Isla H. Macfarlane
@bibliophisla.bsky.social
☞ PhD Candidate with Innerpeffray Library and Stirling University. Researching nineteenth-century visitors' books, borrowing records, and library history. Book and cat lover. She/her.
Pinned
I'm Isla, a doctoral candidate at Stirling University, working with @innerpeffray.bsky.social on nineteenth-century book & library history - particularly their beautiful and fascinating visitors' books.
I am officially on maternity leave from today! Next time I visit @innerpeffray.bsky.social, I'll be emulating the Herbinsons and Dunlop families from July 1897 by signing the visitors' book with 'Baby' in tow! 👶
July 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM
I am officially on maternity leave from today! Next time I visit @innerpeffray.bsky.social, I'll be emulating the Herbinsons and Dunlop families from July 1897 by signing the visitors' book with 'Baby' in tow! 👶
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
Hi! If anyone has a spare 15 minutes to fill out a short survey about their opinions on museums it would be very much appreciated.
Just click this link: forms.gle/LgCSvTSYTjRK...
Please repost or share with anyone you feel would also like to take part!
#UKmuseums #culturalheritage
Just click this link: forms.gle/LgCSvTSYTjRK...
Please repost or share with anyone you feel would also like to take part!
#UKmuseums #culturalheritage
July 27, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Hi! If anyone has a spare 15 minutes to fill out a short survey about their opinions on museums it would be very much appreciated.
Just click this link: forms.gle/LgCSvTSYTjRK...
Please repost or share with anyone you feel would also like to take part!
#UKmuseums #culturalheritage
Just click this link: forms.gle/LgCSvTSYTjRK...
Please repost or share with anyone you feel would also like to take part!
#UKmuseums #culturalheritage
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
Why not start your week with blowing the perfect soap bubbles while running naked and jumping over a skull?
July 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Why not start your week with blowing the perfect soap bubbles while running naked and jumping over a skull?
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
Very exciting to see @physiciansgallery.bsky.social's The People's Dispensary published online! I loved working on this project a few years ago — sometimes I can still see Dr Andrew Duncan's handwriting when I close my eyes...
www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...
www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...
The People's Dispensary
www.rcpe.ac.uk
July 28, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Very exciting to see @physiciansgallery.bsky.social's The People's Dispensary published online! I loved working on this project a few years ago — sometimes I can still see Dr Andrew Duncan's handwriting when I close my eyes...
www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...
www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispe...
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
John Everett Millais was a friend of Rupert Potter, father of Beatrix, and they both enjoyed visiting Scotland. The Potters visited Innerpeffray in 1868 and you can read more in @bibliophisla.bsky.social blog innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/beatrix-pott...
Beatrix Potter at Innerpeffray - Innerpeffray Library
As it is the 155th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth on the 28th July 2021, we are celebrating by exploring some of the links between Beatrix Potter and the Library of Innerpeffray. Helen Beatrix ...
innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk
July 26, 2025 at 9:20 AM
John Everett Millais was a friend of Rupert Potter, father of Beatrix, and they both enjoyed visiting Scotland. The Potters visited Innerpeffray in 1868 and you can read more in @bibliophisla.bsky.social blog innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/beatrix-pott...
This is what I have so far for my handover notes, hoping to help myself hit the ground running when I return to the PhD after maternity leave. I think it'll be really helpful. 🙃
July 23, 2025 at 3:59 PM
This is what I have so far for my handover notes, hoping to help myself hit the ground running when I return to the PhD after maternity leave. I think it'll be really helpful. 🙃
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
#skyhistorians We are looking forward to our Divergent Minds in the Archive workshops in Cardiff (29 July) & Liverpool (14 Aug). There’s still time to sign up & we are looking for a broad group of archive users! We have travel bursaries & can if needed help with hotel accommodation. More details👇
July 14, 2025 at 11:38 AM
#skyhistorians We are looking forward to our Divergent Minds in the Archive workshops in Cardiff (29 July) & Liverpool (14 Aug). There’s still time to sign up & we are looking for a broad group of archive users! We have travel bursaries & can if needed help with hotel accommodation. More details👇
Great fun the last couple of days at @natlibscot.bsky.social comparing nine editions of Murray's Handbook for Scotland (1867-1913), looking at how the descriptions of @innerpeffray.bsky.social as a visitor attraction/tourist destination have changed throughout time. #librarytourism
July 2, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Great fun the last couple of days at @natlibscot.bsky.social comparing nine editions of Murray's Handbook for Scotland (1867-1913), looking at how the descriptions of @innerpeffray.bsky.social as a visitor attraction/tourist destination have changed throughout time. #librarytourism
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
The government response to this petition is infuriating.
“Maternity and other types of Parental Pay are intended to provide a measure of financial security to support parents whilst they are away from the workplace; they are not a replacement of earnings” except they literally are??? Please sign:
“Maternity and other types of Parental Pay are intended to provide a measure of financial security to support parents whilst they are away from the workplace; they are not a replacement of earnings” except they literally are??? Please sign:
Petition: Raise statutory maternity/paternity pay to match the National Living Wage
Statutory maternity and paternity pay is £4.99 per hour for a full-time worker on 37.5 hours per week - approximately 59% less than the 2024 National Living Wage of £12.21 per hour for workers aged 21...
petition.parliament.uk
June 25, 2025 at 9:13 PM
The government response to this petition is infuriating.
