London's Bicentennial (Snippet 40)

Although The Forest City Wood Ash Company was located in London, advertisements for the wood ash it supplied are found in newspapers as far south as Florida. Apparently wood ash can be used as a fertilizer to enrich soil for plants. One can find many articles about wood ash, but I am not sure why The Forest City Ash Company had such large quantities of it and would ship barrels of it by train to DeLand, FL.

Source: The Florida Agriculturalist, Dec. 3, 1890

  This bill head is currently offered on ebay for $22 (US). The company was obviously still around in 1895.

The Bonus: Apart from learning that ash can be useful, I learned that DeLand is named after Henry DeLand who made baking soda. The town had a better name before it was DeLand - Persimmon Hollow.  And a school founded by DeLand, later became Stetson University, and yes, it is named after the hat fellow.

The Losing of Libraries (Pt. 2)

 And Librarians
  In "The Losing of Libraries" I wrote about the disappearance of some local libraries. It is not just a local phenomenon and other examples are easily found.

The NASA Library
 "Holdings from the Library at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Which Includes Unique Documents From the Early 20th Century to the Soviet Space Race, Will be Warehoused or Thrown Out," Eric Niller, The New York Times, Dec. 31, 2025.

  "The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else....
    The shutdown of the library at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is part of a larger reorganization under the Trump administration that includes the closure of 13 buildings and more than 100 science and engineering laboratories on the 1,270-acre campus by March 2026….

   The library closure on Friday follows the shutdown of seven other NASA libraries around the country since 2022, and included three libraries this year. As of next week, only three — at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. — will remain open."

Microsoft Libraries

Public Libraries
  The "library function" at many public libraries is now often a minor one and books are being removed to make room for more important things.

Key Details of the Incident:
Location: Croydon, south London, UK.
What Happened: Contractors cleared out a local building and left books piled on the ground outside.
The Context: The site was closed as a traditional library due to Croydon Council cost-cutting measures and repurposed into a community resource center.
The Aftermath: Mayor Jason Perry issued an apology on BBC News, promised to take action against the responsible contractors, and confirmed that local residents stepped in to collect the books from the pavement so they could be returned inside.
(The AI summary of the BBC piece.)

Hannah Arendt's Library

   I recently posted some photographs of the libraries of Eric Hobsbawn and William T. Vollman and here is another one. This one belonged to Hannah Arendt and it looks to be sizeable. I wondered what happened to those books.

  When she died in 1975 the books were acquired by Bard College. There were about 4,000 of them and "Of particular significance are the 900+ volumes containing marginal notes or lining, endnotes or ephemera, as well as many volumes inscribed to her by Martin Heidegger, Gershom Scholem, W.H. Auden and Randall Jarrell, among others."

Sources: 
  The photograph is found in a review of a new book about Arendt: "A Dense Life of Hannah Arendt Doesn’t Justify Its Prodigious Research," by Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2026. The book is: HANNAH ARENDT: A Life of the Mind, by Thomas Meyer.
  For more details see Bard's description of the Hannah Arendt Personal Library. 
"After Hannah Arendt’s death in 1975, her personal library was acquired by Bard College through the efforts of co-executors Lotte Kohler and Mary McCarthy;"

  While many university libraries are hollowing out, a few are still collecting books and other material with intellectual and/or aesthetic value.

The Bonus: 
  You will note sbove that a co-executor of Arendt's estate was Mary McCarthy. Her son was a retired Professor Emeritus who taught at UWO/Western University and passed away in June 2026.
  Another, more detailed review is provided by David Denby in The New Yorker: "The Uses of Exile," Aug. 17, 2026. In it McCarthy is said to be Arendt's "closest American friend", and supported her after she was attacked when Eichmann in Jerusalem was published. 

