Local History Centre
Local History, situated on the Reference Floor, has a collection of over 20,000 items, including books, pamphlets and directories relating to the
City of Dundee and surrounding areas.
There is also an extensive collection of prints, photographs, postcards, maps and plans.
Local History is at the heart of the Family History Centre, Scotland's first integrated public sector resource, including a unit of the City
Registrars and the Burials Administration.
The Wighton Heritage Centre, home to one of the world's
finest collections of Scottish music, forms an annex to Local History.
Special Collections
- An extensive collection of local newspapers and periodicals dating from 1803
- Maps and Plans - a wide range of maps and plans from early times to date
- Lamb Collection - a unique and varied resource of 450 archive boxes of ephemera, mainly from the latter part of the nineteenth century.
- Family History Collection - including the International Genealogical Index for Scotland and Old Parish Registers and census returns for Dundee and some surrounding areas.
- Taybridge Disaster - a wealth of maps, plans, books, documents, drawings and photographs on the two Tay rail bridges.
- William McGonagall Collection - a wide-ranging collection of works by and about McGonagall.
Presentations
- Photopolis - Over two thousand photographs of Victorian and Edwardian Dundee, supplemented by eight hundred images from the Lawson Brothers' unique sketches of pre-improvement Dundee. Some of these show aspects of the city dating back to mediaeval times.
Features
- Mary Slessor - internationally renowned missionary
- Sir James Ivory - celebrated mathematician
- James Bowman Lindsay - pioneer of electric lighting and wireless telegraphy
- Rare books and manuscripts - Dundee possessed one of Europe's earliest municipal libraries
- Photographic Exhibitions - a selection from displays through the years.
You can order digital images or prints from the various collections and most resources can be photocopied, subject to intellectual property rights and the
condition of the material concerned.
We encourage groups and individuals to visit Local History but ask them to book in advance.
You can contact the staff using our Enquiry Form, or by telephone or email (see details below).
The Local History Centre is open:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - 9.00 am to 6 pm
Wednesday - 10 am to 6 pm
Saturday - 9.30 am to 5 pm
Staff in the Local History Centre may be contacted on :
Tel: 01382 431550
Fax: 01382 431504
Email: local.history@dundeecity.gov.uk
