Arthur Conan Doyle
The Collection
The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Lancelyn Green Bequest is an internationally important collection consisting of an extensive assortment of archive material, thousands of books and a vast array of objects. The huge task of cataloguing these various items is being undertaken by professional staff from the City Council’s museum, archive and library teams who are being ably assisted by a variety of volunteers. This is a very challenging, time consuming, but interesting, process.
The reasons why the collection was bequeathed to Portsmouth City Council are twofold. Firstly Arthur Conan Doyle was practising as a doctor in Southsea when he wrote the first two Sherlock Holmes stories, ‘A Study in Scarlet’ and ‘The Sign of Four’. Secondly, Richard Lancelyn Green, one of the internationally renowned experts in this area, was impressed with services provided by the Culture Group during a visit and felt that this would be a suitable home for his collection.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s connections with Portsmouth were strong. He lived and worked here for almost a decade during which time he operated a successful doctor’s practice, featured in the local football club, cricket team, bowls club, local literary societies, married his first wife and settled down to family life. He was to remain fond of the City for all his life, retaining an interest in property and featuring Portsmouth in his stories.
The collection itself is very wide ranging and consists of tens of thousands of items. The books include many first editions, a variety of other works by Doyle and other detective fiction writers, and those relating to the numerous other interests of Doyle. The archive is breath taking in its scope ranging from original Doyle family papers, through papers regarding dramatisations, groups and societies, spiritualist activity and other contemporary authors, to the copious working papers of Richard Lancelyn Green. The artefacts again reflect the variety of Doyle’s interests and range from his boxing gloves to copious amounts of eye-catching posters.
There is considerable work being undertaken, alongside the cataloguing tasks, to develop and make accessible this Collection to both the people of Portsmouth and those further afield. Central to this work is the landmark exhibition entitled ‘A Study in Sherlock: Uncovering the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection’ which is open at the City Museum, Museum Road, Portsmouth. An innovative approach has been taken to the design of this exhibition which includes a narration by the Collection’s patron Stephen Fry, sophisticated audio visual and interactive elements as well as displaying previously unseen material.
Conan Doyle Project Coordinator
Sarah Speller has joined the Arts Service in the new post of Conan Doyle Project Co-ordinator. This is a fixed term post for one year and will combine work on the cataloguing the extensive archive with wider project responsibilities.
Sarah has worked for Portsmouth City Council since 1997 in a variety of positions within the Museums and Records Service. During this period she professionally retrained as an archivist and has previously worked with both the local history collections for Portsmouth and part time with the Conan Doyle collection.
The new role provides an exciting opportunity to develop a collection of international significance in addition to supporting Claire Looney, the Arts and Cultural Development Service, and Conan Doyle Project Manager.
Associated documents:
Animated Hound Competition Entry Form (0.54 MB)
Conditions of Entry (0.11 MB)
Outline Information Document (0.62 MB)Link 11 ( MB)