Libraries/Collections
BISHOP JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONELL COLLECTION
The Right Reverend Alexander Macdonell (1760 or 1762 - 1840) played an active role in Canadian history, education and church history. He obtained land grants in Glengarry County and brought a large number of the former Glengarry Fencibles army from Scotland to settle in Upper Canada. Macdonell was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Regiopolis (or Upper Canada) and a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. He founded Regiopolis College in Kingston in 1837 with the help of his nephew, Very Reverend Angus Macdonell and Dr. Rolph.
The Macdonell Collection, which Queen's acquired in 1969, contains Bishop Alexander's Library as the nucleus of a larger collection of about 600 volumes which includes the subsequent additions of Angus Macdonell and others at Regiopolis College. The main areas of concentration are religion, Irish history, classics, literature, world history, and travel.
ACCESS
Only a few items in the Macdonell Collection are recorded in QCAT, the Library's online catalogue (to retrieve the titles, search for Alexander Macdonell Collection in the AUTHOR index). A complete list of the collection's contents is documented in a print checklist, available in the Jordan Library.