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The largest and most significant donation received by the LMMI in the past decade is the Ryrie-Campbell Collection, a treasurer trove of more than 700 items gathered by Montgomery collector and bibliographer Dr. Donna Jane Campbell. Highlights of the collection include a first-edition, first-impression Anne of Green Gables, part of a complete run of early North American editions of Montgomery's work. Another important element is the exceptional collection of British, Australian, and non-English language editions (more than 30 languages and countries are represented). The collection will also soon grow to incorporate Dr. Campbell's peerless selection of hundreds of original periodicals from the 1900s containing Montgomery short stories and poems.
Other significant donations are highlighted below.
2000
A pair of pyjamas owned by Chester Cameron Macdonald were donated by his son David Macdonald. The pyjamas were worn by Chester at age 12 while he attended boarding school at St. Andrew's.
Two 1918 photographs of the Macneill homestead in Cavendish, a short handwritten essay describing the visit to the site, and one of Montgomery's personal postcards were donated by Catherine Hennessey of Charlottetown. The essay, titled "Green Gables," mistakenly associates the author's home with the fictional home of Anne Shirley: "The old Montgomery home, reputed "Green Gables," was situated in Cavendish near the North shore of Prince Edward Island, and has now, I am told, entirely disappeared into its cellar."
Playbill from the 1994 production of Don Hannah's The Wooden Hill, a play based on Montgomery's journals, was donated by Ian Scott of UPEI. The rare sheet music for "When It's Summer at Green Gables," a 1942 tribute written for L.M. Montgomery, was donated by David Weale of UPEI.
2001
A Grosset and Dunlap edition of Anne of Avonlea (1918) was donated by Joan Craig of Brantford, Ontario. The book was given to her in the 1950s by an acquaintance of Montgomery's, a Miss Coventry who knew Montgomery when she lived in Norval, Ontario. This printing of the book is important because it is one of the earliest pirated editions. A letter written by Montgomery to an Island acquaintance, Mrs. J. O. MacCallum, was donated by her niece Marjorie Rogers. The letter, dated 6 October 1930, is an apology to Mrs. McCallum for not being able to keep an engagement that day due to health problems. It was written while Montgomery was visiting her friend Laura Pritchard Agnew in Saskatchewan.
A letter written by Montgomery to a fan, Miss Shirley Ann Colcord, was donated by sisters Lucile Illsley, Marsha Illsley Milberry, and April Illsley Reese of Nova Scotia in memory of their mother, the late Mrs. Shirley Ann Colcord Illsley. In the letter, dated 1938, Montgomery expresses her appreciation for her fan mail, comments on Rilla of Ingleside, and provides a list of her published books.
An obituary clipping from The Tribune dated 24 April 1942 was donated by Rowena Stinson of Charlottetown.
2002
A letter written by Montgomery to her cousin, Murray Macneill, as well as three photographs were donated by John and Jennie Macneill. The letter discusses family photographs Montgomery sent along with the letter, presumably those taken by her in the Macneill orchard of Grandmother Macneill, Uncle Leander, Murray, and his daughter Edith. The three photographs, two of which have Montgomery's writing on the back, are of the entrance to the "Haunted Wood," the Campbell home at Park Corner, and Edith Macneill in the 1920s.
With the aid of Aliant, the Institute's Leadership Sponsor, the Institute purchased a collection of photographs from descendants of the Macneill family. The collection includes 167 photographs, including photos of and taken by Montgomery, a ledger book which acted as a record for the family of George Macneill, a book owned and signed by by Alma Macneill, and a funeral memorial booklet for Mrs. Mabel Macneill.
The Macdonald Collection: eighteen early editions of Montgomery's works were donated by Montgomery's grandchildren, David and Catherine Macdonald. All of the books are inscribed by Montgomery to her son Chester Cameron Macdonald and all but one are signed by her. The collection primarily consists of American editions published by Page and Stokes and includes two leather-bound author's editions and an annotated first edition of Further Chronicles of Avonlea.
An edition of the rare The Watchman and Other Poems was purchased at auction with a donation by Fred Hyndman of Charlottetown. The title and spine of this copy have been double-stamped and there is a double inscription by Montgomery, first to her cousin Frederica Campbell in 1916 and then to Mr. and Mrs. Lockhead "in remembrance of their friend Frederica E. MacFarlane, who went on The Great Adventure, Jan. 25, 1919."
Japanese edition of Anne of Green Gables and a book on Japanese book on children's literature were donated by Professor Yoshiko Akamatsu of Notre Dame Seishin University in Japan. 1930s edition of A Tangled Web (c1931, post-1937 printing) in a dust-jacket, a December, 1906 issue of the Prince of Wales Observer containing the poem "Fellowship" written by Montgomery and a June, 1923 issue of Canadian Home Journal containing the poem "A Song of Summer" written by Montgomery were donated by Willard Moase of North Bedeque Antiques.
2003
Dr. Gabriella Åhmansson
During the Institute's 10 anniversary celebration Dr. Gabriella Åhmansson donated Swedish copies of several of Montgomery's books. She explained how she had searched all over for copies exactly like the ones she had read and enjoyed, and she promised to complete for the Institute the collection that she had started by 2008, or she would donate her own collection to the Institute. Anne of Green Gables was published in Swedish in 1909, only one year after its publication in English and so Anne has been known and loved in Sweden for almost as long as she has been in Canada.
International Collection
Inspired by Dr. Åhmansson's donation, the L.M. Montgomery Institute began to take interest in copies of Montgomery's books, translated into different languages. The donations have been wonderful. Adding to the Swedish books are three German, three Hebrew, one Russian, and one Lithuanian books. Martina Seifert from Germany, donated Anne auf Green Gables, Anne in Avonlea, and Emily auf der Moon_Farm. Gratitude is also extended to Leah Tavor of Israel who donated copies of Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island in Hebrew, Elizaveta Sorokina of Moscow Region, Russia for her Russian copy of Anne of Green Gables, and Kestuties Urba from Lithuania for Anne of Green Gables in Lithuanian.
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