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King’s College Library Collection

The University of King’s College (1829 –1859) Library Collection (HIL-SPECKC) consists of over 1,000 books purchased and donated for use by its students and faculty. The collection reconstructs the original book holdings from the Old Arts Building (original UNB library location) based on a card catalogue from the Bonar Law-Bennett Library (1931-1967).1 Though a basic catalogue of the collection was completed in 1852 it is not extant.2 The physical re-grouping of the collection likely occurred after the move of library collections to the new Harriet Irving Library in 1967. King’s College was a forerunner to the University of New Brunswick and a successor of the Grammar School and College of New Brunswick.3 The aim of King’s College was to educate the children of local elites, descendants of Loyalist refugees. In their approach to education in the early 19th century, the New Brunswick Loyalists replicated the British class system where education for the masses was based on charity and philanthropy with most people relying on religious societies, such as The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, for instruction.4 Children of those who could afford to pay for a classical education learned Latin and ancient Greek grammar, writing, and practiced translation of Latin or Greek texts.5 As newly hired faculty arrived from England and Scotland at King’s College, the curriculum expanded to include modern languages and science.6 For instance, the 1838 synopsis of King’s College curriculum included subjects in addition to classics, such as, mathematics, chemistry, natural history, intellectual philosophy, religion, moral philosophy, general history, French, and Hebrew.7 The dominant methods of classical education through memorization and repetition, rather than analysis or comprehension, likely prevailed at King’s College: “To teach was to tell: to learn was to memorize."8

Books were an important part of the educational experience from the early days of the College. The Grammar School and the College of New Brunswick used a variety of mostly Latin texts listed in a 1793 letter by Thomas Carleton.9 The funding, space, and management of the book collection fluctuated throughout the college’s history.10 In 1822, the College of New Brunswick designated a separate room for the library and sought government grants to import books from Great Britain and donations from British universities.11 Attempts were made to reconstitute at the College the holdings of more prestigious libraries of the metropole. For instance, in a 1828 letter to Sir Walter Scott, Governor and first Chancellor of the College, Sir Howard Douglas asked him to donate books, such as duplicates from the Advocates Library in Edinburgh.12 In 1823 and 1825, funds were spent on and designated for books by the Governor and Trustees of the earlier College of New Brunswick: £ 140 and £ 500.13 After the founding of King’s College, many book donations were made in the 1830s and 1840s, enlarging the collection.14 At the same time,a series of recommendations by students and instructors helped efforts to administer and house the collection.15 For instance, in 1840, the College Council created a Standing Committee for the library that would look for an appropriate space and come up with regulations.16 In 1842, the Committee recommended an annual spending of a minimum of £ 200.00 on the library and recommended a salary of £ 15.00 per three-quarters of a year to a faculty member acting as Librarian.17 The position was opened to “some Professor, Graduate or Senior Student, resident in the College” to be appointed by the President.18 Though depleted funds in the late 1840s and 50s saw the abolition of the office of the Librarian and the elimination of the books budget,19 by 1844, the library had 1,095 volumes that needed storage, tracking, and classification.20  

Throughout its 30-year existence, King’s College was subjected to criticism by members of the provincial Assembly and local press for Anglican sectarianism, high cost to taxpayers, low enrollment, and impractical curriculum.21 The 1850s were a critical time of reassessment for King’s College. Governor Sir Edmund Head wrote a letter to the College Council outlining the need to increase enrollment by adapting the curriculum to include professional subjects, such as engineering, land surveying, agriculture, and commerce.22 Head also initiated a formal inquiry into the conditions of King’s College, led by J. W. Dawson (NS Superintendent of Education) and Egerton Ryerson (Superintendent of Education for Canada West), whose report became the College Bill of 1859 and an Act to Establish the University of New Brunswick.23

