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Treasure 41: Mary Garden Record Collection
210 We hold a number of original vinyl records in our collections, including those of Mary Garden, a local girl who found global fame as an opera singer in the early 20th Century.
Born at 35 Charlotte Street on 20 February 1874, Mary Garden left her native Aberdeen around the age of nine when the family moved to America in search of better opportunities and a new life.
After a period of uncertainty and several moves, a young Mary accepted a role as a childminder in Chicago, with payment taking the form of singing lessons to further her obvious interest. By 1896, Mary had shown sufficient progress that she accompanied her tutor to Paris in a quest to pursue a career in opera.
Mary's first big break came in 1900, when she performed in the new opera, Louise after the main star became unwell. A series of leading roles followed in 1901, including Thaïs, Manon and Madame Chrysanthème. For the next decade, Mary courted both limelight and controversy as she portrayed leading characters on stage, while being romantically linked to various composers and directors off-stage. Adding fuel to these fires of speculation, Claude Debussy chose Garden to create the title role of his new play, Mélisande, overruling the preference of his own librettist.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Mary attempted to enlist in the French army - but with her identity discovered, she instead turned to nursing at a hospital in Versailles. When she returned to America, she continued to raise funds for the French Red Cross. Her efforts during both war and peacetime generated awards from Serbia and France.
Mary appeared in two silent films - the first released in 1918 - but she found difficulty adapting to the new medium and this separate career never took off. She returned to her first passion and continued to perform in opera until the mid-1930s.
In 1921, Mary was offered the role of director of the Chicago Opera Association, and as she was still performing - undertook both roles with fervour. Under her tenure, the Association took on many new and exciting artists and works.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Mary chose to remain in Paris, until the German invasion forced her to escape, leaving all of her possessions behind. In June 1940, she returned to Aberdeen but the lure of teaching the next operatic generation proved too strong and she once again travelled to America to coach young stars and give lectures in 1949-1950.
By this time, it appears that Mary's memory had started to suffer - evidenced by the 1951 autobiographical publication Mary Garden's Story which was riddled with factual errors. The book received disastrous reviews and possibly led to her decision to reside permanently in Aberdeen from 1954.
Mary died in 1967 in the House of Daviot, a country hospital near Inverurie, aged 92. Fifty friends attended a small ceremony. A small commemorative plaque is located at 41 Dee Street where the Garden family lived, and a small garden is dedicated to her memory in Craigie Loanings.
Although she remains relatively little known in her native Aberdeen, Mary's legacy is considerable in the United States - particularly in Chicago where her stewardship of the Opera Association is still remembered fondly.
Treasure 42: Marischal College Ground floor Architectural Plan by Archibald Simpson
211 The highly-respected architect Archibald Simpson (1790 - 1847) designed many of our city's well-known landmarks and, along with architect John Smith (1781-1852), is widely regarded as transforming Aberdeen into the Granite City in the 19th Century.
At Aberdeen City Libraries, we hold a collection of Archibald Simpson's architectural plans. Many of the originals were destroyed by a fire in his house in 1826 but the copies we hold demonstrate his initial thoughts and first sketches of some of Aberdeen's most famous buildings.
An architectural plan is usually a drawing or a sketch used by an architect to develop a design idea. The document also includes a scale and precise measurements.
Marischal College, as it stands today, was designed by Simpson in the 19th Century and this image shows a floor plan he drew when working on the project in the 1820s.
The plan depicts the ground floor which occupied three sides of a courtyard opening towards Broad Street. The building proposed by Archibald Simpson formed a U-shaped quadrangle with symmetrical rooms. The exterior granite façade, the second largest granite faced construction in the world and enclosing the quadrangle, was built by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie between 1893 and 1905 which is why it is not represented on the plan. Originally, the entrance to the courtyard was by Guild's College gateway.
Tiny lines were drawn to represent the walls between each room and the often curving stairways can be clearly seen. The rooms dedicated to classes of divinity, mathematics, moral philosophy or Greek and Latin were constructed like semi-circular amphitheatres. To the top of the plan, we can see classrooms connected by the science department, including the Anatomical Museum and Dissecting Rooms.
