Reconstructing a Private Library

Methods and Issues/Problbmatiques
et mbthodes
A Search for Gold: Reconstructing
a Private Library-The Case
of Dr. Robert ell*
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
,
Early on the morning of Sunday, 28 October 1962, catastrophe struck at
136 MacLaren Street, Ottawa. Fire swept through the three-storey brick
home of John and Olga Outram, claiming their lives in its wake.' That
event, tragic as it was, also set in motion the widespread dispersal of a
massive estate (an estimated 26 tons of books and artifacts were stored
in the h o u ~ e )Three
. ~ decades later in my quest to discover only a portion of the contents of the Outram house, I have found it necessary to
spend hundreds of hours, following countless leads, to document what
was an entirely uncatalogued collection. The MacLaren Street address
had been the home of Olga Outram's father, Dr. Robert Bell, a medical
doctor and one of Canada's outstanding geological explorers during
the last half of the Victorian era. It is the story of Bell and his personal
library that I will trace here.
Many individuals read and collect books and periodicals; but professionals, such as medical practitioners, whose careers depend on the
availability of information in the form of books, periodicals, and reports, have been more likely than general readers to acquire a personal,
if modest, library.3Determining the publications that were held in a private collection is a rewarding endeavor, even though the effort is proBertrum H. MacDonald, School of Library and InformationStudies, Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5.
CBMH/BCHM / Volume 12: 1995 / p. 385-410
386
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
tracted and possibly discouraging. Robert Bell's library offers a very
good example with which to illustrate the complexity of this type of
research from a number of viewpoints.4Using Bell as a case study, I will
show how a variety of sources of information and techniques are
needed to uncover the contents of a personal library. I will then round
out this discussion by considering the analysis one can conduct and
conclusions one can reach once information about a library has been
assembled.
ROBERT BELL (1841-1917): GEOLOGIST, PHYSICIAN, AND ETHNOLOGIST
l
To begin a foray into the reconstruction process it is necessary to understand who Robert Bell was. "No man has accomplished so much pioneer exploration in territory where previously only Indians had been"
is how one biographer summed up Bell's are er.^ While succinct, this
brief comment understates a much fuller lifetime. Born the son of the
Rev. Andrew Bell, an amateur geologist, and the former Elizabeth Notman, on 3 June 1841 in Toronto, Robert Bell at a very early age developed an interest in natural history. At 15 he was engaged as a summer
assistant with the Geological Survey of Canada, beginning a lengthy
employment relationship that lasted until his retirement as Acting
Director of the Survey more than 50 years later.
During his late teens, when his summers were occupied with the
Geological Survey (he headed his own survey party in 1859), Bell pursued postsecondary education at McGill University, graduating with a
degree in civil engineering in 1861. While at McGill he studied natural
history and geology with the well-known paleontologist of the period,
J. W. Dawson, McGill's principal.
Following his graduation from McGill, Bell journeyed to Edinburgh
to further his studies for a year. He returned home to take up a position
as professor of natural history and chemistry at Queen's University in
Kingston, Ontario, where he taught for five sessions from 1863-68. His
reputation as a teacher, at least among medical students, was not
favorable, h ~ w e v e rThroughout
.~
this five-year period, Bell continued
to work part time with the Geological Survey of Canada, and when
matters at Queen's did not turn out as he might have hoped, he left the
University in 1869to join the Survey on a full-timebasis.
During the early years of his full-time employment with the Survey,
whose headquarters were then in Montreal, Bell judiciously planned
his work so that he could complete a medical degree at McGill, eventually obtaining the MD, CM in 1878.In this pursuit of medical education,
Bell joined his younger brother, John, who had received his MD from
McGill a decade earlier.' Both John and Robert were contemporariesof
Wdiam Osler, whose celebrated career as medical practitioner/educator
Reconstructing a Private Library-The Case of Dr. Robert Be22
387
and book collector is well known. Both Robert and Johnwere likely influenced by Osler's book-collecting habits, as indeed others were.s
Robert Bell did not abandon his career with the Geological Survey
once he had obtained his medical degree? Still, he did use this qualification to act as medical officer on the government exploration ships, Neptune and Alert, visiting Hudson Bay and James Bay in the mid-1880s.
Furthermore, during work with the Survey he attended to medical
cases as needed.1°
The majority of Bell's scientific contributions stem from the period of
his full-time employment with the Geological Survey. As early as 1857
he was publishing the results of his scientific investigation, and in 1862,
when only 21, he was elected Fellow of the renowned Geological Society of London. Morris Zaslow has written that "from the very first season [with the Geological Survey in 18571, his keen powers of observation and his broad interests were in evidence, as witness the outstanding botanical collection and extensive description of the fauna and flora
of the Saguenay region he made during the summer of 1857."11
For more than 30 years Bell explored large tracts of land in northern
and western Canada. In 1902, he published a map that demonstrated
the geographical accomplishments of the Geological Survey during its
first 60 years. Writing about this map, Zaslow noted:
l
A large number of those tracts were made by Bell himself, for his own work surpassed that of several other very able explorers who worked for the Survey
during this period in terms of the area covered, the districts mapped for the first
time, and the reporting of local conditions and prospects of a wide part of Canada. In a 50-year period, Bell ranged as far afield as the prairies of Saskatchewan, the oil sands of the Athabasca, and north to Great Slave Lake and Baffin Island. But mainly his work was concentrated in what is now northern Ontario
and Quebec, in an arc extending from the Saguenay to Lake Winnipeg and from
these points north to the shores of Hudson and James Bays. It was no idle boast
when he wrote in 1904 that almost single-handedly he had done the major part
of the preliminary reconnaissance work for the third transcontinental railway
that was being built in these years. . . . His range was equally broad-including
not only geology and mineral resources, but soil, surface conditions, transportation facilities, forests, waterpower, crops, fish, wildlife, vegetation, climate,
and . . .anthropology and ethnology.12
Bell's years of employment with the Geological Survey brought increasing responsibility. In 1877 he became one of four assistant directors; in 1890, Chief Geologist; and in 1901 he was appointed Acting
Director. To his great disappointment he was never officially named
Director of the Survey. He retired at 65 in 1906.
Bell's extensive geological work was recognized both nationally and
internationally. He received honorary DSc degrees from McGill and
Cambridge universities, and an LLD from Queen's University. He was
388
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
a founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1882, and was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1897. Six years later,
he received royal honor "for faithful service," with Companionship of
the Imperial Service Order in 1903. Finally, his geographical studies
were acknowledged with the King's Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society (its highest award) in 1906 and the Callum Gold
Medal from the American Geographical Society in the same year. From
the middle of the Victorian period until the end of the first decade of the
twentieth century, it is clear that Robert Bell played an important role in
scientific circles in Canada.
Sketching Bell's biography here is not only important for gaining a
sense of who he was, but, as will become evident below, this life history
formed an essential framework on which to build and hinge information about his personal library.
PROSPECTING FOR AN INFORMATIONSOURCE
l
The scatter of private collections is a common occurrence, even when
circumstances surrounding each situation varies. Dispersal can occur
following the death of a collector (the typical situation),or prior to a collector's demise (the financial benefit of a sale may have been required),
or long after the death of the original owner (the next generation may
have valued the collection, for example, but subsequent generations did
not). Besides these three possibilities, there are any number of other scenarios to account for the breakup of a private library. Faced with any of
these prospects, the initial question one must consider in this sort of inquiry is where to start the search.13My quest for Bell's personal library
will illustrate how this question can be answered.
Like many other examples, Bell's library was widely dispersed in
the decades following his death in 1917. The largest disruption of his
collection occurred following the fire in the Outram home in 1962, the
details of which did not become known to me until I had already explored an extensive range of options over a period of years. If one begins a search (as I did with Bell)without any knowledge of the existence
of a private c~llection,'~
or any information concerning the dispersal of
a collection, or an awareness of the genealogy of the descendants of the
initial owner, the first step is to familiarize oneself with the life and
career of the subject.
