Robert Burns & 18th Century Scotland

G. Ross Roy, Distinguished Professor of English & Comparative Literature, Emeritus, taught at the University of South Carolina from 1965 to 1990.  He is best known for his edition of The Letters of Robert Burns, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985) and as founder, and for nearly fifty years sole editor, of the journal Studies in Scottish Literature. 

In 1990, Dr. and Mrs. Roy established the W. Ormiston Roy Fellowship in memory of Dr. Roy's grandfather, initially to support visiting scholars for up to five weeks research in the Roy Collection, though most now visit for shorter periods. Since 2008, the endowment has also supported occasional Ormiston Roy Lectures by distinguished scholars. Over twenty scholars have benefitted from this support.  The festschrift for Dr. Roy, Robert Burns & Friends (2012), contained essays by thirteen of the earlier Roy Fellows. 

The G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns, Burnsiana, & Scottish Poetry is the most comprehensive collection outside Scotland of material by and about Burns. In addition to Burns, the collection covers in depth other Scottish poets from 1707 to the present day, from Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson in the 18th century, through Walter Scott and James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson in the 19th century, to Hugh MacDiarmid and later poets in the 20th century, along with a host of lesser known writers.  Other Scottish collections in the Irvin Department (notably Hume and Carlyle) further broaden the research possibilities.  

The Roy Collection is housed in the Irvin Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, Hollings Special Collections Library (entered from the main floor of Thomas Cooper Library).  Books may be consulted by registered readers in the Smith Reading Room, Hollings Library, which is normally open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday (except holidays).  Contact the Irvin Department for further information.

Items in the Roy Collection (including manuscripts) are cataloged in the University's on-line catalogue; within individual entries, scroll down the entry to get much fuller information about the particular copies than normal library cataloguing.

Because of the sheer number of Burns items in the catalogue it is generally best to skip Quick Search and go direct to Advanced Search.  Before searching, set the search to "USC Libraries," and set the materials to Books or Manuscripts as relevant.  For most searches, it is also best to enter at least one search term in addition to author and title, for instance a publisher's name or (for books about Burns) a subject in the keyword box,  It may also be wise to limit the search to a particular date range (e.g. 1786-1796. for works published in Burns's lifetime).

A good resource for browsing the Roy Collection is the illustrated catalogue by Elizabeth Sudduth with assistance from Clayton Tarr,  published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2009.  The full illustrated catalogue is also available for free download from the libraries'  Scholar-Commons .  This catalogue also includes expanded notes about some of the major items, but does not give local call numbers.  For call numbers, and for items added to the collection since 2008, consult the relevant entries in the main library on-line catalogue.