The building contained sixteen classrooms in addition to lodgings for porters and sacrists, the museum, the chemical laboratory and rooms for the professors. Other sources from the period suggest that the public hall, the museum and the library were spacious and magnificent rooms.
The small entrance via an archway, called 'Vestibule' on the plan, is represented at the courtyard side of the building. It is surrounded by two octagonal towers. A grand staircase, contained in the tower, rose to a height of nearly 100 feet.
The architect added the measurements for each room. As suggested by the scale, the unit of measurement is the foot. More information is given by the city librarian G. M Fraser in his 1918 study into Aberdeen's architecture:
"A centre building, 150 feet long, 50 feet wide, 60 feet high. 450,000 cubic feet at 6d: £11,250 Two side buildings, each 80 feet by 40, and 40 feet high. 128,000 cubic feet at 6d: 6,400 Medical class-rooms at end of garden: 1,500 Allowance for porticoes: 2,000 ______ £21,500" [From G. M. Fraser. Archibald Simpson, Architect and his times. A study in the making of Aberdeen. Published in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal between April and October 1918] Architectural plans are a fascinating insight into days gone by. Although at first glance appearing fairly basic, on closer inspection the plan allows us to view one of the Granite City's best loved landmarks through the eyes of the students learning in amphitheatre-style lecture rooms, anatomical museums and dissecting rooms in 19th Century Aberdeen. Treasure 43: Lending Department Catalogue (1886)
212 To commemorate Aberdeen's first free lending library opening 130 years ago this month we have selected a bound copy of the catalogue as one of our treasures. The hard back volume was presented to the library by the late Robert Anderson. An inscription tells us Anderson received the volume in 1917 from Catherine W Duncan after the death of her brother, James W Duncan, in whose library it had previously resided.
The catalogue was printed by the Aberdeen University Press and comprises of a single continuous alphabetically sequence including authors names, subjects of works and miscellaneous headings. Additionally, the catalogue includes the bye-laws of the Library, a preface, an "Explanations and Directions" section, a key to the indicator system and adverts for many Aberdeen businesses. In his preface, Robertson states "In the preparation of the following Catalogue, the chief aim has been to provide a compendious and easy guide to the contents of the Lending Department of the Library, which readers can take to their homes. No particular system has been rigidly followed, but recourse has been had to whatever device seemed calculated to promote the desired objects."
Baillie Walker and Dr Alexander Bain, Lord Rector of the University, also spoke at the opening of the Lending Department. Bain discussed the make-up of the book stock and the efforts undertaken to create this new development. He gave particular mention to the application of Library Committee member Duguid Milne. Baillie Walker stressed the preparatory work and said that Robertson, the Librarian, turned night into day in his efforts and that it was absolutely necessary that he takes a well-deserved holiday during the summer.
Even at the opening of the new Lending Department there was an awareness that the current building was inadequate. Efforts by the Library Committee to secure new premises had already been underway for some time. At the opening, A O Gill, Chairman of the Sub-Building Committee, stated that "they ought to have something better for the public than the present building, and he hoped that they would be able soon to provide a building suitable for the requirements of this large and populous city."
After much discussion of sites, gathering of funds, and construction work, the purpose built Aberdeen Central Library on the new Rosemount Viaduct was officially opened on 5th July 1892 and remains the home of Aberdeen's Public Libraries to this day. The old Mechanics' Institution has since primarily housed a mixture of hotels and pubs. A reminder of its brief time as Aberdeen's Public Library was found in 1950 when painters decorating the then Bon Accord Hotel uncovered a hidden sign showing the library's old opening times.
Treasure 44: Historic Children's Literature Collection
213 This month we feature beautifully illustrated children's literature from our historic collections to mark World Book Day on 3 March 2016.
World Book Day is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and - most importantly - it is a celebration of reading. It is designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.