Immersing oneself in biographical information may or may not be
easily accomplished,however. Prominent personalities frequently have
already received the attention of researchers and, as a result, an array of
published biographical literature may be available. But even notable individuals like Bell may have missed scholarly notice.lsIn these latter in-
Reconstructing a Private Library-The Case of Dr. Robert Bell
389
stances it becomes necessary to seek out manuscript collections that
may reveal facets of a subject's life and his or her activities.16
Tracing the life and career of an individual is likely to lead in many directions, and although some have advocated "searching everywhere at
once," I have found such a strategy inefficient and sometimes counterproductive. Instead, I recommend that a profile of a subjectbe systematically built by exploring one source after another, while maintaining accurate records of the territory covered and noting any clues that might
disclose the whereabouts or contents of a private library.
In the case of Bell, I began with the Robert Bell fonds at the National
Archives of Canada, the largest collection of Bell's private papers in a
public repository.17My initial exploration of this extensive holding was
fortuitous for two reasons: (1)when I began my research the National
Archives was undertaking a major consolidation and reorganization of
the fonds, and my search was greatly facilitated by archivists, who, over
a period of several months, brought relevant manuscripts and documents to my attention once my quest was made known;18 and (2) the
Bell collectionis a gold mine of data, rich in information that formed the
core findings in my attempt to reconstruct Bell's library, including numerous pieces of evidence needed in subsequent avenues of exploration. As I have discovered in other cases, one is frequently much less
fortunate in locating such a rich startingpoint. In such instances the sentiments of Edwin Wolf I1 become meaningful. In 1962, he wrote, in what
must have been a muted sense of exasperation in his search for Benjamin Franklin's library, "it is amazing how difficult it is to trace a book
sold or seen fifty years ago, or even twenty-five."19
QUARRYING A RICH VEIN: ARCHIVAL HOLDINGSOF PERSONAL PAPERS
I
The Bell fonds was certainly the best place to begin. But, in retrospect, I
learned that had I carried out a more thorough inquiry of how the collection was acquired I would probably have short-circuited some of my
subsequent attempts to locate what was not in the National Archives
holdings. At that point, if I had been more meticulous in my discussion
with the Archives staff I might have realized the importance of meeting
one of the key players in the story, namely, Robert Bell Douglas, Robert
Bell's grandson. Only later, when I eventually met Mr. Douglas, did it
become clear that his knowledge and role in the dispersal of his grandfather's library was signifi~ant.~~
Frequently, family members are instrumental in controlling the fate of private libraries, as Alan Gribben
has outlined in his informative article, "Private Libraries of American
Consequently, trackAuthors: Dispersal, Custody, and ~escription."~~
ing the genealogy of a subject's family and speaking with descendants
is often fruitful, if for no other reason than to confirm that a private li-
390
l
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
brary has unfortunately been lost forever.Like any other historical data,
however, information obtained from family members must be handled
with care. For example, Owen and Sarah Wangensteen discovered during their search for Joseph Lister's private library that inquiries addressed to descendants "proved unproductive," and responses were, in
fact, mi~leading.~~
The Bell papers by themselves, however, supplied an extensive lode
of important nuggets for my undertaking. Here I found not only a large
number of publications which Bell had collected, but also an array of
documentation that provided the means for understanding Bell and his
collecting habits. The uncatalogued printed items, numbering over
1,100, have subsequently been documented in a database to which I
have been adding additional publications from Bell's library as they are
found.23
Bell was an inveterate pack rat, for which I am thankful. He saved
scraps of paper on which he had scribbled notes, catalogues from booksellers and publishers, receipts for a wide assortment of purchases, and
more. Even though the National Archives fonds is incomplete, as I disc o v ~ subsequently,
d
the collection yielded items which typify the pieces
of informationone should look for in reconstructing a personal library:
Diaries-It seems that Bell did not keep a regular diary, but during
the late 1850s and early 1860s when he was a young man and beginning to acquire a personal library, he maintained a rudimentary journal. Here he recorded some of his book purchases. For example, on
22 June 1863he noted that he had bought James Dana'sManual of Geology for $3.95 in M ~ n t r e a l .Depending
~~
on the detail that is
recorded, diaries can be especially informativeabout activities concerning a private library. A diarist may indicate when publications
were acquired, how they were obtained (purchase,gift, etc.), and also
how they were read and used. The latter sort of information is particularly valuable for confirming that a work was in fact read and providing details on how an individual assimilated or reacted to the
work. Guides to diaries in public repositories, however, are regrettably uneven in coverage, and inadequate for Canadian cases.25
Correspondence-The Bell papers contain large quantities of correspondence. Amongst hundreds of letters are those written to and
from booksellers and publishers, letters sending and acknowledging
exchange of publications, etc. These letters verify that particular titles
had been received by Bell, and also supply the dates of procurement.
Published volumes of correspondence are not unusual, but only a
few selected individuals warrant such treatment. For most others, archival repositories are the best sites to find files of correspondence, if
they still exist.
Reconstructing a Private Libray-The
I
Case of Dr. Robwt Bell
391
Notebooks-Notebooks are similar to diaries, but are usually created
to keep a record of a specific set of activities, or deal with particular
topics. In other words, they are not usually as wide ranging in coverage as diaries. Field notebooks were commonly kept by staff members of the Geological Survey, and Bell was no different from his contemporaries in this respect. Medical practitioners have also kept
notebooks of this nature (e.g., account books, day books, and case
books). Amidst a log of observations, diagrams of objects, etc., such
records can itemize book and periodical acquisitions; they can also
record what an individual was actually reading?6
Receipts-Receipts for most sales are discarded shortly after the transactions are completed. Certainly, few documents of this type survive
long enough to end up in archival holdings. Bell, however, saved receipts in large quantities, and many from commonplace purchases.
Some of these register book and periodical purchases, and are informative not only because they identify specific titles, but also because they record the location of purchases, prices, and dates of transactions. Useful as these receipts are, many do not outlive the life of
the owner. Exceptions similar to Bell occur, nonetheless, as Ellen
Wells has demonstrated in her analysis of William Oslerfsre~eipts.2~
Scraps of paper-If receipts have a short life expectancy, notes on
scraps of paper fare even worse. But once again the Bell papers demonstrate that such ephemera can prove to be enlightening, as a single
example will illustrate (see Figure 1).On this torn sheet Bell noted
several "Desirable books." This piece of evidence is sketchy, and corroborating information is needed to verify whether Bell had actually
acquired these titles for his private library. Still, I have had to consider this bit of data in reconstructing the library. Fragments such as
this may be inconsequentialor vitally important.
Publishers' catalogues and promotional materials-Both within the Bell
papers at the National Archives and in caches of his collections
located elsewhere are a large assortment of publishers' and booksellers' catalogues and an array of other promotional material^.^^
Since these items also lead a precarious life once they arrive in private
hands, I considered these finds to be additional deposits well worth
mining. This evidence needs to be handled with care, however, because the presence of a publisher's or bookseller's catalogue does not
mean that Bell dealt with either type of firm. Nevertheless, markedup catalogues did offer clues about possible acquisitions, warranting
further investigation. In fact, some titles he had so indicated I later
found were part of his collection.
Lending records-Lending records from institutional libraries served
as negative evidence. That is, if Bell borrowed a volume from the Li-
392
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
Figure 1
Robert Bell's notes concerning "Desirable Books" on ascrap of paper.
(RobertBell Fonds, National Archives of Canada, MG 29 B15.)
Reconstructinga Private Library-The Case of Dr. Robert Bell
brary of Parliament in Ottawa, it is quite unlikely that he owned a
personal copy of that work.29Reader's tickets and overdue notices
are the sorts of documents one might encounter in private papers,
and a few are found in the Bell papers.
