National Fund for Acquisitions

1976-
Scottish government support for national heritage acquisitions

Since 1976 the National Fund for Acquisitions (and for some years before that as the Local Museums Purchase Fund) has worked with and supported Edinburgh University Library by helping it and the Friends of Edinburgh University Library, with matching grants, to purchase material for the Library's collections as part of the national heritage. Sometimes these have been substantial manuscript archives, such as that of the literary critic John Middleton Murry, or the literary papers of the poet Norman MacCaig, or of printed books, such as "English Language 1600-1800", a collection of 69 editions of English dictionaries, grammars and related works published during the 17th and 18th centuries. Other acquisitions have been single of few items which have enhanced or filled gaps in the collections, such as three volumes from the library of William Drummond of Hawthornden, or an author's presentation copy of Allan Ramsay's "Poems" in 2 volumes (1721-1728), or Arthur Koestler's correspondence with Daphne Hardy Henrion (1940-1941)

Without this support, the Library could not have maintained these collections as part of the national heritage.