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The Sherlock Holmes Collection is a unique collection which includes stories, information about his creator Conan Doyle, photographs, cuttings and journals.
The Collection is held at Marylebone Information Service, but is accessible by appointment only - telephone (020) 7641 1206.
Paget portraits discoveredTwo portraits by the illustrator of Sherlock Holmes stories, Sidney Paget, have been discovered in the City of Westminster.
It is often said that Paget based his pictures of Holmes on his own brother, but did he also base another character on the recently-retired Mayor of Paddington? Read Catherine Cooke's account and decide for yourself.
Westminster’s Sherlock Holmes Collection is delighted to be working with the artist Ian Rees on an installation to be put on display at Marylebone Library shortly.
The work will consist of several interactive models showing scenes from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Full details of the exhibition will appear here soon.
The first section, showing Holmes and Watson discussing a case, is currently at Marylebone Library and may be viewed by appointment – call 020 7641 1206 to arrange a time.
If you cannot get to the Library, click here to watch a short video.
Ian Rees has a degree in 3D Design and Creative Model Making and worked on projects for the Imperial War Museum and the interior of two of the Zones in the Millennium Dome. He is happy to undertake work on commission. He may be contacted via his agent The Practice at drkimgilbert2thepractice@yahoo.co.uk
Online ExhibitionThis resource highlights different genres of Arthur Conan Doyle's other work, shows users how to search for biographical information on authors in general, and tells them what tools are available to aid their research
www.westminsteronline.org/conandoyle/
May 22, 2001, was the 50th Anniversary of an Exhibition on Sherlock Holmes held as part of the Festival of Britain. The Holmes 1951 website is our celebration of the anniversary, with images and information from the original exhibition. Visit 1951...
The Collection falls into several distinct areas. If you have not had the chance to visit us recently, if at all, there follows a brief outline of these, which will also serve to explain our main aims and concerns. The Collection aims to make information available to anyone, whether they can come in person or whether they can only enquire from afar, be it by letter, telephone, e-mail or other means. A lot of material devoted to Sherlock Holmes is produced, far too much for the vast majority of individuals to track down and purchase themselves. We aim, very simply, to find out about and acquire, one way or another, as much of it as we can, given the constraints of time, space and budget.
While the Collection is archival in the sense that we retain material in as good a condition as possible for as long as possible, that material is for use. If poor condition demands it, we will rebind where practicable. A reprint or even a photocopy is acquired wherever possible if an important work is not available at an affordable price. This is not to say that we would refuse rare material if it were to be made available to us, perhaps by deposit or donation. A good example is the generous deposit in 1990 of the original manuscripts of "The Dying Detective" and "The Lion's Mane". These are securely housed in our purpose-built Archives repository. With the permission of the owner and the co-operation of first the Arthur Conan Doyle Society and then the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, we were able to publish both in facsimile, opening up access to them for anyone who wished, while restricting access to the delicate originals to just those whose work required it.
Publications such as these and the other books and smaller items we have produced over the years have exemplified another aspect of the Collection. Within reason, we do raise income for Westminster Libraries, and for Marylebone Library in particular. While such income does not, it is true, go directly to the Collection, the fact that it is raised makes a very good bargaining lever when asking for extra funding or yet another bookcase!
Finally, we do our best to co-operate with and support the various societies devoted to furthering the study of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle. We have always found such relationships to be valuable and are extremely grateful for the benefits we have received from them. We sincerely hope that the societies feel the same. Many generously donate their publications, helping us to preserve long runs for future generations of Sherlockians and Doyleans.
819.01: Bibliographies
There are, as most Sherlockians know, one or two seminal bibliographies:
These have tended to be short publishing runs and consequently comparatively expensive, perhaps beyond the means of many of those interested in the subject. They are well-used at Marylebone. De Waal in particular has always been used almost as an index to the Collection as a whole, indispensable for finding material buried in the many journals runs. Other bibliographies are purchased when published.
819.1 / 819.2: The Canon - works about Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
We do not aim to collect first or other rare editions - there are too many and they are generally far too expensive. We do aim to collect editions that contain new introductions, notes or illustrations. We also have a good representative selection of simplified texts, usually aimed at younger children, new readers or those taking English as a second language.
Translations of the Sherlock Holmes stories are also held, with at least one example in all the major languages. It is often very difficult for a library service to purchase one single book from abroad, so our collection of foreign texts relies fairly heavily on donations from societies, publishers and translators and from those holidaying abroad.
819.3: Conan Doyle's other works.
Since 1982 it has been our policy to bring our coverage of Conan Doyle himself up to strength, and we have retrieved from within Westminster Libraries materials such as The British Campaign in France and Flanders. This, coupled with input from dealers and members of the various societies has meant that we have been able to find a copy of all of Conan Doyle's major works, together with a number of his more obscure and smaller works.
819.4: The Writings on the Writings.
In many respects, this is probably the most heavily used section of the Collection, and one where we do our best to acquire everything that is published or available. While we concentrate on English language materials, we do purchase from elsewhere when possible, and gratefully receive any items contacts feel able to send us.
819.5: Biography of Conan Doyle.
Again here we attempt to acquire everything, though it has to be said that there has not been a great deal published.
819.7: Sherlock Holmes on Stage and Screen.
This section is a mixture of published books, both critical works and scripts, and unpublished scripts, the latter in most cases donated by or begged from writers and producers. While this latter category may be freely consulted, it may not be photocopied without the written permission of the copyright holder.
819.8: Related Fiction.
We draw a fine distinction between books where the main character purports to be Sherlock Holmes or some other character from the Canon (pastiche) and those where the main character is clearly based on Holmes or consciously apes Holmes, but who has his own identity. These we place under related fiction, along with a few examples of Holmes' contemporaries, such as Raffles, Martin Hewitt and Sexton Blake. Other fiction collected includes a Gaboriau novel in translation and William Gillette's only detective novel.
819.85: Related Non-fiction.
Again, rather a mixed bag of material. This is where we keep general histories and discussions of detective fiction, though we only purchase those which actually focus on Holmes for a reasonable proportion of the work. Some background material is also held, such as the two biographies of Dr. Joseph Bell, a history of the battle of Maiwand and a Bradshaw's Railway Guide.
819.9: The Cult of Sherlock Holmes.
This section covers the societies, with publications such as the on-going history of the Baker Street Irregulars, as well as less serious material such as joke and puzzle books.
The Collection holds complete runs of:
Files of many smaller journals from societies around the world are also held, some patchy but a good many complete and on-going.
Audio cassettes from both Britain and North America are purchased, together with videos in British format. These are kept mainly to show what has been released. The Collection is for reference only, and we have no facilities for people to listen to cassettes or view the videos. In addition, legal restrictions are placed on the "public performance" of videos, which makes it impossible for us to show them. Doubts have been cast too on the long-term stability of tape, so we cannot be at all sure that these materials will survive as long as the printed matter. We can be rather more sure of the few vinyl records we hold.
We house a couple of games that have been donated over the years, though we do not specifically purchase in this area. 
We have also acquired a good selection of photographs and negatives, often as a by-product of working with publishers using illustrations from the Collection. Again, this is an area where we rarely purchase, though we do try to beg publicity material from theatres putting on Holmes plays. We also acquire a fair amount of ephemeral material, which we categorise and keep as examples, though usually do not catalogue.
e-mail address for enquiries: ccooke@westminster.gov.uk
2008 Westminster City Council. Contact the Council