OTHER MINING TOOLS FOR RECONSTRUCTING A PRIVATE LIBRARY
I
Even though the Bell fonds is rich in documentation, I determined that
it was incomplete. In particular, books that Bell had noted as purchases
were missing; in fact, i3seemed that most of his books had never been
acquired by the National archive^.^^ The question was, where were
these books?
Although Bell had given considerable attention to the acquisition of
books, reports, reprints, and periodicals, he-like many other scientists
and medical practitioners-did not prepare a comprehensive catalogue
of his collection, or if he did it was not located at the National Archives.
A modest list is found in the Bell papers, prepared during a move from
Kingston to Montreal. Catalogues of this variety are useful finds because they place volumes in a collection at particular junctures in time.31
On occasion, an owner may have prepared an inventory of a collection
for purposes of evaluating his or her property.32More often, however,
lists of personal collections take the form of sales or auction catalogues,
having been compiled by executors or heirs prior to the sale of the deceased's estate. This latter type of catalogue is an important discovery,
and every effort should be taken to confirm or rule out the existence of
such an inventory.33While these sorts of catalogues may not give a complete list of particular libraries, they can provide an overview and an estimate of the scope and dimension of individual collections. In the absence of such a catalogue a researcher must painstakingly build up a
picture of the library.
Like the missing books, I wondered if there was also a missing catalogue in Bell's case. However, as my research progressed and the
history of his library became discernible, I eventually ruled out the existence of any printed or manuscript catalogue.
In the absence of a catalogue my quest to locate the remainder of
Bell's library was guided mainly by evidence obtained in the National
Archives holding, and I wish now to turn to a consideration of other
techniques and resources that aid this work.
Evidence of provenance-Unquestionably, the most valuable testimony of Bell's ownership of a publication was his telltale autograph,
which he liberally wrote on items in his collection (see examples in
Figure 2).34Because he followed this practice habitually, I have been
able to locate titles in a variety of locations when every other discovery technique would have failed. Provenance evidence has been used
394
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
Figure 2
Provenance evidence on publicationsformerly in Robert Bell's private library.
Reconstructinga Private Libray-The
I
Case of Dr. Robert Bell
395
successfully by other researchers, and anyone attempting to reconstruct a private library would be well advised to quickly establish
how a collector identified his or her possessions, if at
Ownership may be indicated by an autograph (as in Bell's case), an inscription, a motto, a bookplate, a book label, a stamp, or even a distinctive
binding. Because provenance data has proven so useful, a considerable body of work has been published on the topic, recently encompassed in David Pearson's Provenance Research in Book History: A
Handb~ok.~~
Some libraries (usually rare book/special collections departments of academic libraries) maintain provenance index records.
For example, the Special Collections Department at the Queen's University Library has a partial index of provenance data for items in
that department of the library.37Unfortunately, custodians of collections have sometimes failed to recognize the value of provenance information, obliterating or covering it during rebinding and other
restorative
Newspaper reports-Newspaper reports may offer clues as to the
whereabouts of specific collections. Although such reports were not
significant in my search for Robert Bell's library, a 1934 report in The
Almonte Gazette was important for locating an additional large collection, namely, the private library of James Mackintosh Bell, another
prominent Canadian geologist and Robert Bell's nephew.39Reading
newspapers for suitable evidence is exceedingly time consuming, but
as more and more newspapers are indexed, it will be easier to search
these rich resources for relevant i n f ~ r m a t i o n . ~ ~
Institutiorial collections and records-Private collections are often donated or sold to institutions. Initially, I gave consideration only to institutional libraries that Bell himself had used, primarily the Geological Survey of Canada Library. Then I extended my search when I was
advised by an insightful librarian at the National Library of Canada
that Bell items were located there.41But detective skills are required
to ferret out previously owned books now integrated into large collections like the National Library. This is especially the case when
corporate acquisition records do not detail how or from whom items
were acquired (more often the case than not), and the memory of staff
or former staff is spotty.42First, one must pinpoint a candidate volume and then confirm that it actually had come from the private collection. Two factors were important here: (1)provenance evidence,
and (2) a good sense of the subjects that interested Bell. Then it was a
matter of selecting those subjects, entering the stacks, and taking volume after volume off the shelves looking for those Bell had owned.
This process proved successful both at the National Library (where I
found many volumes) and at the Geological Survey (where I located
396
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BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
only a few). Since the collections of institutional libraries are themselves dynamic (with weeding, breakup of holdings, etc.), items acquired decades earlier may in the course of time have been discarded
or moved to another location. Even if an institution retains volumes,
they can easily be "lost" in large integrated collections-forever if
there is no provenance evidence-or uncovered only by accident or
extensive detective
Working in a large institution, like the National Library, has important advantages, however, because here the researcher is brought
into contact with well-informed staff, and can obtain direct access to
research tools that can be used to sort out or identify cryptic notes
that a collector may have left.
Other personal collections-Locating books now scattered among any
number of private collectors is a significant challenge. Some collectors legitimately wish to keep their libraries private, and acquire
items more or less anonymously. Thus, works purchased from a
book dealer, or through auction sales, or a private sale can be very
difficult, if not impossible, to trace. Still, after demonstrating that my
research was genuine, I found people were quite willing to tell me
about private collectors who might have Bell items, and thus have
been able to locate additional Bell volumes through visits with such
individuals. Courtesy, patience, and a willingness to respect privacy
are important characteristicsto display here.
Booksellers' records and catalogues--One of the pleasures this research
has brought has been discussions with respected book dealers. The
records of bookselling businesses tend to reside in the memory of
proprietors, which can be treasure troves by themselves. In addition,
bookshops that offer items for sale through catalogues will sometimes record provenance information about volume^.^ Booksellers'
catalogues are ephemeral and quickly discarded, but a few large
libraries, like the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University
of Toronto, have assembled sizeable collections. Unfortunately,
booksellers' catalogues are cumbersome to search as there is wide
variation in how books are listed, and indexes are rarely available.
Auction sales records--Over the past 20 years, portions of Bell's personal papers and his library were placed in auction sales in Montreal
and Toronto. Sales at the Montreal Book Auctions in 1978 and 1979
were brought to my attention by a number of individuals: collectors
who had been at the
staff of the National Archives, and others. The discovery that some of Bell's books were sold at the Canada
Book Auctions in Toronto occurred after meeting with a private collector. Throughout Canadian history, auctions have been a common
venue for sales of private libraries.46Like book dealers' catalogues,
ReconstructingaPrivate Library-The Case ofDr. Robert Bell
I
the catalogues and records of auction houses form a potentially important source of information about individual titles from a library,
or may even list whole collection^.^^
Legal records-Another potential source of information about the contents of private libraries is legal records. Although personal collections have been the subject of civil court cases, such instances are rare.
Only if one knew that a court case was relevant, should court documents be considered. A more useful type of legal documentation for
locating information about private libraries is estate records. Wills,
probate applications, applications for administration of an estate,
and inventories of estates, among other documents, constitute estate
records. Each of these, particularly the inventories, may contain valuable information about a private library. Historians have for some
time made active use of estate records for this purpose, as Jennifer J.
Connor illustrated in her recent article, "Estate Records and the History of Medicine in Ontario."48
Oral history-Interviews with informants are apt to open up new
lines of investigation or provide missing pieces of information, or
they help to explain seemingly conflicting data. Informants can be
family members (such as Robert B. Douglas in the case of Bell),
friends of the individual under study, people who were involved in
the distribution of a collection, etc. Even when the life of a collector
may have ended many decades earlier, one should not rule out the
possibility that someone will recall a needed piece of information:
while searching for Bell's library I have benefited from interviews
with numerous informants. It is also well to keep in mind that oral
history projects already completed might contain reminiscences that
will aid in research on a private library.49
Citations-Thorough investigators will extend their search for evidence to the friends and co-workers that surrounded a subject. On
occasion this widened search will yield results, principally when one
or more members of this larger circle makes reference to the content
of the private library under study. While this technique has not uncovered reference to Bell's library, it has provided clues in other inquiries50 More difficult to interpret, but still offering clues about
ownership, are citations to publications found within a subject's own
works. In these instances one can infer that cited publications were
close at hand, but further evidence is needed to confirm that such
items were actually in the subject's personal collection.
