University of Glasgow

UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

 
Part of the Library and University Services

Trinity College Library

 

frontispiece from TCL q140

The College was founded in 1856 as a theological college for the ministry of the then Free Church of Scotland. After 100 years, its library had grown to over 75,000 volumes and 14,000 pamphlets, including many personal collections (e.g. the 4,000-volume library of the College’s first Principal, Patrick Fairbairn) and some institutional collections such as the United Presbyterian Synod Library, transferred to the College in 1900. In 1974 the University received from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the entire library of Trinity College, Glasgow. Although the Church of Scotland retained formal ownership of early printed books, it was agreed that they should be placed on permanent deposit in the Special Collections Department of the University Library.

Amongst the Trinity College collections are over 3,000 books printed before 1801, including 18 incunabula. In addition to some 2,000 selected from the general book stock, early printed material was segregated from Glasgow University’s Divinity Hall Library and the personal libraries of John Eadie, James Mearns and Constantin von Tischendorf, which the College had acquired over the years. The incorporation of these books into the University Library's public catalogue is not yet complete.

Finding aids and descriptions

  • A substantial number of records for pre-1820 material has now been incorporated into the main Library catalogue; browse through a list of titles (warning! over 3,000 items are listed here), or search the catalogue in the usual way. The original card catalogue of Trinity College Library is on Level 10; entries for items incorporated in the University Library’s public catalogue or withdrawn as duplicates have been removed.
  • Peter W. Asplin, "Trinity and related collections in Glasgow University Library", Bulletin of the Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries, vol. 2, no. 17 (June 1993), pp. 3-8.
  • Stewart Mechie, Trinity College, Glasgow, 1856-1956. With an account of the College Library by James Mackintosh (Glasgow, 1956), especially pp. 52-76.