Sherlock Holmes Tour and Class

On Saturday, October 25th, 2008, nearly 30 alumnae/i and friends escaped to the Elmer Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota to tour and view the world's largest collection of Sherlock Holmes artifacts and memorabilia. The collection includes over 15,000 items, related to Sherlock Holmes and his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Curator Tim Johnson, of Special Collections and Rare Books, was our guide to this Lifelong Learning Class. He gave an overview of the collection and some of its key artifacts. Johnson had several items in the collection that he discussed in detail and provided an opportunity for us to examine closely, including an original copy of The Study in Scarlet. Here he is with Chris Klejbuk '71 and the book. There are only 30 originals worldwide; the University has four of them.

When The Hound of the Baskervilles was completed, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave his manuscript to his editor with the suggestion to use the pages to advertise the availability of the book in local stores. Individual pages were tacked up in store windows as advertisements. Hence, there will never be a complete handwritten manuscript of The Hound . The University possess some of the pages, including one we were able to see (above).

We explored many other fascinating artifacts, including: illustrations of Holmes, periodicals from Sherlock Holmes Societies, scrapbooks on Holmes and Doyle, performing arts materials, and artifacts of Holmes in popular culture. We even saw Sherlock Linus, originally from the St. Paul PEANUTS sculpture events.

After inspecting artifacts, we toured the “caverns” (basement) where many of the Library's extensive collections are housed. A short walk from the Elmer Andersen Library took us to to the Wilson Library and the replica of the 221B Baker Street sitting room. Johnson provided extensive background on the room and furnishings.

This full scale rendition was acquired in 2006 as a gift from the estate of the late Allen Mackler. The room is a reproduction of Holmes' sitting room, including how he would put correspondence on the mantel with a knife (shown is a handwritten letter of Doyle's), his apparatus for scientific tests, his tobacco kept in a slipper. One almost expected to hear a calm, dry voice behind us, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

Don't miss other great Lifelong Learning and Evening Scholar Classes! The class on Female Literary Detectives ought to be just as spectacular! This group at the Sherlock event certainly was not disappointed.

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