Publishers' records-The records of publishing houses may yield additional information to help identify publications in private libraries.
For example, the names of individuals who subscribed to periodicals
might be found in publishers' accounts, as well as the names of sub-
398
BERTRUM H.MAcDONALD
scribers for monographs brought out on the basis of confirmed
sales.51Documentation of publishing firms frequently contains correspondence with authors, which may reveal what an author had been
reading or even if the author had particular titles in his or her private
library. As noted earlier, a good understanding of a subject's career is
needed in order to decide which publishers' archives might contain
pertinent testimony about a personal collection. While publishers'
papers can be rich sources of evidence, their survival has been
uneven, especially for nineteenth-century Canadian firms5*
Blind leads--On any number of occasions, tracing out some clues will
turn up little or no new facts about a library. To illustrate this point,
the Principal of Queen's University reported to the Board of Trustees
of the University on Wednesday, 30 April 1890: "I desire.. . to acknowledge with thanks 304 volumes and ten years numbers of the
Lancet from R. Bell LL.D of the Geological Museum, whose name recalls another of the families that have been distinguished by enlightened interest in the University from its fo~ndation."~~
My efforts
(using a variety of approaches), coupled with the assistance of librarians and archivists at Queen's, failed to locate any further information about this donation. Attempts to follow the tip simply ended in
blind alleys; still the clue was important. This clue resembles other
veins in this mining process that eventually disappear, becoming
indistinguishablefrom the surroundingstrata.
PROCESSING THE ORE: THE HISTORY OF ROBERT BELL'S LIBRARY
l
That Robert Bell's library is now widely scattered became increasingly
clear as I continued to track various fragments of the puzzle. For more
than a century his library followed a sometimes hazardous route, with
the greatest disruption occurring during the past 30 years. From all the
evidence assembled so far, what can we say about its history?
The story as it has now emerged began when Bell started to assemble a
personal library as a young teenager. Then, while at McGill University
completing his first degree, he added college texts as he needed them.
This practice continued through subsequent studies in Edinburgh and
later during his medical education, also at McGill. As a young student he
became an active member in the Natural History Society of Montreal, in
the process acquiring the officialjournal of the Society, the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. This membership and its benefits set in motion a lifelong interest in other peiiodicals, runs of which have survived and are
found in holdings of his papers. With the publication of his own research
he was soon exchanging reprints of papers and reports with like-minded
practitioners in North America and elsewhere. Over the remainder of his
career this pattern of exchangeensured a growingcollection.
Reconstructing a Private Library-The Case of Dr. Robert Bell
I
399
Possibly under the influence of William Osler, his contemporary, Bell
became a collector with specific subject interests. For example, his exploratory work in northern Canada brought him in contact with native
Canadians and initiated an interest in native language and culture. This
led in turn to the purchase of books on the subject.54Allied with his geographical and geological work, Bell began to collect texts on the exploration of the North American continent, acquiring these books from
North American and British dealerss5
Medical books and periodicals formed a sizeable number in Bell's
collection, the extent of which I have not yet been able to determine.
Among these books were volumes that had previously belonged to his
brother John.56Well into his employment at the Geological Survey, Bell
concluded that medical work (practised occasionally, as noted above)
would not figure prominently in the remainder of his career, and this
may have prompted the donation to Queen's in 1890.~'
Over the course of a career spanning half a century, and following a
number of relocations, Bell built a private collection of some several
thousand publications eventually housed at his Ottawa address. After
his retirement from the Geological Survey, Bell divided his time between Ottawa and a second home in Manitoba. It seems that his library
was maintained in Ottawa, however. Here the collection remained after
his death in 1917. For the next half century his library existed largely
intact with further items being added by John and Olga Outram. Although Bell frequently autographed his acquisitions, a significant aid in
identifying his library, the intermingling of volumes in the Outram
household complicated the picture. Until the fire in 1962, however, the
library enjoyed considerable stability, although it is not known whether
publications were removed for sale, discarded, or given away as gifts to
family members and friends over the years following his death.
Only a week before the fire the Outrams had discussed with their
nephew, Robert Douglas, how they might best dispose of Robert Bell's
extensive collection^.^^ Unfortunately, the tragic event on that October
weekend in 1962 forced immediate consideration of where to place the
collections, which had been damaged more from water and smoke than
from the blaze. As Douglas would later recount, he found the "twentysix tons of scientific papers, note-books, geological specimens, skeletons, skins of animals & birds, Indian & Eskimo tools, games, toys, etc. a
mind-boggling c~llection."~~
Dr. W. Kaye Lamb, then the National
Librarian and National Archivist, came to Douglas's assistance by offering the services of the Library and Archives to rescue the manuscript
material and library. It took the Archives staff about a year to restore the
paper-based materials. During this time, Douglas, who was commuting
each weekend from his home outside Montreal to attend to the estate,
400
l
BERTRUM H. MACDONALD
also engaged the assistance of Ronald Stewart, a knowledgeable
Ottawa book collector and good friend of the Outrams. As compensation for his assistance, Douglas permitted Stewart to select as many volumes as he wished from the collection.
Once the restoration of the books and manuscripts was completed,
Douglas offered the collection to the National Library and Public Archives. Both institutions selected sizeable numbers of items (but, with
respect to the books, an unknown number) and then returned more
than 300 cartons of books, periodicals, and manuscripts to Douglas.
These cartons were stored in a warehouse of Douglas's firm, Specialoid
(Canada) Ltd. in St. Ustache, Quebec, for over a decade. From here he
attempted to sell items, but sales were few. In the summer of 1978
Douglas brought in Bernard Amtrnann, a well-known Montreal dealer,
to examine the remaining collection. In very short order Amtrnann realized that the contents of the boxes returned by the Public Archives contained very valuable Canadiana.60A public auction of the remaining
Bell papers was announced by Amtmann's firm, Montreal Book Auctions, Ltd., and over several months, from October 1978 through May
1979, Bell papers were placed on the auction block. A decade after it had
been offered the complete collection, the Public Archives was placed in
the embarrassing position of attempting to explain its earlier selection
criteria. Following a public protest prompted largely by debate at the
1978conference of the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association, the Archives staff attended the auctions to bid on items as
they were entered into sale. Many items, of course, were purchased by
individuals and other institutions. A sizeable portion of the remaining
collection did not get to the auction block, however, and the Archives
entered into negotiation with Douglas to purchase the remaining items.
An agreement was reached, and a second group of Bell materials
arrived at the Archives in the early 1980s.
Meanwhile, in 1979, the Outrams' friend, Ronald Stewart, died and
bequeathed his collection to his son, Dr. Tom Stewart. Dr. Stewart,
whose collecting interests were different from his father's, began to sell
books and other publications from the former Bell collection to Ottawa
book dealers and the Toronto-based Canada Book Auctions. Over several years the scatter of Robert Bell's library continued, and, in fact, continues as additional items leave booksellers' shops in ongoing sales.
My search for Robert Bell's library has thus confirmed that parts of
his collection can be found in the holdings of several institutions, in private hands (the number of which I may never ascertain with certainty),
as well as in places ~nexpected.~'
Although I have identified many
items from his library, it seems certain that it will never be possible to
totally reconstruct the collection. I now know that Bell's private library
Reconstructinga Private Library-The Case of Dr. Robert Bell
401
contained hundreds of books on several subjects ranging from natural
history texts through medical titles, geological reports, volumes on native
language and culture, and books about exploration of the North American continent. His library included numerous research and professional
periodicals, as well as severalCanadian newspapers. Complementing the
books and periodicals were severalhundred reprints of scientific and professionalreports received from other researchers. Assembled over several
decades Bell's librarywas clearly designed to supporthis work.
