The Cover

Bookplate.

Bookplate courtesy of the Halifax Regional Library Board.

This pale yellow bookplate, 8.5 by 11.75 cm, is printed with the words "Presented to the Halifax Memorial Library by the North British Society of Halifax as a Centenary Memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson" and with a black line drawing of Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, the birthplace of Stevenson (1850-94). It can be found in many of the books about Scotland belonging to the Halifax Public Libraries in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These books are the initial part of a gift given to the library in 1952.

The drawing on the bookplate is signed by R. L. deC. H. Saunders (1908-95), a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax from 1937 to 1973. He was not a member of the North British Society, the organization that donated these books to the library, but he was a Scot, born to Scottish parents in South Africa. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, so he would have known the castle well, and he came to Dalhousie as a professor of anatomy. According to Peter B. Waite in The Lives of Dalhousie (McGill, 1994), he fascinated medical students with his anatomical drawings, which he did on the blackboard with multicolored chalk, using both hands at once. Dr. Saunders also designed the university's coat of arms and the mace used in university ceremonies.

There had been a public library in Halifax for many years before this gift was given. The first libraries in the city, though, were private organizations. D. C. Harvey, in Early Libraries of Nova Scotia (Dalhousie Review, 1934), discusses the development of these libraries. For-profit lending libraries that circulated the popular novels of the day were among the first libraries. Private libraries designed to serve specific groups soon followed. These included the Garrison Library, begun in 1817 for military officers, the Central Board of Agriculture Library, established in 1818, and several church congregational libraries. In 1824 the Halifax Library was established by the elite of local society. It was limited to 125 members, who paid an annual shareholder fee to fund the library. Samuel Cunard (1787-1865), the shipping magnate who began his career in Halifax, was a member of the Halifax Library. This library was eventually forced to close because its funds became too limited to allow the library to continue.

The first opportunity for the general public to access books came in 1831, when the Halifax Mechanics' Library was formed. This library was open to anyone who could afford the twenty-shilling annual fee, and eventually it contained three thousand volumes. Not everyone in the city could afford to use this library, but it was accessible to citizens of the middle and business classes. However, this library existed for only thirty years before falling into debt and closing. Chief Justice Sir William Young (1799-1887), a shareholder in the Halifax Library, purchased both its collection and that of the Mechanics' Library and gave them to the city to operate as a free institution. A few years later Sir William also donated the one-thousand-book collection of his late brother, George R. Young (1802-53), to this library. This first free public library, the Citizens' Free Library, began its life in a small room in the old city courthouse. Here all the people of Halifax had access to the collection for no charge. By 1873 the library had outgrown its original home and begun its long search for a permanent home and stable funding. When Sir William died in 1887, he left the city four thousand dollars to be used within four years for the erection of a new library building, but the conditions of the bequest were not fulfilled, and the money was returned to the estate.

In 1890, after two unsuccessful attempts to find a permanent location, the library moved to a room in city hall. There it was hoped that the city's aldermen would come into contact with the library more often and become aware of its need for support. However, during...