Research Collections

Made possible through the generosity and vision of LM Montgomery Institute Research Associate and benefactor Dr. Donna Jane Campbell, KindredSpaces is an online discovery tool for the LMMI Research Collections housed at the Robertson Library, UPEI.

KindredSpaces was launched at the LMMI Biennial International Conference in June, 2016: the first research collection to be featured here is the Ryrie-Campbell Collection, donated to the LMMI and the Library by Dr. Campbell.

KindredSpaces’ Collections’ Guides

The Ryrie-Campbell Collection has three main components:

Periodicals — Over 400 short stories, poems, and articles published by LM Montgomery in wide range of North American, British, and Australian periodicals in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Books — Rare early and international editions of Montgomery’s books, and reference works in which she is discussed

Special Items — Artifacts and printed memorabilia documenting various aspects of Montgomery’s life and career

Bookshelf  (NEW *November 30, 2022) — An ongoing project to help you learn more about the books Montgomery loved.

Additional collections and individual items will be added to KindredSpaces and recommendations for new content are welcome.

The Ryrie-Campbell Collection

The Ryrie-Campbell Collection is the most sizable and significant of the LMMI Collections, the fruits of a life-timeʼs work by Dr. Donna Jane Campbell, a leading collector of publications by and about L.M. Montgomery.

Dr. Campbell is currently donating her great trove of Montgomeriana in installments to the LMMI. Among this collectionʼs riches are three rare first edition/first impression AGG -- in the three variant colour bindings of taupe, light green and chocolate brown -- along with a complete run of early North American editions of all the books published by Montgomery in her lifetime. Other rare English-language editions (notably Australian and British publications), are joined by more than 20 editions in languages other than English, ranging from Arabic to Spanish.

Already amounting to more than 700 titles, the collection will soon grow stronger still with the donation of its final installment, a vast archive of original issues of North American periodicals in which Montgomery published hundreds of stories and poems.

The Ryrie-Campbell Collection is available at KindredSpaces.ca.

Macdonald Collection

In April 2002, two of L.M. Montgomery's grandchildren, David Macdonald and his sister Catherine Macdonald, donated 18 books to the L.M. Montgomery Institute. The books belonged to their father, Chester Cameron Macdonald, who was Montgomery's eldest son. Most of the books are inscribed by Montgomery to her son "with mother's love" and have her signature with the distinct hand-drawn symbol of a cat.

In addition to the inscriptions, the books also have other special features. Two of the books are leather-bound, gilt-edged pages, which probably means they were personal author editions, and some of the books are stamped "presentation copy" in raised letters. A copy of Further Chronicles of Avonlea has Montgomery's handwritten notes on the front endpapers and annotations throughout concerning a dispute she had with her publisher, L.C. Page and Company.

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L.M. Montgomery's grandson,
David Macdonald