ADDITIONAL MINING ADVICE: OTHER USEFUL HINTS
I
Tracing the history of Robert Bell's library, constructing a catalogue of
its contents, and locating copies of his publications has been no easy
task. At this stage, however, a fairly detailed account, with a good understanding of the publications Bell had collected, has been achieved.
This project has illustrated numerous techniques and resources that
were used to arrive at my current knowledge of Bell and his collection.
Still, there are other lessons to be learned from this case, which may
prove to be valuable for others who carry out this type of investigation.
Consult knowledgeable individuals-I found that discussing my project
with every individual whom I thought might have ideas about where
to search, or who next to talk with, has served me well over and over
again. Even though pursuing some of the ideas was not feasible, invariably someone would say, "did you know.. .,"and, of course, I
did not know that an uncatalogued cache of material resided at "X"
location, or that "X" person, who had just the piece of information
that I needed, lived down the street.62Librarians, archivists, and
book dealers have all been helpful in this regard.
Rely on others to "open" doors-As well as consulting others, I have
discovered that they are frequently willing, and quite interested, to
act as intermediaries.For example, on several occasions book dealers
have "paved the way" for me to meet their clients, even to the point
of opening their homes as a place for the introduction. Over the
course of this project I have developed a high regard for the level of
professionalism that I have encountered in a variety of settings.
Prove the genuineness of your research early on-Since this line of research may require access to secured collections and will certainly
benefit from professional advice, it is important to identify the nature
of the work early in discussion with others. Once librarians and
archivists became aware of what I was trying to accomplish, I was
permitted to work closely with secured collections. Equally, book
dealers let me view their unadvertised and uncatalogued stock unattended. This level of trust could only be offered once it was clear that
I was pursuing a legitimate inquiry.
402
l
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
Keep accurate, detailed records-This piece of advice applies to any research undertaking, but since so many angles must be explored over
what is likely to be a lengthy period, it is important to maintain detailed accounts of the territory covered. Bits of information may seem
trivial in one setting, but in the context of the complete story these
pieces can be pivotal in putting the whole picture together. I have
been able to avoid retracing steps when a new clue has suggested additional material might have been stored in another location. In these
cases my detailed records quickly confirmed that the material was
not new, but rather items I had examined many months before.
Anticipate a lengthy project-Reconstructing a private collection when
pieces of the evidence are widely scattered and hidden will be a protracted undertaking. Examination of book after book in an attempt to
locate volumes from a personal library is often a mundane but necessary task that can consume hours of time. Plan for a long-term commitment to the project.63
Expect disappointment-The pleasures of historical sleuthing will be
tempered by inescapable disappointment. Corporate and individual
memory is faulty, just when it may be crucial. Some clues will lead
nowhere. Indifferent or callous regard for a collection may cause all
or a portion of a library to be lost forever, without any trace, or with
only very weak trails of evidence.
Be tenacious and resourceful-Tenacity is important in research endeavors, but this type of work requires an extra supply. The point of
payoff is reached usually after considerable effort. Every clue needs
to be considered, since only some will pan out and yield the desirable
golden nuggets. Since every person is unique, the circumstancessurrounding a private collection will vary from one to another. A researcher must, therefore, be creative in considering the different
ways individuals treated their libraries, or how their family, friends,
or heirs might have dealt with the collection. As Alan Gribben has
noted, "although common pr~blemsexist for researchers, the answers to them are wondrously m ~ l t i p l e . " ~ ~
Map out a strategy-All of the above points emphasize that a researcher undertaking a project of this nature will profit from setting
out a plan in which each piece of evidence is assessed for its significance. Some pieces will have greater strategic value than others;
some ideas could be explored but may yield little new information,
while others will uncover important seams of data. In this sort of
work, a researcher needs to be flexible and must be prepared to act
swiftly when it becomes evident that information will be lost due to
aging informants, or be discarded in the usual routines of people's
lives.
Reconstructing a Private Libra y-The
Case of Dr. Robert Bell
403
THE LIBRARY IS RECONSTRUCTED-SO WHAT?
l
Reconstructing a library is not an end in itself, even though the process
can prove to be challenging as well as satisfying. Burgeoning research
within the history of print culture has demonstrated amply the value of
exploring the contents of personal collections. Here, Robert Darnton's
frequently cited communications circuit has served as a model for recent scholars examining readers and their private l i b r a r i e ~ .Ulti~~
mately, the objective of reconstituting a library is to gain a fuller understanding of the original owner. One might, for example, wish to explore
the reading habits of this individual or examine the reception and influence of particular ideas or publications. To conclude this discussion I
will therefore point briefly to ways in which the evidence of a reassembled library can form the basis for conclusions about specific readers or
publications.
While it is preferable to work with the actual volumes from a private
collection, one may have to rely on a catalogue when the books and
periodicals themselves cannot be located. When the publications can be
examined, a researcher can look for evidence of actual use. Marginal annotations add weight to the conclusion that a collector did read a particular volume. Furthermore, marginalia can be especially revealing about
how a reader understood or reacted to a text.66Of the hundreds of publications from Bell's library that I have examined I have found only a
few where he penned something in the margin or marked a portion of
text that was important for him. His lectures and published research reports demonstrate that he did read books and periodicals from his library, but marginal notes were few. Other scientists, however, have left
extensive annotations,*whichhave helped scholars to follow reading
patterns and the development of ideas, the best example of which is
Charles Darwin.67
With a catalogue of a private library in hand, a researcher has several
additional avenues of analysis open. One can, for example, explore the
overall purpose or function of a library. Bell assembled his collection of
publications to support his research. His library demonstrates that it
was assembled for active research use, rather than serving an aesthetic
or bibliophilic purpose.68In medical circles, a private library could have
been used by numerous individuals other than the collector. This was
especially the case when medical education was acquired through apprenticeship, during which students would take advantage of a preceptor's private c~llection.~~
In such instances, personal collections had
both professional and educational purposes. Thus, as a number of
scholars have noted, the motivation for collecting printed materials
varies widely.'O A catalogue or the extant library provides a means of
testing hypotheses about collecting incentives.
404
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
For historians, who are interested in following the path of ideas or
certain books and articles, reconstructed private libraries are particularly useful. Evidence from a single private library is insightful, but the
cumulative information from numerous libraries is even more informative?l Tracking the diffusion of ideas and the disseminationof publications has become an increasingly productive line of investigation within
the history of the book field.n
A private library can also shed light on other aspects of a collector's
character, a matter of concern to biographers. Differencesbetween public and private personae may be revealed. Inspection of a library in its
entirety also permits a researcher to assess the subject interests of the
collector, and further, this examination can disclose what value the
owner placed on the collection in relation to other activities and possessions.
The study of private libraries has secured the attention of literary
scholars for some time, but in the case of Canadian scientists in particular the field is largely ~ n e x p l o r e dIndeed,
. ~ ~ there is gold to be found by
digging into the evidence of private collections. But, just like panning
for gold, hours of toil, perseverance, and good detective work are all
necessary before one can see results of value.
NOTES
* Research leading to the preparation of this article was financially supported by a
Dalhousie University Faculty of Graduate Studies Research Grant and by a Research
Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. A project
of this nature relies heavily on the assistance of numerous individuals, all of whom
generously offered access to personal or institutional records and collections, dipped
into their memory of past events, and/or provided names and ideas for further avenu@ of exploration.Among these indi~iduals~are:
Robert Bell Douglas, David Ewans,
Larry McNally, Patrick McGahem, Tom Stewart, Joyce Banks, Linda Hoad, JenniferJ.
Connor, Pamela Thayer, Paul Banfield, Dpwn Monroe, Norman Ball, Robert Nichols,
Amette Bourgois, Janine McGee, Karen Smith, and numerous additional librarians
and archivistsat the National Library of Canada, the National Archives of Canada, the
Geological S w e y of Canada, McGill University, and Queen's University. My research assistant, David Kaunelis, has been helpful at severalstages qf this project.
