Scottish Collections at Guelph

The University of Guelph Library is well known for its extensive Scottish Studies Collection that is the largest in the world outside the United Kingdom. Begun after 1965, it encompasses both Scottish and Scottish-Canadian history and supports many areas of research.

The special collections and archives, which comprise part of the overall library collection on Scottish Studies, include thousands of rare books, manuscripts, atlases, travel guides, diaries, letters, newspapers and magazines, pamphlets and burgh records.

Archival and special collections contains materials on many Scottish topics such as topography, rural and agricultural studies, business, chapbooks, family and clan information, emigration, the Jacobite rebellions, local history, and church and religious history (especially the Disruption). Most of our materials and rare books related to Scottish-Canadian history are located in the Regional and Canadian history sections; for example, John Galt and the Canada Company, the Lizars Family and Pioneer Collection, and MacIntosh Duff Collection.

In addition to print resources, hundreds of electronic texts on many aspects of Scottish history from 1500-1800 are available for registered Guelph users in Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online. The full-text of the venerable Scotsman is also available in digital format for searching from 1817-1950 for registered users.

Print resources can be used by anyone by visiting us, it is not necessary to be registered! More extensive information can be accessed by consulting our collections overview guide on the sidebar, by searching our library collections using Primo.