Charles Darwin, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and David Livingstone are just four of the famous historical figures whose stories have been brought to life in a major new permanent exhibition at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in Edinburgh.
The John Murray Archive exhibition uses state of the art technology to bring to life eleven characters from the remarkable John Murray Archive, a treasure trove of 150,000 items by some of the greatest writers, politicians, explorers and scientists of the late 18th to the early 20th century.
Established in 1768, John Murray Publishing was founded in the 1760s in Edinburgh, and although today it is owned by the publishers Hodder Headline, seven generations of Murrays have run the business. The letters, journals and manuscripts that relate to this outstanding family business date from 1768 through to 1920.
Famous authors who have passed through the Murray stable include Lord Byron, David Livingstone, Charles Darwin, Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Walter Scott, James Hogg, Sir John Kirk, and Herman Melville to name a few. JMW Turner and David Roberts amongst others provided illustrations for many Murray books.
Using the latest interactive technology, the John Murray Archive Exhibition showcases eleven characters from the archive. Legends like Darwin and Byron and less well known but significant figures such as ‘Queen of Science’ Mary Somerville and 19th century domestic goddess Maria Rundell are featured.
The cast of characters will be refreshed and rotated over time in order to ensure that the exhibition is one that will bring visitors back time and again.
New display technology - never before used in a library or archival exhibition – has been utilised to turn reading letters into an exciting, interactive experience that bridges the gap between the very best ideas of the 19th century with the technology of the 21st.
Each of the eleven figures is represented within a pillar display case, which contains a selection of items from the archive together with representative items designed to tell the story of the character. In front of each pillar is an interactive touch screen display panel where visitors are able to find out more.
Digitised transcripts include the letter in which Darwin pitched the idea for On the Origin of Species and a drawing by David Livingstone as he camped in the rain on the southern edge of Lake Nyassa (now Lake Malawi). Copies of the items on display can even be emailed home so people can study them at their leisure.
A sense of the historical background the Murrays and their authors lived through is brought home via a series of windows onto the ‘World on the Street’, in which animated features depict landmark UK and world events that took place between 1768 and 1920. There is even a recreation of the fireplace in Albemarle Street where John Murray II famously burned the memoirs of Lord Byron.
Contemporary literary figures including established authors like Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin offer their insights whilst an interactive feature allows visitors to design their own book.
The Murray Archive had been independently valued at £45m, but was offered to NLS at a substantially reduced purchase price of £31.2m to keep the Archive in the UK. It arrived at NLS in 2006 with significant financial support from the Scottish Executive and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Library is continuing its fundraising campaign to raise the remaining £5million required to complete the purchase.
The exhibition marks one of the key stages in the Library delivering its promise to make the archive accessible to the people of Scotland and beyond. The work will continue with a series of education and outreach activities. A project under way sees primary school children from Mull producing their own modern-day travel guide based on the travel handbooks published by the Murrays in the 19th century.
A travelling exhibition themed on the publishing industry and containing material on Darwin, Livingstone and Byron will soon be setting off for the Highlands whilst other collaborative projects are also under way with institutions such as the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, as well as a range of other activities both national and international.
NLS has also embarked on an ambitious digitisation programme which will allow people across Scotland and throughout the world to view both scanned images and full transcriptions of thousands of items from the archive.
