RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Lyman G. Bloomingdale correspondence and collection on John Buchan (MS.2012.012)

Brown University Library

Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146


Scope & content

The collection consists primarily of correspondence and research related to the John Buchan Collection, a collection of several thousand editions of the published works of John Buchan, British statesman, author and Governor General of Canada. The collection was created by Lyman G. Bloomingdale, most actively between the 1940s and 1970s. Bloomingdale collected Buchan manuscript materials and related ephemera, both of which are represented in the collection.

The correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence and is divided between correspondence with book sellers and with others. The correspondence with book sellers tends to formal business correspondence and relates primarily to the acquisition of Buchan volumes. Correspondence with others is focused on the acquisition of a broader range of materials including manuscript materials and ephemeral publications. The materials are arranged chronologically with incoming and outgoing correspondence interfiled.

Ephemera and printed materials comprise items collected by Bloomingdale and include materials attributed to Buchan as well as clippings and printed documents about Buchan. Materials attributed to Buchan include a number of pages with John Buchan's autograph signature, a bookplate from his library, an inscribed calling card, and two typescript speeches. The remaining materials include pamphlets with essays by Buchan, articles and essays about Buchan and his writings, dustjackets from Buchan publications, clippings, and printed ephemera as postcards and leaflets.

The third series, items removed from books in the John Buchan collection, consists primarily of correspondence with book sellers, similar to that found in the correspondence series. In addition, there are notes and clippings. Much of this material can be attributed to Bloomingdale, though some may have been in volumes at the point of his acquisition.

The final series consists of materials gathered by Bloomingdale including Buchan bibliographies and collection inventories, as well as the correspondence and research of John P. Cavanagh. Inventories include three typescript copies of a catalogue of John Buchan's library at Elsfield Manor and a list compiled by Bloomingdale. The series includes a photocopy of James D. Mack's John Buchan: a bibliography and Robert G. Blanchard's The first editions of John Buchan: a collector's bibliography. The John P. Cavanagh correspondence and research included in this series is similarly related to Buchan bibliography and includes correspondence with Mack and Blanchard, Susan Tweedsmuir (Buchan's wife), and Lyman Bloomingdale.