The growth of the Scottish newspaper industry and the development of news production is bein charted in a new exhibition.
Read All About It! tells the story of the news in Scotland and features a selection of material from the millions of newspapers in the library’s collection spanning 400 years.
The Edinburgh-based exhibition, which opened this week at the National Library of Scotland, also looks at why why people have such a huge appetite for reading news.
National librarian Martyn Wade said: “Newspapers are the heartbeat of the nation and chronicle every facet of life in Scotland.
“This exhibition will give people a flavour of the fascinating, interesting, puzzling and often bizarre stories that have interested readers over the centuries.”
Items on display will include original printed sheets and newspapers, together with external exhibits such as an 18th-century wooden printing press and printing furniture from Robert Smail’s Printing Works at Innerleithen.
Visitors will also be able see unique vintage documentary footage of newspaper production and listen to audio of shouts of newspaper sellers in towns and cities across the country.
There will also be a number of related events throughout the course of the exhibition, including a series of all-day printing workshops and a seminar on the problems and merits of war reporting, held by Sunday Herald associate editor Trevor Royle.
The exhibition, which is open daily, will run until October 31. For more information visit www.nls.uk.
It is the first time the broadsides – which filled the place now occupied by the tabloid press – have been available to the public in a digital format, and have been drawn together from across the library’s vast collection.
Broadsides were sold in the thousands on the street by hawkers and peddlers and cost a halfpenny or a penny. At first they were used for the printing of royal proclamations and official notices, but later served as a vehicle for political agitation and what is now known as ‘popular culture’ such as ballads, songs and scaffold speeches.
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