Of spats and moccasins
Reflections on archiving and curating the John Buchan papers in Canada
Gillian F Barlow
Queen's University, located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, has the good fortune of counting among its holdings many of the personal papers and library of John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. Lord Tweedsmuir was Governor-General of Canada from 1935 to 1940.
The Archives of the University, and the Special Collections unit of the university library together hosted a celebration of the life and work of Buchan on 19 October, 2004. The event, planned to coincide with the visit to Canada of the John Buchan Society, included the annually held Archives Lecture, and an exhibition of the books and papers from the Buchan Collections. The theme of the displays was based on the varied facets of the life and work of Buchan, his interests, talents and roles.
The image chosen for the poster of the John Buchan Exhibition at Queen's University and the Annual Archives Lecture of 2004 shows a young John Buchan, dapper in morning suit, with watch-chain neatly tucked into his waistcoat, and sporting on his feet the fashion of the day - spats. He presented a suave figure, with a cool gaze and lips closed on the bare glimmer of a wry smile. Buchan epitomizes the young man with a future; officer, lawyer, politician, publisher, author. And of course, he was all of these. But what of the other aspects of the character behind the smile and sophisticated clothes? Was there more to be discovered about JB?
originally published in JBJ32 (Spring 2005)
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