Books and Borrowing 1750-1830
‘Books and Borrowing: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers, 1750-1830’
This project (under the auspices of the University of Stirling, the University of Glasgow and the Arts and Humanities Research Council) uncovers and reinterprets the history of reading in Scotland in the period 1750 to 1830. Using formerly unexplored (or underexplored) borrowing records, the members of the project are undertaking cutting-edge research, and creating a valuable new resource that will reveal hidden histories of book use, knowledge dissemination and participation in literate culture.
This includes information about the "Water Drinkers" of the Leighton Library, tourists who travelled from Dunblane to drink from the mineral springs a few miles north of the town from 1815 to 1833. This contextualises the borrowings of the Water Drinkers within Dunblane’s history as a spa town, as well as information about the borrowers themselves: who the Water Drinkers were, how they used the library, where they travelled from, and the books that they borrowed.