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Autumn/Winter 2009 Registered Charity No. SCO 09009 Thank FRIENDS’ EVENTS you Dates for your Diary to our many kind Friends who THE FRIENDS OF ABERDEEN sent gifts in response to my UNIVERSITY LIBRARY request for support for the new Library and Special Collections Autumn / Winter 2009 Meeting Centre. Your generosity has increased our collective Monday 2 November at 7.30 pm contribution towards this very important project and will really Regent Lecture Theatre make a difference. From castle, to croft, to cowshed: The new Library will provide On the architecture of the Cluny Estate by facilities for the University's Nicola Mills growing community. The existing Freelance Archivist Queen Mother Library was built as the Science Library when the A talk on the architecture of the Cluny Estate in Aberdeenshire, using University had only 5,000 archives from Special Libraries & Archives and some local collections. students, whereas today there are more than 14,000 on campus. The new Library will be an architectural landmark which will Spring 2010 Meeting be both a showcase for the University's 200,000 historic Tuesday 9 March at 7.30 pm books and 4,000 archival Regent Lecture Theatre collections and vital to ensure their preservation. The new An Inspector called: building will also open up these John Bisset Chapman and literary Britain collections to new audiences by including the school parties and Keith O'Sullivan the general public. Senior Rare Books Librarian Special Libraries & Archives If you have not yet made your donation, there is still time to do John Bisset Chapman (1875-1949), a graduate of Aberdeen, spent much of so, simply request a donation form his career as HM Inspector of Schools for Lambeth. However, he formed friendships and acquaintances with many of the leading members of the from London literary scene such as Aldous Huxley, Walter de la Mare and H E [email protected]. Bates. With my sincerest thanks. Keith O’Sullivan will discuss both the man and the remarkable collection which resulted. Roy Thomson Chair, All Welcome Friends of Aberdeen University Light Refreshments will be served after the meeting Library 1 REPORTS ON FRIENDS’ ACTIVITIES Summer Meeting and AGM – 21 May Before the AGM Friends were able to enjoy an exhibition in Old Aberdeen Town House. King’s College Divinity Library Entitlement: the library 'blocking-in' the darkest tones out by the University. paintings of the Hugh of the painting first. Buchanan was a selection of At King's College Chapel, Mr magnificent large watercolours Buchanan, best known for Ellington introduced The Prince depicting great libraries in grand architectural interiors, to Professors Peter Davidson Britain, including many in chose to focus more on fine and Jane Stevenson, authors of Scotland. It came from the detail in the exhibition, “After a the recently published book, Francis Kyle Gallery in while it was the books in The Lost City, examining the London, where The Times isolation that began to interest history and evolution of Old voted it London’s top me more and more; and this is Aberdeen (covered in the last exhibition. where I felt I could break new Friends’ News). ground.” Our showing included new On arrival at St Machar's paintings of Scottish libraries Cathedral, Dr Alan Falconer, not previously exhibited in In April HRH Prince Charles, the Minister of St Machar's, had London, including one of the The Duke of Rothesay, had pointed out a number of the Divinity Library in King’s made a surprise private visit to building's important historic Old Aberdeen, which included features, including its College here. th a visit to the Hugh Buchanan magnificent 16 century Described as the greatest exhibition. heraldic ceiling, unique in watercolour painter in Britain Scotland. today, Hugh Buchanan was During the course of the born in Edinburgh and educated morning, Prince Charles, who Prince Charles then visited the at Edinburgh College of Art. was accompanied by Marc Hugh Buchanan exhibition and After completing post graduate Ellington of Towie Barclay before departing he and Mr studies in 1981, he was Castle, had chatted with Ellington were given awarded travel scholarships to students and visited a number refreshments at Chanonry the Middle East, North Italy of Old Aberdeen's foremost Lodge, home of the Principal of and the Balkans. His work is historic sites including King's the University of Aberdeen, greatly influenced by light and College Chapel, St Machar's Professor Sir Duncan Rice, and colour, captured through his Cathedral and The Old Town where recruitment evenings for unorthodox technique of House, where they inspected prospective Friends have been recent restoration work carried held over the last few years. 