Alan Orr Anderson (1879–1958) was a Scottish historian and compiler. The son of Rev. John Anderson and Ann Masson, he was born in 1879. He was educated at Royal High School,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. In 1908, after five years of work sponsored by the

Carnegie Trust The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust is an independent, endowed charitable trust based in Scotland that operates throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Originally established with an endowment from Andrew Carnegie in his birthplace of Dunfermline, ...

, he published ''Scottish

Annals Annals ( la, annāles, from , "year") are a concise historical record in which events are arranged chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction between ann ...

from

English Chroniclers English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

'', a reasonably comprehensive compilation of sources about

Scottish history The recorded begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, when the province of Britannia reached as far north as the Antonine Wall. North of this was Caledonia, inhabited by the ''Picti'', whose uprisings forced Rome ...

before 1286 written either in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

or by chroniclers born in England. Fourteen years later, he was able to publish the 2-volume work entitled ''Early Sources of Scottish History, A.D. 500 to 1286'', a similar but larger collection of sources, this time taken from non-English (mostly

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

) material. To a certain extent, the latter work overlapped with the compilations published by Skene's ''Chronicles of the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...

and Scots'' (Edinburgh, 1867), but both of Anderson's compilations differed from Skene's in that all were translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Years of reading difficult manuscripts in dull light were perhaps the cause of Anderson's failing eyesight, and for a large period of time, he relied on his graduate student (subsequently his wife) Marjorie Cunningham to do much of the readings. He died 9 December 1958. Today, most scholars working in early Scottish history regard Anderson's three volumes as among their most essential scholarly possessions. As a result, much of the course of early Scottish

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

was set by what Anderson chose to publish or chose not to publish. In 1990 and 1991, the compilations were reissued by the Stamford-based organisation Paul Watkins Publishing.

Bibliography

* Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286'', 2 vols, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1922; republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) Stamford, 1990 * Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286'', London: David Nutt, 1908; republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) Stamford, 1991

References

‘ANDERSON, Alan Orr’
Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 28 Jan 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Alan Orr 1879 births 1958 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Celtic studies scholars Scottish antiquarians 20th-century Scottish historians People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Historiographers