Papers of and relating to Professor William Robertson Smith, Professor of Oriental Languages and Old Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Aberdeen The collection is arranged in four sections as follows: 1. William Robertson Smith: personal and family papers. Most of the material in this section derives from William Robertson Smith, his family and friends, and appears to have been collected together after Smith's death by his biographer James Sutherland Black. 2. William Robertson Smith: professional and academic activities Including appointments to academic positions in Aberdeen and Cambridge, publications, reviews, travel to Germany and the Middle East, position as editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Burnett Lectures in Aberdeen. 3. William Robertson Smith: Free Church College case Materials relating to the libel of heresy brought against William Robertson Smith by the Free Church of Scotland authorities, arising from his article "Bible" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This article effectively introduced the continental "Higher Criticism" to Britain, and provoked an outcry among sections of the clergy in the Free Church of Scotland and elsewhere by arguing that the first five books of the Old Testament had not been written by Moses. 4. William Robertson Smith: memorials and celebrations Obituaries and subsequent tributes and assessments, including materials from the conferences organised in Aberdeen to mark the centenary of William Robertson Smith's birth in 1946 and the centenary of his death in 1994. 1858-2000