The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection

To honour the author and his works, the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, now the Toronto Reference Library (TRL), established the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, one of the world's finest collections of material by and about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle available to the public.

The Collection is housed in a special Arthur Conan Doyle Room (also known in the Library as "Room 221B") furnished in Victorian style -- a cluttered, comfortable place replete with evidence of Sherlock Holmes' presence. His deerstalker hangs on the hatrack; the Persian slipper, its toe stuffed with shag tobacco, lies on the mantel; the coal scuttle, filled with cigars, stands by the fireplace. The room delights aficionados and novices alike, and those uninitiated in Sherlockian pleasure may find it difficult not to become enthusiasts when they see these enchanting artifacts in such authentic surroundings.

The Collection was started in 1969 with the purchase of over 150 volumes, part of the estate of Toronto collector, Arthur Baillie, and a lot of over 1500 items from Harold Mortlake of London, England. In 1970, the Library acquired an extensive collection of Sherlockian ephemera from Toronto collector Judge S. Tupper Bigelow.

Over the years the Collection has grown with the purchases and donations of a many items, including numerous editions of Conan Doyle's Sherlockian and other published works, several of Conan Doyle's letters, a copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, which contains the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in print, and the manuscript of Conan Doyle's unpublished play, Angels of Darkness.

As well as material by Conan Doyle himself, there are numerous critical works, including the serious and not-so-serious writings of Sherlockian scholars: "the writings on the writings".

Not limited to books alone, the Collection includes a number of original Sherlockian illustrations by noted artists such as Sidney Paget and Frederic Dorr Steele, who illustrated some of the first appearances in print of the Holmes stories. Add to this an assortment of films, audio tapes, theatre programs, posters, individual issues of non-Doylean publications containing Doylean material and other materials, and you have an extensive, eclectic portrait of the impact of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life and work on the world's art and culture.

To learn more about the Collection, visit the Library's web page about it here.

One of the leaders in the founding, subsequent growth and success of the Collection was Cameron Hollyer, the first Curator of the Collection, who passed away in the summer of 2000. For more information about about Cameron and how you can help celebrate his life, click here.