I Had Forgotten About Phillumeny

 
MATCHBOOKS
  If you are a phillumenist, you are a collector of matchbooks. My sister was and her collection was discussed under "Match Making" to attract readers. More was written about matchbooks in "Matchbook Memorabilia" in "Olde Post Addenda (2). 
  The subject is being raised again because matchbooks are both colourful and informative and I have found a huge collection at Pepperdine University. The collection also contains postcards and other things and it has been digitized. The 1,322  items can also be searched. This will give you something to do while I think about something about which to write.
   The collection is called the, Eric Wienberg Collection of Malibu Matchbooks, Postcards, and Ephemera, 1900-2013. Here is a description:

Summary:The collection consists of matchbooks, postcards, photographs and collectibles dating from the early 1900s up until 2013. It is arranged alphabetically by series and the files are sorted by subject and geography and put in alphabetical order. Items are related to the history of business establishments and sites in Malibu and surrounding areas in Southern California; the one exception is the Cliff House Restaurant Postcards file, which contains postcards from San Francisco, California.
Abstract: The Eric Wienberg Collection of Malibu Matchbooks, Postcards, and Ephemera chronicles the history of business establishments and sites in Malibu and the surrounding area. The collection covers a period between the late 19th century and the 1980s, and features matchbook covers, postcards, publications, and ephemera from restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, motels, stores, and other businesses from Malibu, Topanga, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Culver City, Venice Beach and Catalina Island. The collection also includes publicity photographs, photojournalistic images, and candid snapshots from life in Malibu and Southern California.

 The Collection is made available via JSTOR and you will be able to access and search it. For another good description see, "Malibu in Matchbooks: Clues to a Lost Coast," by Alex Houston, JSTOR Daily, April 8, 2026.
Save this for a rainy day. 

The Losing of Libraries

   In Mulcahy's Miscellany I often write about books and the collecting of them and a few recent posts have focussed on the private libraries amassed by individuals. Some people still value printed books and I stumbled upon several shelves of them last week on an island in Georgian Bay. They had come from far away and then the books had to be transported by boat and carried over rocks to the cottage.



Institutional Libraries
  The books prized by bibliophiles and kept by casual readers, who like Anthony Powell know that Books Do Furnish a Room, are more highly valued in many homes than they are in our public libraries and universities. I suppose the complaints about collections of books by partners or spouses are more easily parried than those coming from administrators at institutions, but the complaints are increasingly hard to counter when all of the content can be captured on a thumb drive.
  I thought of the article containing the photo above when I returned home and then saw the cover of the August issue of The Atlantic which contains only these few words in very large print: "The Age of Reading Is Over." Then, I happened to see the image below which is found on the website of Western Libraries. It relates to a curious collection that was placed in the Weldon Library at the end of the last century. 

  Although the Pride Library is only closing for the summer and it is stated clearly that, "The Space Itself is Not Moving or Closing Permanently", my guess is that it will only be a sanctuary of sorts, and that there will be continuing pressure to use the space for something other than the storage of books and periodicals, even though the material is of some importance to those found in this initialism - LGBTQIA2S+.  My guess may be wrong and you can decide for yourself after reading: "The Pride Library: Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Temporary Closure."

  I used to work in some of the Western Libraries and there are now fewer of them. I have chronicled the loss of some and lamented the removal of books from the ones that remain (see, e.g. "Library Lamentations - Stackless Universities").
   I also wrote about another loss - one of the colleges/universities affiliated with Western University - Brescia University College (see, "Bad News From Brescia"). I did not note, however, that the Brescia Library also was closed. You can learn more about that lost library in the article below from Western News. The expansion was completed in 2006, but priorities do change. 

   The space is now a Pavilion which would probably satisfy the late philanthropist who passed away in 2008. She and her husband both contributed much to London and UWO (see, "Mr. Richard Ivey").

There were almost 50,000 items in the Brescia Library and they were absorbed by the other Western Libraries or placed in storage. (For the details see: "Brescia Library Integration FAQ")

  There are still two affiliated colleges attached to Western (Huron and King's) and they both have libraries which were curated over many years. I worry that their years are numbered.

The Bonus: 
  A few years ago I published a post about "Edward Gorey's Library". When I  checked to see if the Western Libraries had many books relating to Gorey, I found that they did and that several were in the Pride Library and had been donated by "Empress II Madison Hart, Royal Imperial Sovereign Court of London and of Southwestern Ontario"!!
  For more information about the Pride Library, see Pride Library.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 39)

