“An Afternoon With Sir Arthur Conan Doyle”

On Saturday, March 24th, approximately 60 people gathered in the Special Collections & Rare Books Department of the WAC Bennett Library at Simon Fraser University, atop Burnaby Mt.  to attend the dedication and reception of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Collection.

Many thanks to Mr. Eric Swanik, Head of Special Collections. With the donations by Peter Wood among other Petrels, the collection now houses issues of the original Strand Magazine, letters, annotated editions, scrapbooks, magazines, society publications, and more.  A great start to “Baker Street West” as Peter Wood called it.

Three speakers gave us more insight into: collecting (Robert Eighteen-Bisang), into the history of the Stormy Petrels (Len Haffenden) and into Sherlock Holmes (Mason Harris)

Pictured in front of the collection are:  Mason Harris, retired SFU professor of English Literature; Eric Swanic, Head of Special Collections of SFU; Len Haffenden, long-time member of the Stormy Petrels of BC and editor of the society magazine “The Petrel Flyer”, and Robert Eighteen-Bisang, owner of the largest vampire/Dracula collection