Summer visits and guided walks are organised for members[3] and, additionally, grants and bursaries are awarded for projects,[4] research and collaborations[5] relating to Edinburgh’s history.
Members at the first meeting agreed the constitution including the Club’s objectives: "The collection and authentication of oral and written statements or documentary evidence relating to Edinburgh; the gathering of existing traditions, legends, and historical data; and the selecting and printing of material desirable for future reference".
The early history of the Club, including Rosebery’s involvement has been recounted by historian Owen Dudley Edwards.
Prominent in the first issue in 1908 was an article, "Provisional List of Old Houses Remaining in the High Street and Canongate of Edinburgh" by Bruce J Home.
This topic reflected an early priority of Club members to preserve historic buildings, especially in the light of pressures to clear slums and redevelop the Old Town.
[13] More recent topics have included the British Linen Company and its slavery connection; the evolution of Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden; the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor; James Nicolson, a Jacobite Martyr from Leith; and the role of Sir Walter Scott in inventing Scotch Baronial Architecture.
The Library Service has published several blog articles on finds amongst the manuscripts, such as one on a 1705 'Journey to Edenborough' and the notebooks of engineer and antiquarian Charles Boog Watson who meticulously recorded much about the city, notably its streets and the closes and wynds of the Old Town.
It has also helped to fund the cataloguing and digitization of petitions and drawings submitted to the Dean of Guild and held by Edinburgh City Archives, undertaken by Dr Joe Rock.