I recently wrote a blog-post about Alexander Campbell, for the Romantic National Song Network. Campbell was one of “my” song-collectors, who occupied a good bit of my time whilst I was writing my PhD thesis and subsequently my book. (And I learned a whole lot more about his “trip-advisor”, Sir John Macgregor Murray, when I was writing a paper for that seminar at the Sorbonne last year!)
Here’s the link to the blogpost, which went live this evening. Get yourself a cuppa and settle down for a read …
https://rnsn.glasgow.ac.uk/song-collector-alexander-campbell/
Image:- Lanrick Castle Gatehouse, entrance to Sir John Macgregor Murray’s home (Campbell’s trip-advisor!)
Post Script! By the way, James D Hobson has just posted a great blogpost, A Guide to the Georgian Coaching Inn. Read about the kind of experience Alexander Campbell may have had, on the occasions he travelled by coach or stayed at an inn!
Today, I attended the first meeting of a new research network – the Cultural History of Glasgow Network, organised jointly between the Open University in Scotland, and Glasgow City Archives, and funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It was hosted by the Mitchell Library, Glasgow’s impressive flagship central public library. It’s always interesting to be involved with a new collaboration introducing a different mix of people, and this one’s particularly interesting being so close to home, as it were!
As I’ve mentioned recently, this is another network with which I’ve been involved. Last week, the new website of the Romantic National Song Network was launched – and yesterday, my contributed guest blogpost about a Scottish song – Afton Water – went live. It draws heavily on my doctoral research into Scottish song-collecting, but I like to think that my present interest in the wider context (collecting, publishing, curating) has also influenced my approach. I was certainly very glad of the National Library of Scotland’s 
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 