Library Overview
Special Collections at Queen's University is a rich and diverse research resource containing a wide range of materials acquired either through purchase or donation. Today, the collection numbers more than 125,000 volumes. Rare materials, early imprints, deluxe editions, fragile and ephemeral items, local history, and items and subject collections with special provenance are located here. Canadiana beyond literature includes works of early exploration, travel and missionary accounts, native studies, early settlement, United Empire Loyalists, the War of 1812, the opening of the West and the North, local histories and Canadian pamphlets—providing a rich resource for the study of Canadian society from the 18th century to the present. Non-Canadiana of significance includes an outstanding 18th-century British Pamphlet Collection; early editions of Dickens, Galsworthy, Masefield, Dante, Hugo, and Disraeli; Anglo-Irish literature including Cuala Press imprints; the works of George Russell and Monk Gibbon; the private library of John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir; and three important science collections relating to the history of telegraphy, radioastronomy, and natural history. Maps, plans, broadsides, posters, sheet music, programs, and ephemeral materials are found here as well.
A long archival tradition exists at Queen's University. The first archival document was presented to the university in 1869. The archives preserves records and manuscripts in two general areas—University Records and Private Manuscripts and consists of about 9,000 meters of holdings. The Private Manuscripts program encompasses a number of thematic areas—literary papers, public affairs, business papers, regional collections, genealogy, photographs, architectural drawings, fine arts, and sound and moving images. While most of the literary collections relate to Canadian writers, the archives also have the John Buchan and Monk Gibbon fonds.
Queen's University
W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library
Douglas Library
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 5C4
Canada
http://library.queensu.ca/webmus/sc/menu.htm
(613) 533-2528 (t)
Queen's University Archives
Kathleen Ryan Hall
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 3N6
Canada
http://archives.queensu.ca/
(613) 533-2378 (t)
(613) 533-6403 (f)