1 See "MacLaren Street Fire: Ottawa Couple Die in Blaze," Ottawa Journal, 29 October
1962, p. 3; and see p. 38 of the same issue for obituary notices of John Charles Outram
and Olga Elizabeth Outram.
2 The physical size and weight of the estate is an estimate provided by Robert Bell
Douglas (Robert Bell's grandson),who handled the disposition of the estate following
the death of his aunt, Olga Outram. Douglas noted that the three-storey house, with a
large basement, contained "twenty-eight rooms, all filled with books, papers, and
other specimens stacked to the ceiling" (interview with Robert B. Douglas, 15 June
1994).
3 For an overview on the private libraries of medical personnel see Alain Besson, "Private Medical Libraries," in Alain Besson, ed., Thornton's Medical Books, Libraries and
Collectors: A Study of Bibliography and the Book Dade in Relation to Medical Sciences, 3rd
ed. (Aldershot,Hants: Gower Publishing, 1990),p. 267-300.
Reconstructing a Private Libra y-The Case of Dr. Robert Bell
I
405
4 I have conducted this line of investigation on several nineteenth-century Canadian
scientists. See Bertrurn H. MacDonald, "'Public Knowledge': The Dissemination of
Scientific Literature in Victorian Canada as Illustrated from the Geological and AgriculturalSciences," PhD thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1990.
5 T. H. Clark, "Bell, Robert," in Charles C. Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of Scientijic Biography
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970), Vol. 1, p. 585. While there are extensive
records of Bell's life (a large fonds of personal papers is held at the National Archives
of Canada), his career awaits the detailed scrutiny of a biographer. Brief sketches are
found in "The Royal Society of London [Reportingthe Election of Bell as a Fellow],"
Ottawa Naturalist, 11 (1897): 122-23; Charles Hallock, "One of Canada's Explorers,"
Forest and Stream, 53 (1901): 9-15; "Robert Bell," Proceedings and Transactions of the
Royal Society of Canada, 3rd S. 12 (1918):X-xiv;H. M. Ami, "Memorial of Robert Bell,"
Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 38 (1927): 18-34; "Men of the Day: The Official Career of Dr. Robert Bell, F.R.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada," reprinted
from the Ottawa Free Press, n.d.; F. J. Alcock, A Century in the History of the Geological
Suwey of Canada (Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier, King's Printer, 1947), p. 48-54; Morris
Zaslow, Reading the Rocks: The Story of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1842-1972
(Toronto: Macmillan, 1975), passim; and Suzanne Zeller, "Bell, Robert," in James H.
Marsh, ed., The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2d ed. (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988),
Vol. 1,p. 201. Further background on Bell's career is found in Suzanne Zeller'slnventing Canada: Early Victorian Science and the Idea of a Transcontinental Nation (Toronto:
Universityof Toronto Press, 1987).
6 B. N. Smallman, H. M. Good, and A. S. West, Queen's Biology: An Academic History of
Innocence Lost and Fame Gained, 1858-1965 (Kingston:Department of Biology, Queen's
University, 1991), p. 25-26,3637. See also Hilda Neatby, To Strive, to Seek, to Find, and
Not to Yield: Queen's University, Vol. 1: 1841-1917 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1978),p. 103,135.
7 John Bell studied first at Queen's University where he obtained BA, MA, and MD degrees. He then went on to McGill University where he received a second MD in 1866.
His untimely death in 1878at the age of 32 cut short an already promising medical career. See Nathan Fishman, "John Bell, M.D.-Teacher to William Osler," Canadian
Medical Association Journal, 125 (1 November 1981): 1042-44. See also "John Bell,
MG 29, B 40, Finding Aid No. 1782," National Archives of Canada, 1989, p. ii. Some of
John Bell's medical texts survived in the library of his brother Robert.
8 M. H. Saffron has written about Osler's influence in "Heirs of Osler: Medical Bibliophiles in America," New JerseyMedicine, 89,l l (1992):843-45.
9 Bell was not unique in this regard. Other medical doctors received more acclaim for
their geological work than for their contributions to medicine. John Woodward is a
good example (seeV. A. Eyles, "John Woodward, F.R.S., F.R.C.P., M.D. [1665-1728l:A
Bio-Bibliographical Account of His Life and Work,"Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 5 [1971]:399-427).
10 Bell described some of these cases in " 'The Medicine-Man,' or Indian and Eskimo
Notions of Medicine," Canada Medical and Surgical J o u m l , 14 (1886):456-62,532-37. In
this article, Bell wrote about cases he cared for, with, as he noted, "a small assortment
of medicines." In addition, he recommended acquiring medical knowledge of local
flora in order to supplement the limited number of medicines that could be taken into
the "northern wilderness."
11 Zaslow,Reading the Rocks, p. 65.
12 Zaslow,Reading the Rocks, p. 154-55.
13 It is assumed here that the personal library under investigationhas in fact been broken
up. It may still be intact and, if so, it is only a matter of locating it. This search in itself
may require detective skills, but reconstructing a collection that has been dispersed is
much more challenging. Published lists of private librariesmay help to locate an intact
collection. One such list is Georg Hedeler, List of Private Libraries (Leipzig:G. Hedeler,
1897-98), a two-volume work which enumerates private libraries in Canada, the
406
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
United States, and Germany. Another inventory is J. A. Holden, A List of Private Book
Collectors in the United States and Canada (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1919), which went
through several editions up to 1948 under the title Private Book Collectors in the United
States and Canada. WilliamOslerls private library is, of course, the classic case of a medical collection still intact and well known. A less-familiar example is the library of the
nineteenth-century rural Ontario doctor, William M. Comfort, described in E. T. Peer,
"A Nineteenth Century Physician of Upper Canada and His Library," Bulletin of the
Cleveland Medical Libray Association, 19 (1972): 78-85.
Ellen Wells has provided an extensive list of scientists' and medical practitioners'
libraries in "Scientists' Libraries: A Handlist of Printed Sources," Annals of Science, 40
(1983): 317-89.
The multi-volumeDictwnay of Canadian Biography has built an enviable reputation for
extending the reach of biographical coverage to a widening number of Canadians. The
Dictionay has only recently begun to encompass the twentieth century, and the volume which will include a biography of Bell has not yet been published.
Union lists of manuscripts are very helpful for pointing a researcher to relevant repositories. Unfortunately, the Canadian lists have not been updated for some time. See
Robert S. Gordon, Union List of Manuscripts in Canadian Repositories, rev. ed., 2 vols.
(Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1975); and Public Archives of Canada, Union List
of Manuscripts: Supplement (Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1976-, 1981-82).
The acquisition of these papers became a controversial matter in the late 1970sand is a
story on its own. I became aware of this issue through debate on the matter at the first
conference of the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association held in
Kingston, Ontario in 1978. At the time I did not realize that this issue would become
important for later research, when I attempted to unravel the complexity surrounding
the scatter of Bell's library.
I wish to acknowledge here the invaluable assistance provided by Larry McNally and
Ann Roos.
Edwin Wolf 11, "The Reconstruction of Benjamin Franklin's Library: An Unorthodox
Jigsaw Puzzle," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 56 (1962): 13. In another
essay, Wolf has discussed Franklin's medical books and the wrangling by Franklin's
descendants over their dispersal. See Edwin Wolf 11, "Frustration and Benjamin
Franklin's Medical Books," in Randolph Shipley Klein, ed., Science and Society in Early
America: Essays in Honour of WhitfieldJ. Bell, Jr. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical
Society, 1986), p. 57-91.
Both Dr. Norman Ball and Dawn Munroe, National Archives staff members, had mentioned Robert Douglas, but only later in an interview with him, arranged with the assistance of David Ewans, an Ottawa bookdealer, did the benefit of speaking with Mr.
Douglasbecome apparent.
Alan Gribben, "Private Libraries of American Authors: Dispersal, Custody, and Description,"Journal of Libray Histoy, 21,2 (1986): 300-14.
