Douglas Library

Douglas Library is the oldest of Queen's libraries. The southern half of the building was completed in 1924 and is faced with Kingston limestone; the northern part, built in the same neo-gothic style but faced with Queenston limestone, was added in 1966 and features three underground floors.

When the library was first built, it housed the entire holdings of the University's libraries, and also administrative offices such as the Office of the Principal, which moved to Richardson Hall when it was completed in 1954. With the emergence of individual faculty and department libraries in the 1960s and 70s, Douglas Library became the University's main social sciences and humanities library, as well as the home for the library system administrative offices, a periodicals room, and a Special Collections unit for rare or fragile publications.

There is a story told among students that Douglas Library was built backwards, and the side that faces away from University Avenue is actually supposed to face the street. This legend probably started because the east library entrance (the "back") is by far the grander of the two entrances. However, the truth is that there used to be a large open park space on the east side of Douglas Library, and this grand entrance was designed to be visible from this area, which was a common gathering place of students.

After the opening of Stauffer Library in 1994, Douglas Library was closed for extensive renovation. It reopened in 1997 as the main engineering and science library. In 1999, the W. D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library was added to the second floor, and the two reading rooms located on the top floor - which contain beautiful stained glass windows - were refurbished. Douglas Library is named in honor of James Douglas.

James Douglas (1837-1918)
James Douglas was a versatile and energetic man, and although he only served as Queen's third Chancellor from 1915-1918, he was a devoted Queen's man and his involvement with the University was lifelong. Mr. Douglas was born in Quebec City and attended both Queen's, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in 1858, and the University of Edinburgh, where he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1861. Mr. Douglas did not pursue that career long, however, and soon showed that his talents were many.

Mr. Douglas entered the world of industry with a flourish, eager to make up for a bad investment in a Quebec copper mine made by his father years ago. He became a mining chemist in Quebec, and soon invented a new process of extracting ore. This discovery attracted attention in the United States, and in 1875 Mr. Douglas moved to Pennsylvania to work for the Chemical Copper Company. In 1881, the New York based company Phelps Dodge sent him to Bisbee, Arizona to assess the prospects for copper mining there. Mr. Douglas recommended they invest, and the result was the Copper Queen Mine, which became one of the top copper producing mines in the United States. Mr. Douglas's reputation as a metallurgist and businessman grew rapidly, and he reached the presidency of three major mining companies, including the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. Mr. Douglas also founded a smelting centre at Douglas, Arizona, which is named in his honor. The town still thrives today.

Mr. Douglas was a well known philanthropist, and Queen's University was one of the causes to which he gave most consistently and generously. Mr. Douglas was known for giving in unusual ways: he once gave $375,000 to a New York hospital in the form of 3 and 3/4 grams of radium. In 1910 Mr. Douglas gave a large amount to Queen's to establish the Douglas Chair in Canadian and Colonial History. It was the first chair in Canadian history in Canada, and Douglas, with his usual flair, accompanied the gift with an actual chair: a huge throne-like piece ornately carved with Canadian symbols, complete with a matching footstool. The chair still sits in Watson Hall.

After the death of Sir Sandford Fleming, Mr. Douglas was elected Chancellor and continued his support of Queen's. During the war years Queen's suffered a huge financial crisis, and Mr. Douglas stepped forward. He paid much of the operating costs of the university out of his own pocket for the first three years of the war - in total, more than $100,000. Mr. Douglas also gave a large sum for the improvement of Kingston General Hospital. His largest gift, however, was to supply half the sum required to build the University a library, which was completed in 1924 and named in his honor. In total, Mr. Douglas's gifts amounted to about $1,000,000 - an incredible fortune in those days.

In addition to his financial support, Mr. Douglas was a strong leader and a force for progress at Queen's. He was one of the loudest voices calling for separation from the Church, despite his own religious background. It is largely thanks to his insistence that Queen's became a non-denominational institution in 1912. Mr. Douglas also wrote several works of Canadian history throughout his life, showing that he was the very definition of a well-rounded man.