“Maternity and other types of Parental Pay are intended to provide a measure of financial security to support parents whilst they are away from the workplace; they are not a replacement of earnings” except they literally are??? Please sign:
“Maternity and other types of Parental Pay are intended to provide a measure of financial security to support parents whilst they are away from the workplace; they are not a replacement of earnings” except they literally are??? Please sign:
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
Rock on! For #ManiculeMonday here’s a handy example of a reader highlighting text passages that I spotted in @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social MS. Laud Misc. 651 📜🤘
June 23, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Rock on! For #ManiculeMonday here’s a handy example of a reader highlighting text passages that I spotted in @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social MS. Laud Misc. 651 📜🤘
Very important announcement - the bears are back! It's time to watch these beautiful brown bears get super fat over the summer 🐻 explore.org/livecams/bro...
Bear Cam - live from Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park | Explore.org
Watch LIVE as hundreds of Alaskan Brown Bears descend on a mile-long stretch of the Brooks River to feast on the largest Sockeye Salmon run in the world.
explore.org
June 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Very important announcement - the bears are back! It's time to watch these beautiful brown bears get super fat over the summer 🐻 explore.org/livecams/bro...
Absolutely not! I do not consent, I don't like it, make it stop.
June 16, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Absolutely not! I do not consent, I don't like it, make it stop.
I've got some reading to do before baby arrives, courtesy of @innerpeffray.bsky.social!
June 11, 2025 at 1:35 PM
I've got some reading to do before baby arrives, courtesy of @innerpeffray.bsky.social!
I have witnessed two separate people being SO RUDE to @natlibscot.bsky.social staff today and the NLS staff being unfailingly polite in return. It's not that hard to treat people with common decency - especially when they are just trying to help you!
June 4, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I have witnessed two separate people being SO RUDE to @natlibscot.bsky.social staff today and the NLS staff being unfailingly polite in return. It's not that hard to treat people with common decency - especially when they are just trying to help you!
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
No email has ever found me well.
May 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM
No email has ever found me well.
I love a little drama on a Wednesday morning! 💒 On 4 May 1872, the Revd and (allegedly) Mrs A. M. Gibson visited @innerpeffray.bsky.social together and signed the visitors' book - but they weren't actually married until the 21st of May, almost three weeks later!
May 28, 2025 at 9:46 AM
I love a little drama on a Wednesday morning! 💒 On 4 May 1872, the Revd and (allegedly) Mrs A. M. Gibson visited @innerpeffray.bsky.social together and signed the visitors' book - but they weren't actually married until the 21st of May, almost three weeks later!
I just stumbled across an old article in The Central Queensland Herald, Australia, by an international visitor to @innerpeffray.bsky.social - Miss Constance Bardsley visited Innerpeffray with 2 others on 1st July, 1937. On her return home, she wrote about her 6-month world tour in her local paper.
May 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
I just stumbled across an old article in The Central Queensland Herald, Australia, by an international visitor to @innerpeffray.bsky.social - Miss Constance Bardsley visited Innerpeffray with 2 others on 1st July, 1937. On her return home, she wrote about her 6-month world tour in her local paper.
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
It's been a busy year for the Books and Borrowing Team - even though the project technically ended a year ago! Highlights include winning the @bsecs.bsky.social Digital Prize for 2025, a doctorate for @smithjj.bsky.social, and many new publications on the way...
'A Year of Books and Borrowing'- read Katie Halsey's round-up here: borrowing.stir.ac.uk/a-year-of-bo... 😃📖📚
Books and Borrowing 1750-1830 :: A Year of Books and Borrowing
borrowing.stir.ac.uk
May 23, 2025 at 9:49 AM
It's been a busy year for the Books and Borrowing Team - even though the project technically ended a year ago! Highlights include winning the @bsecs.bsky.social Digital Prize for 2025, a doctorate for @smithjj.bsky.social, and many new publications on the way...
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
'A Year of Books and Borrowing'- read Katie Halsey's round-up here: borrowing.stir.ac.uk/a-year-of-bo... 😃📖📚
Books and Borrowing 1750-1830 :: A Year of Books and Borrowing
borrowing.stir.ac.uk
May 23, 2025 at 9:41 AM
'A Year of Books and Borrowing'- read Katie Halsey's round-up here: borrowing.stir.ac.uk/a-year-of-bo... 😃📖📚
Clearly this display at my local library was a work in progress but also... pretty apt!
May 23, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Clearly this display at my local library was a work in progress but also... pretty apt!
Genuine question - how does anyone get anything done while pregnant?? I've just hit the 3rd trimester and I am e x h a u s t e d 😴
May 22, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Genuine question - how does anyone get anything done while pregnant?? I've just hit the 3rd trimester and I am e x h a u s t e d 😴
On holiday last week I sadly couldn't see the Franciscan Library in Sorrento as it was all covered up by cloth panels (the woman running the exhibition seemed so confused that I actually wanted to see the library itself) but I did get to make traditional paper at a 13th century paper mill in Amalfi!
May 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
On holiday last week I sadly couldn't see the Franciscan Library in Sorrento as it was all covered up by cloth panels (the woman running the exhibition seemed so confused that I actually wanted to see the library itself) but I did get to make traditional paper at a 13th century paper mill in Amalfi!
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
Very excited for the installation of 'Reading Forms; A Site-Specific Exhibition' today! Gorgeous work by textile Artist Helen Gallogly will be on display at Innerpeffray during May, with a launch event tomorrow eve and tours & talks throughout the month.
May 1, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Very excited for the installation of 'Reading Forms; A Site-Specific Exhibition' today! Gorgeous work by textile Artist Helen Gallogly will be on display at Innerpeffray during May, with a launch event tomorrow eve and tours & talks throughout the month.
Reposted by Isla H. Macfarlane
Join our team and our special guests Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Sir Alexander McCall Smith, Author for an introduction to Innerpeffray and its collections. There will be a short demonstration a chance to ask questions about the collection and the catalogue.
April 17, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Join our team and our special guests Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Sir Alexander McCall Smith, Author for an introduction to Innerpeffray and its collections. There will be a short demonstration a chance to ask questions about the collection and the catalogue.