| Administrative History | John Anderson, WS, may well be the genealogist and first secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1825, at which time he resided in Edinburgh. Nothing is known of his origins or later life, but he published work on the Frasers of Lovat and of historical science and education in Scotland, for which he received praise. |
| Source | The manuscript was presented by P. J. Anderson, (1850-1926). Peter John Anderson was born around 1850 and was a native of Inverness. Both his parents had died by the time he matriculated at Aberdeen University in 1868. He graduated in 1874 in Mathematics, and was by that time Assistant in Natural Philosophy at the University. While he studied law in Edinburgh he supported himself by this post, then by the post of examiner from 1880 to 1883. He graduated LL.B. from Edinburgh, but was unable to practise law because he lacked the funds, and returned to Aberdeen to become a lecturer in English and Science at the Technical College. At the same time he became secretary to the New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, which he helped to revive, publishing historical monographs on the University and its alumni. He was assistant registrar at the University from 1883 to 1889, and Rector’s assessor from 1890 to 1893. In 1894 he gave up lecturing and became University Librarian, a post he held until his death in 1926. He built up the library, introducing the Dewey Decimal system, abolishing fees, allowing open access to books and instituting the Library Bulletin to raise the library’s profile with the students. He was instrumental in urging the University Court to allow full university membership to women students. Although he published little himself, he had a wide and varied knowledge and undoubtedly assisted in the research of others who published more. He was a founding committee member of the ‘Aberdeen University Review’ in 1913. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the University Archivist and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |