Archives & Special Collections

Scottish Business Archive

Introduction

We hold internationally important collections of business records covering the whole of Scotland and beyond dating from the 18th century to the present.  These reflect the contribution and breadth of activity that Scotland’s business, industry and enterprise has made, and continues to make, to the world economy.

The Scottish Business Archive covers almost all types of business and industrial activity in Scotland and the UK with over 400 collections from banking, confectioners and distillers to retail, solicitors and undertakers. Our holdings are particularly strong in relation to industrial concerns in the west of Scotland such as shipbuilding, railway locomotive manufacture, textiles and mining. They contain a wide variety of records including minute books, financial ledgers, legal documents, marketing material, production papers, staff records and photographs, providing invaluable insights into all areas of business activity.

Further information about the history of the Scottish Business Archive.

Featured Collections

The featured collections section highlights some of the collections held by the Scottish Business Archive, including the House of Fraser Archive, James Finlay & Co and the Stoddard-Templeton.

Catalogues

Use University Collections search to discover our business archives.  

Guides

These guides list the main collections we hold, of records of businesses and organisations, which are relevant to the following research topics:

• Aircraft construction industry (2 pages, 46kB, pdf)  
• Architecture (4 pages, 173kB, pdf)
• Army & Navy Co-operative Society fireams records (3 pages, 442kB, pdf)
• Banking (2 pages, 37kB, pdf)
• Barr & Stroud Ltd Binoculars (2 pages, 142kB, pdf)
• Barr & Stroud Ltd Rangefinders(2 pages, 32kB, pdf)
• Blockade running during the American Civil War (5 pages, 158kB, pdf)
• Brewing (74 pages, 819kB, pdf)
• Brewing Library (7 pages, 151kB, pdf)
• Business collections with items dated before 1800 (4 pages, 48kB, pdf)
• Chemical and pharmaceutical industry (3 pages, 38kB, pdf)
• Drinks Industry (30 pages, 444kB, pdf)
• Employers associations (4 pages, 164kB, pdf)
• Engineering (4 pages, 169kB, pdf)
• Food and agriculture (4 pages, 83kB, pdf)
• James Finlay & Co - Guide to Staff Managers and Assistants Letterbooks
• Lloyds Registers of Shipping (2 pages, 48kB, pdf) 
• Locomotives and Railways (3 pages, 79kB, pdf)
• Marketing (2 pages, 42kB, pdf)
• Mining (3 pages, 99kB, pdf)
• North British Locomotive (1 page, 39kB, pdf)
• Paisley businesses (9 pages, 148kB, pdf)
• Printing and publishing (1 page, 32kB, pdf
• Scottish railways (4 pages, 56kB, pdf)
• Ship building, ship repair and allied industries (10 pages, 177kB, pdf)
• Ship passenger lists (3 pages, 50kB, pdf) 
• Shipping companies (10 pages, 226kB, pdf)
• Ships built on the River Clyde
• Solicitors (1 page, 33kB, pdf)
• Stoddard-Templeton collection (4 pages, 187kB, pdf)
• Sugar industry (1 page, 31kB, pdf)
• Temperance (4 pages, 341kB, pdf)
• Textile industry (24 pages, 258kB, pdf)
• War studies (8 pages, 238kB, pdf)
• Whisky industry (3 pages, 91kB, pdf)
• Womens history (4 pages, 174kB, pdf)
• Wylie & Lochhead funeral order books (2 pages, 48kB, pdf)

For a comprehensive list of all our research guides, please go to A-Z of guides.

Sources elsewhere

Post Office Directories for Scotland for up to 1912 are available online courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.