Owen H. Wangensteen and Sarah D. Wangensteen, "Lister, His Books, and Evolvement of His Antiseptic Wound Practices," Bulletin of the Histoy of Medicine, 48, 1
(1974): 100-28, see esp. p. 103.
It is worth noting that the practices of a depository may result in the dispersal of a private collection within a single institution. In the case of the National Archives, some of
the items from Bell's personal collection were added to the Archives' own library with
no cross-reference to the manuscript collection held in another location. Only by talking with various staff members does one learn about these connections. As more and
more archives introduce standardized practices, e.g., Rules for Archival Description,
patrons will automatically be alerted to corresponding collections when they examine
finding aids.
National Archives of Canada. Robert Bell Pavers. MG 29 B15.
w at thews brought out canabian~iariesand Autobiographies (Berkeley:
In l950 ~ i l l i a m
University of California Press), which lists some medical practitioners. A comparable
Reconstructing a Private Libray-The
Case of Dr. Robert Bell
reference tool has not been published since. A more recent volume covering diaries in
North America and elsewhere is Patricia P. Havlice, And So to Bed: A Bibliography of
Diaries Published in English (Metuchen, N.J.: ScarecrowPress, 1987).
As an example, Jacalyn Duffin has taken advantage of day books to reconstruct the
private library of the Ontario practitioner, Dr. James Langstaff. See Jacalyn Duffin,
Langstafi A Nineteenth-Century Medical Life (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1993),Appendix C.
Ellen B. Wells, "Books for the Bibliotheca: A Study of Sir William Osler's Book Bills,"
Osler Library Newsletter, 26 (1977):1-4.
A partial listing of publishers' promotional material sent to Robert Bell is found in
Appendix 2 of my dissertation(seen. 4).
It is possible that Bell bought a volume afier he had examined an institutional copy. So,
like every other piece of historical evidence, lending records must be considered in
light of other findings.
Archival institutions, as a normal policy, refrain from collecting published works.
Such items are left to libraries to collect. Thus, it is not surprising that many of Bell's
books were not in the National Archives holdings.
A pending physical move from one location to another seems to trigger the creation of
book catalogues,as I have found others. Another example is a manuscript catalogue in
the George Lawson papers at the Dalhousie University Archives, which on internal
evidence seems to have been prepared in the late 1850sprior to Lawson's move from
Edinburghto Kingston, Ontario.
Such seems to have been the case with Dr. John Webster in seventeenth-century
England. See Peter Elmer, The Library of Dr. John Webster: The Making of a SeventeenthCentuy Radical, Medical History Supplement No. 6 (London: Wellcome Institute for
the History of Medicine, 1986).
Yvan Lamonde and Daniel Olivier have documented records (including sales catalogues) of private libraries in Quebec. See Les biblioth2ques personnelles au Qdbec
(Montr6al: Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec, 1983).The Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions has regularly filmed sales catalogues for inclusion in its
microfiche collection of early Canadiana. See Canadian Institute for Historical
Microreproductions,Canada the Printed Record: A Bibliographic Register with Indexes to
the Microfiche Series of the Canadian lnstitutefor Historical Microreproductions (Ottawa:
The Institute, 1981 to present). On occasion sales catalogues of private libraries are
themselves sold. One such example is the catalogue for sale number 12 of Christie's
(Canada) with the Montreal Book Auctions, 20-21 May 1970. This catalogue listed
about 110 auction catalogues of personal libraries of Canadians spanning the years
from 1866 to 1941.Some of these private libraries numbered as;many as 5,000 volumes
in their holdings.
Bell used a number of variations when signing items in his library including: "Robert
Bell," "R. Bell," "Dr. Robert Bell," "Dr. R. Bell," and "Robert Bel1,M.D."
For example, signatures were used to identify a few of Lister's books. Unlike Bell,
however, Lister signed only a few volumes in his collection. See Wangensteen and
Wangensteen, "Lister, His Books," p. 111.
David Pearson, Provenance Research in Book History: A Handbook (London: British Library, 1994). This comprehensive work includes coverage of Canada, although not
completely.More specific to medical libraries,Judith A. Overmier and Lilli Sentz have
discussed the topic in "Medical Rare Book Provenance," Bulletin of the Medical Libray
Association, 75,l (January 1987):14-18.
Investigative techniques need to be just as rigorous in using provenance indexes as
with any other method a researcher might use. The Queen's provenance file contains
entries for a Dr. Robert Bell, but not "my" Robert Bell. The Bell in the Queen's file was
also an Ontario native and contemporary of "my" Bell and even donated books to
Queen's in the same time period. But the two were distinctly different individuals.
408
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
38 For instance, in my search for the library of Sir William Logan, the first Director of the
Geological Survey of Canada, I found in a number of rebound volumes in one institutional collection that his bookplate had been covered over with new endpapers. But,
having previously become aware of the characteristic shape and design of Logan's
bookplates from other books, I was able to discern the masked bookplatesand confirm
that the "restored" volumeswere from his private collection.
39 See "Dr. Bell's Books Sent to Queen's," Almonte Gazette, 1November 1934. I am grateful to L. M. Cununing of the Geological Survey of Canada, who brought this report to
my attention.
40 For example, an index of the Globe and Mail is currently in the planning stages.
41 It was only later in my discussion with Robert B. Douglas that I learned how parts of
Bell's private collection had arrived at the National Library. I might have initiated a
search at the National Library earlier if I had know the fate of Bell's collection, but the
process of locating items scattered throughout the Library would have been no easier.
I am grateful to Linda Hoad of the National Library, who first brought my attention to
Bell items in that location.
42 Corporate memory fades over time as staff members retire or leave an institution. As
only one example, when I started to locate Bell volumes at the National Library which
also had Outram bookplates, the suggestions I received for who the Outrams were all
later proved to be incorrect. This was no fault of the very helpful and knowledgeable
staff, but was due to the fact that acquisitionrecords did not exist and the people who
had been involved with the Bell collectionwere no longer with the library.
43 Such was the case with Lister's library (see Wangensteen and Wangensteen, "Lister,
His Books," p. 108-11).
44 An illustration of this practice is item no. 90 in Catalogue #70, Arctica issued by
J. Patrick McGahern Books, Inc., Ottawa. The entry in the catalogue is: Franz Boaz,
Vocabulay of the Kwakiutl Language ([S.l.]: American Philosophical Society, 1882),and
was listed as a presentation copy to Robert Bell.
45 Dr. Robert V. Nicholls, who had been at the sales, very kindly provided photocopies of
his marked-up auction sales catalogues.
46 Cataloguesfrom auctions of a number of private librarieshavebeen republished in the
extensive microfiche collection of the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (see n. 33). An example is Catalogue of the Extensive Libray Belonging to the Estate
of the Late Dr. Wm. Marsden and Containing Over 2,500 Volumes. . . ([Quebec, 18861)
(CIHM/ICHMNo. 32441). JenniferJ. Connor has made use of this and other examples
in "To Advocate, to Diffuse, and to Elevate: The Culture and Context of Medical Publishing in Canada, 1630to 1920," PhD thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1992.
47 Guides to Canadian book auctions include Montreal Book Auction Records, Vols. 1-5
(Montreal: Montreal Book Auctions, 1967-78), continued as Canada Book Auction
Records, Vols. 6-8 (Toronto: Canada Book Auctions, 1978-81). Canadian collections
have also been sold outside the country and thus it is useful to examine Book Auction
Records, Vol. 91 (Folkestone, Kent: Dawson, 1993-94),or American Book Auction Catalogues, 1813-1934 (New York: New York Public Library, 1937; republished, Detroit:
Gale Research, 1967). Besides the catalogues produced by iluction houses, the actual
business records of such firms could be consulted for information not available in the
catalogues, e.g., information about who actually bought particular titles. As an example, the papers of the Montreal Book Auctions are housed at the National Library of
Canada.
