Ferguson Collection

Name

Ferguson Collection

Description

A selection of books from the personal collection of the bibliographer and book-dealer Dr Frederic Sutherland Ferguson (1878-1967). The collection encompasses a wide spectrum of Scottish life during the 16th, the 17th and the 18th centuries, covering religion and ecclesiastical affairs, history, politics, law, education, trade, including material relating to the Darien Scheme, early newsletters, agriculture, medicine and fencing. It contains around 400 items printed in Scotland before 1801. A number of items are the only recorded copies and many of the volumes are in their original leather bindings.

Born in London, Ferguson started in the antiquarian book trade at an early age, joining the firm of Bernard Quaritch at the age of 18 in 1897. He combined business with scholarship, being a major contributor to Pollard and Redgrave's 'A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad', 1475-1640 (the STC), and was himself joint editor of a later edition. He also compiled 'Title-Page Borders used in England & Scotland 1435-1640' (1932, with RB McKerrow). From 1928 to 1943 he was managing director of Quaritch, serving as president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association in 1934. He retired in 1947 to work in the British Museum on a comprehensive catalogue of early English books. His services to early book scholarship were recognised by the award of honorary degrees by the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh; he also served as president of the Bibliographical Society (1948-1950) and honorary president of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society (having been president from 1935-1936). Ferguson bequeathed his working materials on the English book catalogue to the British Museum and another collection of Scottish books to the Bodleian Library. Other parts of his library are now at the John Rylands Library and the University of Illinois.

Organisation

The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'Ferg.'.

Acquisition

The collection was presented to the Library in 1954 by Dr Ferguson.

Related collections

Dr Ferguson also presented two manuscripts to the Library: 17th-century manuscript copies of the second edition of Sir George Mackenzie's 'The institutions of the law of Scotland' (Edinburgh, 1688), and Samuel Colvil's 'A Mock Poem on the Whiggs Supplication Part Second' (London, 1681). The manuscripts are held at MSS.9366-9367. They are described and indexed in Vol. 7 of the Library's Catalogue of manuscripts.

References

'Ferguson, Frederic Sutherland (1878–1967), bibliographer', Tomlin, E. (2006, May 25), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

'For the National Library of Scotland', W Beattie, Friends of the National Libraries Annual Report 1954-55, 8-10.

Shelfmark

Ferg.

Subjects

Bookbindings

Education

Scottish history and literature