The Sir William Dawson Pamphlet Collection was acquired in 1901
with the rest of his library. Dawson (1820-1899) was an eminent
nineteenth-century geologist and Principal of McGill University
(1854-1893). The collection consists of some 1762 items in thirty-
one bound volumes and fifty-one pamphlet boxes. It includes
offprints and pamphlets on scientific subjects a substantial number
of which bear presentation inscriptions. Sixteen pamphlet boxes
contain items by Dawson himself and one box material about him.
There are a few letters bound in.
Return to Index
Established in 1947, the collection was formed from the McGill
library's existing holdings and by extensive purchases in the late
1940s and early 1950s under the supervision of philosophy Professor
Raymond Klibansky and the University Librarian Richard Pennington.
Other early contributors were the sometime McGill professors Dr.
J.W.A. Hickson (philosophy) and Dr. C.W. Colby (history). The
collection has been added to regularly and systematically. It
includes first, early and variant editions and translations of
works by David Hume; contemporary and modern criticism of Hume; and
books from Hume's library. There are 546 monographs and 51 letters
from Hume.
Description: Bruce Whiteman, "Recent Additions to the David Hume
Collection", Fontanus IV (1991), 181-183.
Return to Index
The collection was formed by the Danish Kierkegaard scholar Prof.
Gregor Malantschuk and acquired in 1980. The collection now numbers
some 1553 monographs and includes an almost complete set of first
editions of Søren Kierkegaard's works and a reconstruction of his
private library. A copy of the sale catalogue of his
library is also part of the collection. As well, there is a collection of books in contemporary
editions that Kierkegaard is assumed to have read, although they
were not in his library; and a collection of books by his
contemporaries that he might have read. Modern
critical works on Kierkegaard complement the original works by Kierkegaard.
Description: Catalogue of the Gregor Malantschuk Søren Kierkegaard
Collection in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
Montreal: McGill University, 1984.
Return to Index
The Rousseau Collection was formed in the early 1950s from material
already in the McGill library and from new acquisitions. It was
created as a complement to the David Hume Collection. The
collection now comprises some 140 first, early and variant editions
of Rousseau's works, some modern editions and some 120 eighteenth-
century (and later) commentaries and criticisms of Rousseau. There
are eighteenth-century English translations and some examples of
Rousseau apocrypha, notably editions of Letters of an Italian Nun
including one eighteenth-century American edition. There are also
a dozen autograph letters and a contemporary manuscript copy of
"Jean Jacques Rousseau, Citoyen de Geneve, à Christophe de
Beaumont, archevêque de Paris" dated 1763.
Return to Index
The general rare book collection includes extensive holdings of the
works of many of the writers associated with the Scottish
Enlightenment; these complement the David Hume Collection. In
addition, there are important holdings of the works of Athanasius
Kircher, John Locke, John Brown (1715-1766, An Estimate of the
Manners and Principles of the Times, 1757 and later editions),
Joseph Priestley (non-scientific writings), Emmanuel Kant and
William Warburton among others. As well, there are significant
holdings of seventeenth and eighteenth-century English theology and
a large collection of Bibles in various languages including two
copies of the Walton Polyglot (1657). The papers of the McGill-
educated psychologist Abraham Aaron Roback (1890-1965) are held in
the Manuscript Collection. While not extensive, the papers do
include correspondence with such figures as Albert Schweitzer,
Thomas Mann, Havelock Ellis, Theodor Heuss and Werner Jaeger.
Return to Index
Last modified 97/4/25.