48 JenniferJ. Connor, "Estate Records and the History of Medicine in Ontario," Canadian
Bulletin of Medical History, 10 (1993): 97-114. See also Jennifer J. Connor and Jean
Harris, "Estate Records of Health Practitionersin Ontario, 1793-1900," Canadian Bulletin of Medical Histoy, 10(1993):115-43.
49 A special 1993issue of the Journal of the Canadian Oral History Association/Socitt6 canadienne d'histoire orale provides an excellent Guide to Oral Histoy Collections in Canada/
Guide des finds d'histoire orale au Canada, prepared by Normand Fortier. Additional
Reconstructing a Private Library-The Case ofDr. Robert Bell
l
oral history guides which provide international coverage include Patricia Pate
Havlice, Oral History: A Reference Guide and Annotated Bibliography (Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland, 1983),and Alan M. Meckler and Ruth McMullin, comp., Oral History Collections (New York: R. R. Bowker, 1975).
50 In an investigation of the private collection of Elkanah Billings (a co-worker of Bell's),
I was aided by WilliamStewart M. Durban's paper, "List of Works to be Consultedby
Students of Canadian Diurnal Lepidoptera," Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, 3
(1858): 416-19, in which he described books from a number of libraries including
Billings'. In his rudimentary diary (mentioned earlier) Bell also made reference to
other private librariesand noted works he had borrowed.
51 Subscriptionlists of monographs published by this mechanism were often included in
the preliminariesof the books themselves, and can be consulted in the absence of other
publishers' records. JenniferJ. Connor makes brief mention of this type of information
in "To Advocate, to Diffuse, and to Elevate," p. 239-40.
52 The Publishers' Papers project at Simon Fraser University will shortly bring out the
most comprehensive guide to English Canadian publishing houses, which will
undoubtedly quickly become useful for a wide range of research work. Papers of
twentieth-century Canadian publishers have often fared better than has been the case
for earlier firms, particularly because a number of repositories have recently made
concerted efforts to acquire such business accounts. For example, the McMaster University Library has procured the papers of McClelland and Stewart, Macmillan of
Canada, and other firms, and has published comprehensivefinding aids for these collections.
53 Board of Trustee Minutes, Queen's University, Wednesday, 30 April 1890, p. 119.This
informationwas brought to my attention by JenniferJ. Connor, which I acknowledge
with thanks.
54 Among the titles Bell collected on this topic is James Constantine Pilling, Bibliography
of the Algonquian Languages (Washington:GovernmentPrinting Office, 1891).This volume, with the autograph "Robert Bell, M.D./OttawaU on the title page, is now in
privatehands.
55 Among the titles that Bell acquired on this subject were: George Back, Narrative of the
Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River (Philadelphia.Carey &Hart,
1836); Alexander Fisher, A ]ournal of a Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions. . . in
1819 B l820,3rd ed. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821);and
Thomas Simpson, Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America (London:
Bentley, 1843).
56 One of these volumes (WilliamOsler,Pathological Report [of the Montreal General Hospitallfor the Year Ending May 1st 1877 [Montreal: Dawson Bros., 18781inscribed to John
Bell) followed the circuitousroute from being part of the Bell library to being the property of a private collector who placed the book in the hands of the Canada Book Auctions in sale no. 133,24June 1981, item 317.
57 As noted earlier, except for the journal, The Lancet, I was unsuccessful in determining
the titles of more than 300 volumes that Bell donated to Queen's University in 1890.It
seems quite possible that these volumes were on medical subjects, since Bell's medical
ambitionswere secondaryat this point.
58 As I explained at the outset, I have only considered Robert Bell's library here as it is
this part of his collection where my interest lies. However, the collections stored in his
MacLaren street home included a very large number of mineralogical specimensand
archeologicaland anthropologicalartifacts.
59 Recounted in my interview with Douglas in June 1994. The quotation is from a letter
from Douglas to Nathan Fishman, dated 1 December 1981, a copy of which is in the acquisitionfile for the Bell fondsat the National Archives of Canada.
60 The boxes contained letters to Bell from such notables as Alexander Graham Bell,
Franz Boas, Charles Darwin, Sir Williim Osler, Thomas Edison, Sir Sandford Fleming,
Emest Thompson Seton, and many others.
410
I
BERTRUM H. MAcDONALD
61 I acquired a volume with Bell's autograph in a London bookshop several years ago,
but I cannot account for how it reached that location.
62 Wangensteen and Wangensteen had a similar experience (see their "Lister, His
Books." v. 107).
63 otherresearchers have found searching for a private library to be a lengthy project. A
case in point is the work undertaken by the Wangensteens to locate Lister's library,
cited earlier.
64 Gribben, "Private Libraries," p. 306.
65 Robert Darnton, "What Is the History of Books?" Daedalus, 111 (1982):65-83, reprinted
in Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History (New York:
W. W. Norton, 1990), p. 109-35. Another more recent model, which inverts Darnton's
concept, is presented in Thomas R. Adams and Nicholas Barker, "A New Model for
the Study of the Book," in Nicholas Barker, ed., A Potencie of Lye: Books in Society: The
Clark Lectures, 1986-1987 (London: British Library, 1993),p. 5-43. See also Robert Darnton, "First Steps Towards a History of Reading," in The Kiss of Lamourette, p. 154-87.
66 For further discussion on this point, see H. T. Jackson, "Writing in Books and Other
Marginal Activities," University of Toronto Quarterly, 62,2 (Winter 1992-93):217-31.
67 A number of scholars have examined Darwin's library, including Susan SheetsPyenson, "Darwin's Data: His Reading of Natural History Journals, 1837-1842,"Journal of the History of Biology, 14 (1981): 231-48. A description and transcription of
Darwin's reading records is provided in Peter J. Vorzimmer, "The Darwin Reading
Notebooks (1838-1860)," Journal of the History of Biology, 10 (1977): 107-53. R. Alan
Richardson closely examined Darwin's library in his "Biogeography and the Genesis
of Darwin's Ideas of Transmutation," Journal of the History of Biology, 14 (1981):1-41.
Another study of Darwin's reading records is Sydney Smith, "The Origin of The Origin
as Discerned from Charles Darwin's Notebooks and Annotations in Books Read Between 1837and 1842,"Advances in Science, 16 (1960):392-94.
68 Peter Elmer reached the same conclusion concerning Dr. John Webster's private library. In this case, Elmer relied on a manuscript catalogue of the collection and other
collateral evidence, since the books themselves have not survived (see n. 32). Use of
personal collections has both a historical and contemporary interest as Mary Ellen
Soper, a modern-day information professional, has outlined in "Characteristics and
Use of Personal Collections," Library Quarterly, 46,4 (1976):397-415.
69 While this pattern is found in nineteenth-century Canada, it can be traced much earlier. See David A. Kronick, "A Lending Library for Medical Students in the Eighteenth
Century," Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 77,l (January 1989):69-70.
70 See, for example, W. D. M. Paton, "Bibliomania: A Clinical Case-Study," The Book Collector, 37,2 (1988):207-24.
71 An example of this type of analysis is found in Eric Sangwine, "The Private Libraries
of Tudor Doctors,"Journal of the History of Medicine, 33 (1978):167-84.
72 For an extensive bibliography of the rapidly growing history of the book field in Canada, see Mark A. Bartlett, Fiona A. Black, and Bertrum H. MacDonald, The History of
the Book in Canada: A Bibliography (Halifax: B. H. MacDonald, 1993). Updates to this
bibliography are published regularly in kpilogue, a bilingual journal devoted to the
history of all aspects of Canadian print culture. International coverage is given in International Federation of Library Associations, Annual Bibliography of the History of the
Printed Book and Libraries (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970-).
73 A notable exception is Raymond Duchesne, "La Bibliotheque scientifique de l'Abb6
Uon Provancher," Revue d'histoire de Z'Amtriquefran~aise,34,4 (mars 1981):535-56. See
also my dissertation(n. 4).