A Holmes Exhibition for Festival
A Holmes Exhibition for Festival is an article published in The Times on 1 november 1950.
A Holmes Exhibition for Festival
DOUBTS REMOVED IN ST. MARYLEBONE
A sense of relief will be spread in surprisingly wide circles by the news that last night's meeting of the library committee of St. Marylebone confirmed its proposal to hold a Sherlock Holmes exhibition during the Festival of Britain next year.
Nor is there any reason to fear that the project will encounter further criticism in the borough council. There seems, indeed, to have been a little misunderstanding about the significance of some observations that Mr. T. Vernon felt moved to offer in the council meeting last Thursday. His explanation of his attitude in The Times yesterday is in harmony with the statement made after last night's meeting of the library committee by Miss L. F. Nettlefold, its chairman. She pointed out that the proposal was accepted by the borough council on Thursday and would now go forward.
The exhibition will be held in the St. Marylebone public library. If anyone doubts whether material exists for such a commemoration in the unaccountable absence of authentic relics of the great detective, the answer is that there is a great deal. Much literary material is already in the library itself, and a rich store of informed enthusiasm waits to be drawn upon among the library staff. It is, of course, one of the chief glories of Marylebone that Holmes had lodgings for many years at 221B. Baker Street. It may be less commonly known that Conan Doyle, his chronicler, lived at 2, Devonshire Street.
AMERICAN SOCIETIES
It is too early to indicate the scope of the exhibition, but there are possibilities enough. Hundreds of articles and dozens of books have been published on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. There is a scholarly bibliography of books about them. A selection from these will doubtless be included in the exhibition. It may well contain records of the lives of Conan Doyle and Dr. Joseph Bell, under whom Doyle studied medicine and who is said to have shared many of the traits of Sherlock Holmes. It is hoped to have on view original manuscripts of some of the stories, and perhaps to borrow (if it still exists) a leaf of a notebook on which was set out the original idea of A Study in Scarlet, with the detective misnamed, regrettably, Sherinford Holmes.
Records and minutes of the various Sherlock Holmes societies might be assembled. The Sherlock Holmes Society of London no longer exists; it used to hold its annual dinners at a Baker Street restaurant. America more than makes up for the relative scarcity of British societies. The Marylebone library files the journal of the Baker Street Irregulars of America. This records the names of scion societies" and their progress. Most of them set exceedingly stiff examination papers for would-be members, and some specimens would be an interesting addition to the exhibition. Some of their names deserve to be mentioned — "The Seventeen Steps of Los Angeles," "The Speckled Band of Boston," "The Scandalous Bohemians of Akron," The Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit," "The Dancing Men of Providence," "The Canadian Baskervilles," and "The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis." One must not forget the society known as "The Solitary Cyclist of Washington, D.C.," consisting of one (woman) member.