 The Other Drake - Dr. Charles Drake - 1980

    Performs Brain Surgery on the Singer Della Reese

The Source: 
"Notes on People" Positive Response," Judith Cummings and Albin Krebs, The New York Times, Oct. 16, 1980.
 Reese was flown to London to have emergency surgery by Dr. Drake. Here is related background from the Wikipedia entry: 
 "While singing "Little Boy Lost" on a taping of The Tonight Show, being guest hosted by Richard Dawson, in October 1979, Reese suffered a brain aneurysm. According to Reese, she was taken to two Los Angeles hospitals, which assumed she had a drug "overdose" because she was "Black and an entertainer". Reese's son, a psychiatrist, sent for her physician who "came immediately" to prove there were no drugs in Reese's system. A test officially revealed the aneurysm and Reese was sent to a brain surgeon at a London, Ontario hospital. The surgeon ultimately performed a five-hour surgery on Reese before she lost vision in her left eye. She ultimately made a full recovery and credited her spiritual faith in helping her recover."
Reese died in 2017 at the age of 86.
Dr. Drake died in 1998.

For a good profile of Dr. Drake see, "Dr. Charles Drake: Medical Miracleworker," which was originally published in The Forest City News, May 31, 1994. (Do you remember that paper?)
The photograph is from that source.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 38)

Known Londoners - Frank Colman -1983 

From Colman's Wikipedia entry:
 "The son of Frederick and Harriet Colman, who operated a shoe store on Hamilton Road in London, Ontario, Colman joined the London Majors of the senior Intercounty Baseball League in the mid-1930s. There, he won the batting title as a pitcher, Most Valuable Player award, and a championship in 1936.....

Before Colman died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 64, he had been working at the University of Western Ontario in the maintenance department. He was cremated, and his ashes were inurned in London at Woodland Cemetery...."
He is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and in 2005 was inducted into the London Sports Hall of Fame.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 37)

 Known Londoners - Kate Nelligan -1979

Source:
The Globe and Mail, Feb. 1, 1979. 
(A dozen years later she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Prince of Tides.)
  This is from the most recent article relating to Nelligan found in The London Free Press:
"KATE NELLIGAN An Oscar and four-time Tony Award nominee, Nelligan, 74, began her career on the stage in London, England in the 1970s. Her theatre career flourished and she moved to Broadway in the early 1980s. Her film resume includes Eye of the Needle, Frankie and Johnny and the Prince of Tides, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. One of six children, Nelligan born in London in 1950 and raised here by a mother she once told People Magazine suffered from alcoholism and related mental-health issues. Nelligan, an elite amateur tennis player in her teens, attended South secondary school. Her most recent film role was 2007's Premonition, alongside Sandra Bullock."
From "Forest City Film Festival to Honour Mystery Star," Jane Sims, July 25, 2024.

London 's Bicentennial (Snippet 36)

 Cigars and London - 1912

Source:
  That short article is found in The Macon Daily Telegraph on Nov. 24, 1912 (GA).
Much more recently the following image is from CBC News: "Why London, Ont., Was Once Canada's Second City of Cigar Making," Mar. 24, 2024.

   "Canada was once home to a booming cigar industry – and southwestern Ontario was known as this country's 'tobacco belt.'

In the late 19th century, London had dozens of cigar factories whose buildings still stand in the city's downtown and whose owners' names still adorn public places."
(There is more and the answer to the question in the title is provided by Professor Tom Peace, Huron University College.)

Mark Twain's Books

 Alan Gribben (R.I.P. 1941-2026)
  In "Mark Twain and Libraries" I wrote about Twain's collections of books. In it, I also  wrote about Dr. Gribben and his quest to locate all of the books that Twain possessed. His was not an easy task and the result was a 2000 page dissertation based on his findings.
  Dr. Gribben passed away and this obituary is found in the New York Times:
  "Alan Gribben, Twain Scholar Who Excised Slur From ‘Huck Finn,’ Dies at 84," Michael S. Rosewald, June 10, 2026. Here is a portion related to Twain's books and Gribben's mission to document them:

  "For his doctorate studies, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, home to the Mark Twain Papers and Project. The project’s editor hired him as a graduate assistant and tasked him with preparing explanatory notes for Mr. Twain’s handwritten notebooks...."

   He was fascinated by Mr. Twain, especially the mystery surrounding the author’s literary influences. Before Mr. Twain died in 1910, he gave away most of his books, scattering evidence that would have undoubtedly upended his carefully cultivated image as an uneducated “littery man,” as he once joked.

 

For his dissertation, Mr. Gribben set off on what would become a lifelong quest to find and document every book that Mr. Twain had owned. Driving cross-country in his blue Volkswagen Beetle, he visited libraries, rare book collectors and Mr. Twain’s distant relatives....

