiles
Transport
Urban History
Utilities
WWI
WWII

Geographical Coverage

Era

1700 - 1799
1800 - 1899
1900 - 1945
1945 - 2000
2000 - present

Access

Open to public: see website for opening hours

Online Availability

Remote access available

Official Records

Location

National Museum of Scotland
Chambers Street
Edinburgh
Lothian
EH1 1JF

Other Information

Entry last updated: May 3rd, 2018

Please note that links to websites and catalogues are provided by the Organisations listed and not maintained by Scottish Local History Forum.