Historic Book Collections in Newfoundland
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Few private libraries from the nineteenth century are known to survive in Canada and only a small percentage of these libraries are found in the Atlantic region. Significantly, a handful of these collections exist in Newfoundland. Although the majority of private libraries were destroyed or scattered after the deaths of their owner, some substantial personal collections, such as those of the Catholic bishops John Thomas Mullock (1807–69) and Michael Francis Howley (1843–1914) and the Anglican bishop Edward Feild (1801–76), and numerous lesser known collectors’ books are extant today mainly because they became part of institutional libraries during the lifetime of their original owners.
The Mullock Library of St. John’s (now located in the Basilica Museum) and the library of Queen’s College (now housed in the Special Collections of the Queen Elizabeth II Library at Memorial University) are among the few nineteenth-century book collections in St. John’s that survived the Great Fire of 1892 and remained reasonably intact. In the case of the Mullock Library, it has been restored to its original setting and can be visited by the public in the Basilica Museum. Both of these historically significant collections were tied to mid-nineteenth-century educational foundations in St. John’s. The Mullock Library served the pedagogical needs of St. Bonaventure’s College, which opened its doors in 1856 as a Catholic seminary and grammar school under the tutelage of the bishop of St. John’s, John Thomas Mullock.
Mullock also inherited some rare survivors of fires from the private libraries of his predecessors, Bishops Thomas Scallan (1766–1830) and Michael Anthony Fleming (1792–1850). Following Mullock’s death, the Mullock Library was enriched by his successors, particularly by Bishop Michael Francis Howley, who augmented the existing collection mainly with theological works.
The Queen’s College Collection catered to the Anglican Theological Institute and Collegiate School for Boys, established respectively in 1841 and 1844. The Theological Institute was re-founded as Queen’s College by the bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, Edward Feild in 1847, while the Collegiate School for Boys would come to be known as Bishop Feild College.
The following webpages offer a detailed overview of the nineteenth-century book collections found in both the Mullock Library and the Queen’s College Collection. The Mullock Library comprises the private collections of John Thomas Mullock and Michael Howley, while the Queen’s College Collection holds Edward Feild’s books. Special webpages are dedicated to significant nineteenth-century donors, such as Frederick Menzies, Dr. Bray’s Associates, and other book owners who lived in Newfoundland in the nineteenth century and whose books eventually ended up in the Queen’s College Collection through donations and bequests, or as personal gifts. The descriptions of the various collections are supplemented with a comprehensive catalogue of the books that belonged to the respective collectors or donors. These supplementary catalogues are arranged alphabetically by author and contain the call numbers under which the titles can be searched and located either through the Memorial University Libraries Queen Elizabeth II website (in the case of the Queen’s College Collection) or in person in the Mullock Library.
