Murray Minted
Ruth Boreham outlines the history of the famous publishing dynasty whose archive has been preserved for the nation and is now accessible to all at the National Library of Scotland.
In March 2006 the John Murray Archive moved from Albemarle Street, London, to its new, permanent home in the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Change of ownership was made possible by a major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a large contribution by the Scottish Executive and a sustained and ongoing fundraising campaign. It is the most significant archive to become publicly available in the last 100 years. Since the 1760s seven generations of the Murray family have maintained an archive of 150,000 items, including business papers, correspondence and original manuscripts. The archive at present available at the National Library of Scotland covers the years 1768 to the 1920s. Its richness derives from the range of individuals represented, including great thinkers and writers who shaped the nineteenth century in literature, travel and exploration, science, engineering and technology, politics and religion.
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