Strawberry Curls
10-17-2007, 01:34 AM
Last week I traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota to gather with a few friends from The Letters of Mary site. We had been offered the opportunity to view the Sherlock Holmes Collection of the Special Collections and Rare Books Department of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Housed in the Anderson Library on the Twin Cities Campus in Minneapolis, it is "the world's largest gathering of material related to Sherlock Holmes and his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."
The curator, Tim Johnson, a Holmes enthusiast himself, was kind enough to give us almost three hours of his time, walking us through the underground, environmentally controlled, caverns where millions of volumes are stored. Our excitement increased as we finally found ourselves in a hallway before a locked door -- the collection was just on the other side. We entered and the lights came on revealing row after row of tall metal bookcases with narrow aisles separating each.
We were not allowed to take pictures, but I will take the memory of holding an original manuscript page from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" to the grave. We were shown not just one, but two copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual,(1887) containing the first Sherlock Holmes story published, "A Study In Scarlet." There are only thirty left. Next came the original Sidney Paget drawings and color drawings from American magazines. Original letters from Conan Doyle to friends and family were displayed and on and on.
Included in the collection is a reproduction of the 221B sitting room. It had been on display this past summer as part of a conference held at the library called "Victorian Secrets and Edwardian Enigmas." It is now in the process of being reassembled at one end of a reading room and Mr. Johnson allowed us to walk among the display although it is still a work in progress. There we viewed a desk with a letter to Mary Morstan from the good Doctor, a gasogene on the bookcase, the jackknife in the mantel and the Persian slipper. I asked about tobacco and Mr. Johnson brought it over to show us it did indeed hold shag tobacco. He was kind enough to pose sitting in a chair in the sitting room so I have attached that picture with a few others of the display.
In passing Mr. Johnson told of meeting Ms. King a few years ago when she visited the library, and he knew all about the Russell Books.
If you live in or around Minneapolis, or plan a trip there in the future you can make arrangements to view the collection. They also have a newsletter called The Friends of Sherlock Holmes and you can join for a small donation.
Here is a link to the site:
http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/holmes.phtml
There was a very nice news piece done this summer regarding the collection and the conference and the video can be found at:
http://wcco.com/findingminnesota/local_story_196155214.html
The curator, Tim Johnson, a Holmes enthusiast himself, was kind enough to give us almost three hours of his time, walking us through the underground, environmentally controlled, caverns where millions of volumes are stored. Our excitement increased as we finally found ourselves in a hallway before a locked door -- the collection was just on the other side. We entered and the lights came on revealing row after row of tall metal bookcases with narrow aisles separating each.
We were not allowed to take pictures, but I will take the memory of holding an original manuscript page from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" to the grave. We were shown not just one, but two copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual,(1887) containing the first Sherlock Holmes story published, "A Study In Scarlet." There are only thirty left. Next came the original Sidney Paget drawings and color drawings from American magazines. Original letters from Conan Doyle to friends and family were displayed and on and on.
Included in the collection is a reproduction of the 221B sitting room. It had been on display this past summer as part of a conference held at the library called "Victorian Secrets and Edwardian Enigmas." It is now in the process of being reassembled at one end of a reading room and Mr. Johnson allowed us to walk among the display although it is still a work in progress. There we viewed a desk with a letter to Mary Morstan from the good Doctor, a gasogene on the bookcase, the jackknife in the mantel and the Persian slipper. I asked about tobacco and Mr. Johnson brought it over to show us it did indeed hold shag tobacco. He was kind enough to pose sitting in a chair in the sitting room so I have attached that picture with a few others of the display.
In passing Mr. Johnson told of meeting Ms. King a few years ago when she visited the library, and he knew all about the Russell Books.
If you live in or around Minneapolis, or plan a trip there in the future you can make arrangements to view the collection. They also have a newsletter called The Friends of Sherlock Holmes and you can join for a small donation.
Here is a link to the site:
http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/holmes.phtml
There was a very nice news piece done this summer regarding the collection and the conference and the video can be found at:
http://wcco.com/findingminnesota/local_story_196155214.html