Libraries/Collections
MCNICOL COLLECTION - HISTORY OF TELECOMMUNICATION
Donald Monroe McNicol (1875-1953) was a Canadian-born railway telegrapher who rose to become President of the Institute of Radio Engineers, Chairman of the AIEE Publications Committee, editor of the journal Telegraph and Telephone Age, author of numerous scientific and historical articles, and lecturer at Yale.
McNicol's private library, held in the Jordan Library, is extensive. The collection, which numbers approximately 1200 items, contains books, pamphlets, journals and archival resources on the experimental history and development, to World War II, of the telegraphic, telephonic and radio sciences.
This collection is supplemented by the Library's
Riche-Covington Collection on Radio Astronomy.
Illustration at right: Photograph of Donald McNicol in 1912 (view larger version of image)
Although the Jordan Library generally does not collect artifacts, an exception was made with the McNicol Collection which even includes a piece of the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable!
Reproduced at left: A photograph of a model of Reginald A. Fessenden's radio telephone of 1907. Photograph is labelled "Rare picture of Fassenden's radio telephone (HF generator) apparatus of 1907".
View larger version of image.
Also in the collection is a fascinating group of photographs of scientists, inventors and machinery, as well as scrapbooks of calligraphy competitions conducted by telegraphers. Illustrated below: Three of the many examples of telegrapher penmanship.
 (Select each image to view a larger version of the image) |
ACCESS
The collection is almost entirely recorded in QCAT, the Library's online catalogue, but currently there is no one search which will display a full list of these records. There is, however, a print catalogue of the collection (produced in 1942) which is available in the Jordan Library.