Rare Tartan Books available online

[piperdbh]

I agree that the STM should be able to ask for donations here. The work that Matt and the Museum staff do enables a great many people to learn about tartan, Scottish culture, and many other things.

[Mael Coluim]

Matt,
Just posted my first installment of 5 of a pledge to assist in your good work!

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Matt,
Just posted my first installment of 5 of a pledge to assist in your good work!

Wow, thanks Ern, we'll be on the lookout for it!
~Matt

[M. A. C. Newsome]

We continue to add more early tartan resources to the web site. Today, we added the fifty-five tartans illustrated in The Clans of the Highlands of Scotland, by Thomas Smibert (1850).
http://resources.scottishtartans.org/

[M. A. C. Newsome]

We just made available yet another historic tartan reference -- all sixty-nine tartans from The Authenticated Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland, by William and Andrew Smith, c. 1850, have been uploaded to our resources page:
http://resources.scottishtartans.org

This was illustrated using the same machine-painting method that was pioneered with the Vestiarium Scoticum eight years earlier. The Smith brothers insistence on providing authentication for the tartans included in their work (be it from a current clan chief, tartan manufacturer, or general wont and usage) indicates that even at this early time, the VS was generating controversy and doubt as to its legitimacy.

As a teaser, here are some of the tartans illustration in this important work.