 

   
The culmination of Professor Gribben’s lifelong project — “Mark Twain’s Literary Resources” — was published in two volumes, in 2019 and 2022, totaling 1,379 pages. In them, he documented nearly 6,000 books, magazines and other materials that Mr. Twain had read. The subjects included sea voyages, French history, hymns, botany, slavery, detective fiction, insects, India, astronomy, birds, bees and the afterlife."

The End

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 35)

 London's Veterinary Science School (?)
  Searching for news about London from long ago, one sometimes comes across advertisements related to the city. This one is from The Sisseton Weekly Standard, Nov. 26, 1909. 

   One thinks of Guelph in relation to vet. schools. Apparently the one located in London was of the mail order type. 

   "In 1896 the Veterinary Science Company of London, Ont. was established and through the London Veterinary Correspondence School ran a course in veterinary medicine and surgery. Besides a home-study course, the school provided a textbook and diploma which it led recipients to believe was qualification to practise anywhere in Canada. Provincial legislation closed the school in 1921, but before then 77 editions of the text were published and diplomas were issued worldwide. For many years the provincial associations had to cope with the demands of London school "graduates" who unsuccessfully sought membership and practice privileges.

Source - "History of Veterinary Medicine," The Canadian Encyclopedia.
 (Searching for Sisseton, I learned that the town still exists and an ad. on the "city's" website indicates that they are looking for a part-time "Municipal Liquor Store Clerk", starting at $18.55 an hour.)

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 34)

 Hurricane - 1909

    Fatality at Aberdeen Public School 

Source: Charlotte Daily Observer, (NC), April 8, 1909.
   Given the date (in April), it is likely this was a tornado and it is listed as such on Wikipedia. ("List of Canadian Tornadoes and Tornado Outbreaks (pre-2000)".)
  For the first snippet in this series which provides the rationale see, London's Bicentennial (1826-2026).

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 33)

 Financially Embarrassed in London in 1886

But, Perhaps Only Temporarily Deranged
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 8, 1886

Guy Tudor - Bird Illustrator

 Another Passing Worth Noting
   I did not recognize the name "Guy Tudor", but the headline above his obituary caught my eye and he is worth our attention.

"Guy Tudor, Whose Art Brought Obscure Birds to Life, Dies at 91," Guy Trebay, New York Times, July 25, 2026.
   "Guy Tudor, a self-taught ornithologist, wildlife illustrator and MacArthur fellow whose field guides to birds trained generations of naturalists and citizen scientists about how to distinguish a Rufous-breasted Leaftosser from a Lesser Hornero, died on July 14 in Greenport, N.Y. He was 91.
   Digital avian databases like eBird were far in the future when Mr. Tudor first set about documenting swaths of the avian world in watercolors and gouaches renowned for their delicacy and precision, and for the artist’s singular knack for capturing the quiddities of winged creatures with paint and brush….
   It was Mr. Tudor’s ability “to capture the unique behavior, motion and exact plumage of obscure species” that earned him a MacArthur fellowship in 1990, said Terence Clarke, an artist and naturalist who was a friend of Mr. Tudor’s....
   “People claim Guy was a curmudgeon, but it’s really that he was alarmed — and rightly so — by what is happening to the natural world,” Mr. Gwynne added. “He always used to say, ‘The infidels have invaded my church, and they’ve almost reached the altar.’”

   I wondered if the Western Libraries had any of his books and took a look. Here are some works where you can find Tudor's illustrations:

1.The Birds of South America
2.Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America: The Passerines
3.A Guide to the Birds of Columbia
4.A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela
5.Ornithology
and there is even one about butterflies- 
6.Butterflies of the East Coast : An Observer's Guide.
   "Here is an accessible, informative, and highly illustrated book that offers a fresh view of butterflies in America's Ease Coast states, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Appalachians. In addition to providing a wealth of facts and photos, this book is the first to furnish detailed and up-to-date photo-illustrated information on the host plants favored by particular species. With 234 full-page species accounts and accompanying range maps, plus nearly 900 large-size color photos, it is an essential reference work for field observers, gardeners, educators, and conservation managers - or anyone interested in appreciating the lepidopteran world close at hand."
   Check the catalogue of the Western Libraries. These books are either in the Taylor Library or the storage facility. 
   I have written other posts about bird books that can be found in the Western Libraries. (Once again, check before you go to campus.)
Bird Art - John Gould
Bird Illustrators - Louis Agassiz Fuertes
 If you are more interested in FISH have a look at Western's ANGLING BOOKS.

