A new mecca for Bertrand Russell scholars
Grand home just off campus will soon house prized McMaster collection
The eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, “Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.”
But nearly a half century after his death, academics around the world are still celebrating his words and mulling over his ideas.
And come the spring of 2018, Russell scholars will have a new mecca in Hamilton — at 88 Forsyth Avenue North, directly across from McMaster University’s Sterling Street entrance.
The university will spend $1 million renovating a two-storey, 4,300 sq. ft. former house to open a new Bertrand Russell Archive and Research Centre.
The building will be retrofitted into a customized facility designed to properly store and preserve an internationally renowned archive of Bertrand Russell’s artifacts that currently is kept at the university’s Mills Memorial Library.
The archives and a reading room will be housed on the first floor, along with a display area that will feature items from the collection such as Russell’s personal writing desk and armchair. The second floor research centre will have offices and a conference room.
“Eighty-Eight Forsyth is one of the grand old homes of Westdale,” says McMaster librarian Vivian Lewis. “I’ve walked past the house every day for 25 years on my way to work, so I feel particularly overjoyed with the university’s decision to give the house a new life as the home of the Bertrand Russell Archives and Research Centre.”
As well as being known as one of the 20th century’s most important philosophers, and for winning the Nobel Prize for literature, Russell (1872-1970) was also a mathematician, logician, social critic, and was well known for his peace advocacy.
“He was a famous philosopher and mathematician but I think where we see a great deal of constant interest is in Bertrand Russell the peace activist. The fact that he lived long enough to protest both world wars, Korea and Vietnam is quite extraordinary,” said Andrew Bone, senior research associate at the Russell centre.
The archives were acquired in 1968 due to the efforts of then librarian William Ready and the president of university at the time, Harry Thode.
“President Thode in his wisdom wanted to do something to put humanities on the map the same way that the nuclear reactor put science on the map at McMaster,” said Lewis.
Ken Blackwell, honorary Russell archivist at McMaster, said Ready became aware of the collection through his frequent trips to Wales to visit family, and used incredible resourcefulness to land the artifacts for McMaster.
The archive is the largest available on Russell anywhere, consisting of about 500 boxes of documents made up mostly of letters and manuscripts as well as a personal library of a few thousand books. Interesting items include his 1950 Nobel Prize medal for literature, Russell’s pipe and glasses as well as letters from Albert Einstein, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as well as Muhammad Ali.
Plans are to open the new centre on Forsyth in the spring as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the university acquiring the archive.