The Colbeck Collection

This site is a reproduction of a physical exhibit featured, from May to November 2000, in the University of British Columbia Library's Special Collections and University Archives Division. It proudly showcases a small selection of the works held in the impressive Norman Colbeck Collection at the University of British Columbia.

This notable collection comprises some 50,000 items, half of which are monographs, and includes manuscripts, English and Anglo-Irish poetry, belles-lettres, and non-fiction of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection is strong in minor writers of the period and Anglo-Irish writers.

Unique items include many rare first editions, special editions, limited editions, association items, dedications, items of significance in the history of printing (by Lee, Priory, Pickering, Kelmscott, and Cuala), publications of book collector's clubs (Sette of Odd Volumes), and little magazines.

Norman Colbeck prepared a catalogue of this collection: A Bookman's Catalogue: The Norman Colbeck Collection of Nineteenth-Century and Edwardian Poetry and Belles-Lettres in the Special Collections of the University of British Columbia. It was published by the University of British Columbia Press in 1987. The pamphlet displayed on the right was released to announce the Catalogue's publication.

Norman Colbeck was coaxed to donate his sizable private collection in 1966, following a series of negotiations initiated by Dr. E.W. Fredeman, a professor in the Department of English, and the then University Librarian Mr. Basil Stuart-Stubbs.

"The following year, Colbeck took up a position of Curator of The Colbeck Room, designed to house the thousands of volumes he had amassed during his career.

"Five years later on his retirement from the University, the books were transferred to the Special Collections Division of the library, giving UBC instant prominence as an important repository of 19th century printed books. Complementing significant manuscript materials relating to the Rossetti family and the Pre-Raphaelites, the Colbeck Collection has attracted a wide range of scholars from around the world.

Norman Colbeck was awarded the degree Doctor of Letters from UBC in 1987" (1).