The Bonus: Don't Forget About AFAR - The Advanced Facility for Avian Research-

For the Birds.

George Bowering's Library

 IS NOW IN THE UBC LIBRARY

The source for the photo above is: "A Reading Room Fit for a Literary Giant: Poet Bowering's Personality Showcased Along With Thousands of His Books," John Mackie, Vancouver Province, June 28, 2026. Here is some text from it:

   "Canada's first Parliamentary Poet Laureate, has written so many books of poetry and prose that it's hard to count, and has given readings and lectures all over the world.

   His latest honour is close to home: His personal library has been set up as a reading room at the University of B.C.'s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

    It isn't a replica of his home study, like you might find in a museum. But an estimated 5,000 volumes from Bowering's vast collection now line the shelves of the reading room, with more to come....
    It's not just books, though. Bowering's personality comes through in the improbable memorabilia that is displayed alongside the volumes, such as baseball bobbleheads, a puppy penholder and Hello Kitty collectibles....

Alas, George isn't young anymore - he's 90. His health hasn't been great, and he now uses a wheelchair. His sight is limited, to the point where he can no longer read or write.

   That said, he's just released two books. Pearl (Talonbooks) is billed as his final book of poetry, and Barefoot Gringo (UBC Press) is a Boweringesque take on his travels to Mexico.

   He still has enough energy to power a small city. Maybe Penticton, where he was born on Dec. 1, 1935, or Oliver, where he grew up.

   Bowering remains as engaging as ever, laughing and telling a dizzying number of stories and anecdotes during a visit to the space, which is officially known as the George Bowering Modernists and Post-modernists Collection."

   If you curious about UBC acquiring such a collection see: "UBC Library Achieves Funding Goal for the George Bowering Reading Room," Library Communications, March 3, 2025. Remember also that in MM there was a recent post about the University of Miami acquiring Jackie Gleason's library and that Philip Roth's library can be found in the Newark Public Library!

   If you noticed the word "Poet" in the headline and are not interested, remember that Bowering wrote many books, including some about baseball. It takes a while to scroll through the list of works written by Bowering in his Wikipedia entry.
   If you associate Bowering with B.C., don't forget that he studied at UWO and was a writer in residence there. Among his books, you will find this one: The Moustache: Memories of Greg Curnoe. 
   There are over 100 works by Bowering in the Western Libraries and the LPL has around 20, including this one: 

If you are now interested, here is a good place to begin for more about Bowering: Georgebowering.com.

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 32)

 RICHARD BERRY HARRISON (1864-1935)

   The image here is from the Atlanta Daily World, Nov. 3, 1933. The caption has been enlarged for clarity. It is about Richard Harrison who was starring in the play, Green Pastures. Harrison, the son of slaves, was born in London, Canada West. He died two years after this performance.   

The photograph below is from the plaque found in Richard B. Harrison Park which is located near the newly renovated Clark's Bridge on Wellington Road between South Street and Watson Street. There is a good Wikipedia entry for Richard Berry Harrison.  This brief bio is from On This Spot:

   "Richard B. Harrison (1864-1935) was a London-born actor, whose parents, both former slaves, escaped to Canada in the 1850s. The family remained in London until 1880 when they moved to Detroit, where Harrison trained as an elocutionist. His stage work, which took him all over Canada and the United States, was comprised of dramatic monologues, as well as readings of poetry and literature.

   The role that would make him famous was that of "De Lawd” in a play called the Green Pastures. Seen today as somewhat patronizing and fostering African-American stereotypes, the play at the time was well received. It won the Pulitzer Prize for author Marc Connolly in 1931 the same year that Harrison received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, presented annually for outstanding achievement by a Black American. Harrison toured with a production of the Green Pastures to over 200 cities including London, his hometown.

   In 2019, London playwright and actor Jeff Culbert, created a one-man theatre piece entitled "Elocution: The Life of Richard Berry Harrison” starring legendary Canadian actor Walter Borden. It can be heard at www.jeffculbert.ca."