  • 1The partial card catalogue and photographs of the card catalogue are in the King’s College collection. The availability of the photographs can be attributed to a Library Archives Canada initiative, from the late 1940s to 60s, that aimed to compile a union catalogue of holdings in major Canadian libraries, as well as a national bibliography, to facilitate sharing of resources. This was accomplished through microfilming and photographing index cards in library catalogues. See Marjorie Thompson to Margaret Blundell Ince letter, April 9, 1958, UA RG 145 William Maxwell Aitken Fonds, Series 4 Miscellaneous 1946-1959, Box 10 Beaverbrook Collection, File 67, UNB A≻ Jean Lunn, "The National Library of Canada, 1950–1968," Archivaria 15, (1982/83): 86-89.
  • 2Linda Squires Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 414, Canadian Library Journal 38 (December 1981), UA Case 132, section 4. See University Manuscript. RG 7 Book 6. Library Committee, Jan 23, 1850; March 24, 1852. UNB A&SC.
  • 3[Frances, A. Firth (found with chapters for Memorial volume)], “The History of King’s College” (unpublished manuscript, circa 1950), typescript, 1-3. UA Case 125, section 3, file 3; Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 413.
  • 4Katherine F. C. MacNaughton, The Development of the Theory and Practice of Education in New Brunswick 1784-1900 (Fredericton, 1947), 24, 38, 40-41.
  • 5MacNaughton, The Development of the Theory and Practice of Education in New Brunswick 1784-1900, 8.
  • 6Desmond Pacey, “The Humanist Tradition,” University of New Brunswick Memorial Volume, ed. A. G. Bailey (Fredericton: UNB, 1950), 60-62.
  • 7University of King's College (Fredericton, N.B.), Synopsis of the System of Education Established by the University of King's College, Fredericton, New Brunswick: Founded by Royal Charter Under the Government of Sir Howard Douglas, Bart. A.D. 1828, (Fredericton, 1938), 5-11. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.21671
  • 8MacNaughton, The Development of the Theory and Practice of Education in New Brunswick 1784-1900, 10.
  • 9Thomas Carleton to Lord Grenville letter, March 9, 1793. MG H 60a, vol. 3, 1791-1796, 1798, UNB A&SC. Though the book list, detached from the letter, is now lost, A. G. Bailey quotes from it the following titles in his 1950 essay for The UNB Memorial Volume:
    -Lilly’s Accidence Enlarged or a complete Introduction in English prose to the several parts of Latin Grammar
    -Colloquies of Corderius; Excerpta ex Novo Testamento—Castellionis
    -Selectae e Veteri Testamento historiae
    -Clark’s Introduction [The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments: the text carefully printed from the most correct copies of the present Authorized translation, including the marginal readings and parallel texts]
    -Exempla Moralia, English examples to be rendered into Latin
    -Electa ex Ovidio et Tibullo
    -Sallustii Crispi opera, in Usum Delphini
    -Ciceronis Orationum Selectorium
    -Caesaris Commentarii
    -Ciceronis Opuscula
    -P. Virgilii Maronis Opera omnia in Usum Delphini
  • 10Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 413.
  • 11Linda Squires Hansen, “A Backward Glance,” University Perspectives 6, no. 12 (April 8, 1980): 2. UA Case 132, section 4; Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 413.
  • 12Hansen, “A Backward Glance,” 2.
  • 13Hansen, “A Backward Glance,” 2; See Minute Books of the Governors & Trustees of the College of N.B., 1823, 1825.
  • 14Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 413. See Minutes of College Council, 1830-33.
  • 15Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 414.
  • 16Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 414.
  • 17Hansen, “UNB Library nears 200 Years,” 414.
  • 18Anonymous, University Library History, 1951. UA Case 132, No. 9. See Minutes of College Council, 1848, 330.
  • 19Anonymous, University Library History, 1951. UA Case 132, No. 9. See Minutes of College Council, 1849, March 17, 362; 1858, April 1, 451.
  • 20Hansen, “A Backward Glance,” 2.
  • 21[Firth], “The History of King’s College,” 4-8.
  • 22D. G. G. Kerr, Sir Edmund Head: A Scholarly Governor, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1954), 103-105; Edmund Head, Letter from his Excellency, The Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, to His Honor the Chief Justice, as Chancellor of King’s College, Fredericton, (Fredericton, 1852): 4, 9-10. UA Case 125, section 3, file 2. UNB A&SC.
  • 23Report of the Commission Appointed under the Act of Assembly Relating to King’s College, Fredericton (Fredericton, 1855), UA Case 125, section 3, file 2, UNB A≻ [Firth], “The History of King’s College,” 15-16; Firth, “King’s College, Fredericton, 1929-1859,” 28.