Wednesday 15 April 2020 2:55pm
Dr Donald Kerr.
After 18 years in his “dream job”, Special Collections Librarian Dr Donald Kerr is starting a new chapter.
“Working as a plongeur in a restaurant in Versailles was good, my position as rare books librarian at the Sir George Grey Collection at Auckland City Library was better, but Special Collections at the University of Otago has for me been the best job in the world.”
During his 18 years at Otago Donald hosted 72 exhibitions, collaborated with 17 printers on the Printer in Residence Programme and carried out research, some of which will continue in retirement.
Donald’s interest in books started “in the age before TV.”
“I was always a reader and this led, for my sins, to book collecting. In previous lives I worked as a secondary school English teacher, a publishers' rep, and a planner of courses that revolved around books.”
His first rare books position was at the Grey Collection (now the Sir George Grey Special Collections) at the Auckland City Library, which he held for 14 years.
Also at this time he had his own printing press – a Golding Jobber No.7 – and printed anarchistic materials for West Aucklanders.
His first research emanated from the Grey Collection and was on Frank Reed and his world-class Alexandre Dumas père Collection. One of his publications, the result of his PhD thesis, was on Sir George Grey and his collections (which are in libraries in both Cape Town and Auckland). This title, Amassing Treasures for All Times: Sir George Grey, Colonial Bookman and Collector was published by Otago University Press (OUP) in 2006 and in 2015 the OUP also produced his Hocken, Prince of Collectors.
Donald says his vision was to make the Special Collections known and more visible to those in the University, the wider community of Dunedin, New Zealand, and the world.
“Our online exhibitions helped greatly in achieving some of this goal, and so did the efforts of so many people, not least of all the supporters in our community.”
Printers in Residence Programme
In addition to listing “each exhibition, as they rolled out” as highlights, Donald is proud of how, since its inception in 2003, Otago’s Printers in Residence Programme (PIR) has celebrated and made accessible works which highlight New Zealand’s cultural depth. The tempo for subsequent residencies was set in the programme’s inaugural year when Tara MacLeod produced Charles Brasch’s ‘…a great warm feather-bed’ (in an edition of fifty copies), and A Haggis of Verse, a volume of seven poems written by poets Charles Brasch, Ruth Dallas, Alan Roddick, Brian Turner, Emma Neale, Alison Wong, and David Eggleton.
“The PIR programme, as a flagging waving activity for the University, has been a template for programmes at the University of Sydney and the Bodleian at Oxford University, which has been gratifying to say the least.”
The programme has also promoted collegiality between “town and gown” and has featured involvement by the artistic community and handcraft printers. Artists and printers have come from within New Zealand, and Australia and the US.
Ongoing projects
Donald is pleased to have done research highlighting the De Beer, Charles Brasch, and Hocken collections, and he is currently working on a book project on the Reverend William Arderne Shoults (1839-1887) and his book collecting activities.
“This and other book projects will keep me amused and will allow me to stalk the libraries for book and manuscript materials.”
Centre for the Book
He also lists involvement with the Centre for the Book with English and Linguistics Associate Professor Shef Rogers as an achievement. A related point of pride is the Centre’s involvement in Dunedin’s bid to become a UNESCO City of Literature. His work with the Centre will continue in retirement.
“Indeed, we have sorted out the theme for a symposium in November – travel and travel writing – so look out for a call for papers!”
Special books
And of the thousands of books and manuscripts that was under his care, his favourite at Otago was the Commentaries on the Bible by Nicolas de Lyra, printed in Venice in 1481.
“The book, housed in the Shoults Collection, has three important features. It is typographically wonderful. It is bound in a Rood and Hunt binding, the oldest English binding in New Zealand, and one of only 26 examples around the world. Lastly, it contains fragments of indulgences sewn within that were printed by William Caxton, England's first printer.”
But, like all bibliophiles, trashy and popular material also holds a great fascination; he loves the Collection’s pulp fiction for its “bad plots, brassy covers, and catchy titles”.
He hopes the challenge of space, which limits the collections’ growth, will be addressed in future.
“This need to be dealt with if the University wants to become much better, bigger and brighter, research institution.”
A full list of exhibitions, plus Dr Donald Kerr's favourites:
Click here for a full list of Special Collections exhibitions:
Some of Donald’s favourite exhibitions were:
- John Buckland Wright, the Dunedin born artist. He left NZ shores and began one of the best engravers of the 40s and 50s.
- In 2004, Special Collections obtained a collection of Australian Pulp Fiction. A colourful exhibition resulted.
- The strength of the Shoults and de Beer Collections meant that we could host an exhibition celebrating Martin Luther and the European Reformation. In this he thanks Drs Peter Matheson, Murray Rae, and Brett Knowles for their input.
- And primarily through the Shoults Collection, we hosted a Middle Eastern exhibition, displaying Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and Arabic books and manuscripts in Special Collections.
- And through the assistance of Dr Majid Daneshgar (formerly of Otago; and now in Freiburg, Germany) an inventory of this complex material was produced. It is available through Our Archive: Daneshgar, M., & Kerr, D. (2017). Middle Eastern and Islamic Materials in Special Collections, University of Otago (Working Paper). Permanent link to OUR Archive version.