2 Finding Alexander Collie: colonial surgeon, on HMS Sulphur which was to naturalist and explorer: from Insch to establish a British colony in Western Australia. Collie Aberdeen to Australia hoped to be appointed Colonial by Gwen Chessell Surgeon to the new colony but had to wait until 1832 for this, and in 1812 travelled to although he became the London to study at Guy’s and Government Resident in St Thomas’s Hospitals. Albany. Collie’s letters to his brother, George, who supported him By this stage his health had during this period, survive and started to deteriorate. He had stress that he was careful not first experienced symptoms of to waste George’s money on tuberculosis in 1815 but the laundry! harsh climate of Western Australia accelerated the After passing the Royal disease’s progress. In 1835 College of Surgeons’ exams Collie asked for a leave of Collie sought a posting with absence but died, aged 42, the East India Company but before the ship carrying him was unsuccessful, joining the home had left Australian Royal Navy instead. Initially waters. assistant surgeon on HMS Doris he went on to study Gwen concluded her talk by military surgery in Edinburgh highlighting Collie’s influence in 1816-17. November 1817 and connections. Three species Dr Alexander Collie, MA found him completing his are named after him: a bird, a (Aberdeen, 1812) education in the third of the buttercup and a fish and, in major centres for the study of spite of his early death, he Gwen Chessell, formerly Co- medicine, Paris. made a considerable ordinator, Medical Learning contribution to the scientific Resources here, gave a After serving on HMS Gannet, world of his day. His work was captivating lecture on the 18th whose duties included escorting known to such luminaries as century physician, Alexander the body of George IV’s Charles Darwin, with whom he Collie, following our Annual estranged Queen Caroline to corresponded, Sir William General Meeting. her native Brunswick for burial, Hooker, Robert Brown, Sir and preventing smuggling in John Richardson and many Little known outside the the Irish Sea, Collie joined others. He corresponded with Medical-Chirological Society HMS Blossom in January 1825. the Linnaean and Zoological in Aberdeen (now the He had the opportunity to study Societies, describing how a Med.Chi), of which he was an the flora, fauna and native Joey gets into its mother’s early member, Collie’s travels populations of the Pacific pouch. He was known also for can be traced through a islands and the entire west providing medical care for the promontory, a river and a town coast of North and South native populations of the named after him. Gwen America en route to the Arctic, Pacific island and worked with explained that she discovered where his ship was due to the Aborigines in Western Collie while researching her rendezvous with Franklin’s Australia, forming such a close previous book in Western second voyage (the two bond with one man, known as Australia. expeditions came within 150 Mockery, that Collie asked to nautical miles of each other). be buried alongside him. Collie was born in Insch in 1793 and began studying at HMS Blossom was not a happy King’s College at the age of ship and Collie sought to return Robin Armstrong Viner sixteen in 1808. In 1810 he to Aberdeen or be posted to a Cataloguing Manager decided to become a surgeon military hospital. In the end he Library & Historic Collections accepted another commission 3 contract is for construction of a New Library Building building of 9 floors, including a lower ground floor, and landscaping. large boulder, to the bedrock below and they Professor Christopher Gane, will support the 9 storey Vice-Principal and academic building that is to rise up lead for the project, said, "The from the site. This time in new Library will open up our two years we will be up collections to all of the wider and running for business. communities that we serve, as In the meantime there are well as making a stunning lots of books, archives addition to the architecture of and manuscripts to be Aberdeen. A building designed sorted out for the move. to the highest architectural An artist’s impression of the new standards deserves the very Aberdeen University Library from Colleagues have been working highest standards in its Bedford Road hard on determining the layout execution, and that is why we of the stock, staff and activity are delighted to welcome Pihl Update from Chris in the new building and UK onto the library team." everything is now coming Banks, University together into some firm Angus Donaldson, Director of Librarian proposals which we are Estates at the University, beginning to test on academic added, "The Library contract staff and students across the award is a hugely significant The official notices are below University. Our plan is to milestone in the ongoing and detail the appointment of ensure that the organisation is development and enhancement the contractor and the news very logical so that those using of the University estate and the that the building design and the building can easily find facilities we are able to offer construction have been their way to the materials that our communities.