Little Ann and Other Poems illustrated by Kate Greenaway is a first edition, published by George Routledge & Sons c. 1883. It contains 42 poems all illustrated in her charming style of dainty children dressed in typical Greenaway costume.
Catherine "Kate" Greenaway (17 March 1846 - 6 November 1901) was an English artist and children's book illustrator
Online resources Britannica Encyclopaedia provides a brief biography of Kate Greenaway:
"The daughter of John Greenaway, a draftsman and wood engraver, Kate Greenaway grew up in various residences, including a farmhouse in Nottinghamshire, and studied art in various places, including London. She began to exhibit drawings in 1868, and her first published illustrations appeared in such magazines as Little Folks. In 1879 she produced her first successful book, Under the Window, followed by The Birthday Book (1880), Mother Goose (1881), Little Ann (1883), and other books for children, which had an enormous success and became very highly valued".
Greenaway's work was praised by John Ruskin, a dear friend who said "her drawings are blissful just in the degree that they are natural; the fairyland that she creates for you is not beyond the sky nor beneath the sea but near to you, even at your doors. She does but show you how to see it and how to cherish".
In our collections we also hold a copy of 'Kate Greenaway Pictures: from originals presented by her to John Ruskin and other personal friends' from 1921.
"In 1890 Greenaway was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and in 1891, 1894, and 1898 she exhibited watercolour drawings, including illustrations for her books, at the gallery of the Fine Art Society (by which a representative selection was exhibited in 1902). From 1883 to 1897, with a break only in 1896, she issued a series of Kate Greenaway's Almanacs."
The Kate Greenaway Medal, established in her honour in 1955, is awarded annually by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the UK to an illustrator of children's books.
Treasure 45: British Association for the Advancement of Science - 1934 Visit Souvenir
214 The British Science Association holds its annual British Science Week in March when a variety of events including talks and activity days for adults, schools, and families are held country-wide to celebrate science and technology.
The British Science Association has evolved from the organisation which was founded in 1831 as the British Association for the Advancement of Science with the aim of promoting interest and research in the sciences, believed to be in decline at the time.
Their annual meetings, held in different cities across the UK during a week in early September, allowed professional scientists to discuss their current research not only with members of other scientific disciplines but also with the general public.
In this Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design, it may be interesting to look back at these annual meetings of the Association when Aberdeen welcomed 2000 - 3000 scientists and members in 1859, 1885, 1934 and 1963.
The 1934 visit was even more special because it coincided with the Jubilee of the city's adoption of the Public Library Acts in 1884. A special luncheon was held on Friday 7 September in the Aberdeen Central Library Reference Department when the City Librarian, G.M. Fraser, and the Library Committee entertained 112 invited guests, including the President Sir James H. Jeans, the President-elect Professor W. W. Watts, and about 70 of the more distinguished members of the Association, with representatives of educational, official, professional, commercial and industrial interests of the city. This was believed to be the first time that such an event had been held in a public library and it was regarded as hugely successful.
This attractive menu card in the form of the binding of a book was created by local printing firm Taylor and Henderson at a cost of £9. 5s. 6d. for 120 copies. Catering, including the food, decorations and staff, was provided by the Royal Athenaeum Restaurant at a cost of 5 shillings per head - a total cost of £50 11s. 3d
Having been greeted in the Library Committee Room by Lord Provost of Aberdeen Henry Alexander, the guests were guided by members of staff through the Lending Department to the main staircase which was laid with crimson cloth and decorated with plants and shrubs.
The Library staff were also able to enjoy the day by being treated to lunch at the nearby Caledonian Hotel on Union Terrace, although they were expected to return in time to help escort their honoured guests from the Library.
Guests included Sir Arthur Hill of Royal Botanic Gardens, Miss Olga Nethersole, founder of The People's League of Health, Dr Marie Stopes, paleobotanist, but perhaps better remembered for her work on women's rights and birth control, Sir Josiah Stamp of London Midland and Scottish Railway, and Sir Arthur Eddington, astronomer.
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