Largest Sherlock Holmes collection in the world celebrates 50 years at University of Minnesota

CATHY WURZER: OK, I remember when I said you might not know that Minnesota's home to a lot of senior co-ops, and the idea of senior co-ops started here in Minnesota. Here's something else you might not know. That Minnesota is home to the largest collection of Sherlock Holmes books and media in the entire world. That's right.

Now, 50 years later, the curators of the collection at the University of Minnesota are holding an anniversary celebration to look back on the iconic role that the Sherlock Holmes stories have held in mystery storytelling to this day.

Joining us right now to explain is Tim Johnson. He's the curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota.

Tim, welcome to the program.

TIM JOHNSON: Hi, Cathy. It's so nice to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, thanks for taking the time. I don't know much about the collection. I mean, I know that the U of M has this collection. I understand it got its start in kind of a strange way. So how in the world did the collection at the U become the largest of its kind in the world?

TIM JOHNSON: In some ways it goes back to, maybe, a line from a joke. Five professors went into a bar, but actually, they went into a-- they went into the campus club at the University of Minnesota. They had lunch one day-- this is back in 1947-- and they discovered they had a shared interest in Sherlock Holmes. And it was, like, OK, what are we going to do about this?

Well, long story short, they decided to form a science society or branch of the Baker Street Irregulars, which is the kind of mother of all Sherlockian groups. And they called themselves the Norwegian Explorers. And one of the traditions is pick a name based on a link with one of the 60 stories.

So the Norwegian Explorer part comes from Sherlock Holmes telling Dr. Watson he's been traveling incognito around the world as Sigerson, the Norwegian explorer.

So from that-- and one of those five founding members at that lunch was a fellow by the name of EW McDermott, who was the University librarian. And later in his career, he was also volunteering in Special Collections and Rare Books. And I think he whispered into my predecessor's ear-- Austin McLean-- wouldn't it be nice if the University went out and got a collection of first editions of the Sherlock Holmes stories?

And they managed to find a collection for sale from a Baker Street Irregular by the name of James [? Giraldi, ?] in New York City. And they went out and bought that in 1978. And--

CATHY WURZER: Wow.

TIM JOHNSON: --here we are, 50 years later.

CATHY WURZER: I'm betting you've probably also had some donations over this time from some superfans over the years.

TIM JOHNSON: Yeah, some amazing donations. The first big one came from Mary Kahler Hench, who was the widow of Dr. Philip Hench. Dr. Hench shared the Nobel Prize in 1950 for his work on cortisone.

So if you've ever gotten a cortisone shot, you can thank Sherlockian rheumatologist, Mayo clinician Dr. Philip Hench.

That collection came in 1974, and it included four copies of the very first time a Sherlock Holmes story appeared in print, in 1887, in the Beeton's Christmas Annual. There are only 34 known copies of that little magazine still in existence, and the Hench's has had four.

They also had four original manuscript leaves from, maybe, the most famous Sherlock tale, The Hound of the Baskervilles. And when people heard about the Hench collection, it was like the Sherlockian world kind of sat up and took notice, and well, what's going on in Minneapolis?

And one of the fellows who was very interested had the largest private collection. A fellow by the name of John Bennett Shaw. And in his retirement, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he had amassed, well, actually over the decades, an amazing collection, very different from the Hench collection-- if the Hench's collected the high points, John Bennett Shaw had the collecting mentality of a vacuum cleaner. It was like anything and everything that had to do with Sherlock Holmes, he would say, don't throw it away. Send it to me.

And it was the beer glasses and the restaurant menus and the jigsaw puzzles and the stuffed animals. And if it had any association at all with Sherlock Holmes, he collected it.

And by 1983, he had made a decision that Minnesota was going to be the home for his collection. So the Hench collection, the Shaw collection really put us over the top. And they created their own gravitational field, so they've continued to pull in other collections over the last five decades.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. So I'm curious. There's so much out there with this collection, obviously, and people are absolutely passionate about Sherlock Holmes. Those who love the works and all of that.

What about Sherlock and Watson, what about those two, that have captured imaginations over all these many years?

TIM JOHNSON: One of the things I like to think this is all about, it's a study in friendship. You go back to the original 60 stories, and then you add on top of that the writings about the writings. Sherlockians talk about those 60 as the canon. So in some ways, it's holy writ.

But people have added to it and commented on it, so you have parodies and pastiches that have been written. The first parodies were written almost as soon as the first Sherlock story appeared.

But yeah, people are fascinated with this friendship between an Afghan war veteran, medical surgeon, and this kind of very eccentric, maybe someplace on the spectrum, one-of-a-kind consulting detective.

And over the years, people have had a lot of fun with that pairing. And think, if you asked anyone who their favorite Sherlock was or their favorite Dr. Watson was, they would have an immediate answer, if they're a fan or an enthusiast.

And for me, part of the fun too, is how that universe, of Holmes and Watson, has expanded over the decades, going back from 1887 to newer people who are entering in and finding such joy with those partnerships, and playing around with that partnership in different ways, too.

So LGBTQ communities shipping the relationships between Holmes and Watson, or other fans putting it in the context of modern day New York or modern day London or even outer space.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. Now, a beloved former colleague of mine, who I adore-- Don Shelby, of WCCO-TV fame-- he was a Sherlockian-- is a Sherlockian.

TIM JOHNSON: Yes.

CATHY WURZER: Yes. And so, I'm hoping he has some kind of role-- knowing he probably does-- for this 50th anniversary of the collection?

TIM JOHNSON: He does, indeed.

CATHY WURZER: Good.

TIM JOHNSON: In fact, he's teamed up with well-known playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher. Jeffrey has written a new radio drama. And the Red-Throated League, which is a part of the Norwegian Explorers, is going to be performing Jeffrey's play on Sunday, as part of the conference, and Don has a starring role in the drama. So it's going to be a lot of fun to have Don--

CATHY WURZER: Good.

TIM JOHNSON: --performing.

CATHY WURZER: So I know you curated 50 items from the exhibit for this event, for the 50th anniversary. What are the biggest items in the exhibit?

TIM JOHNSON: Well, some of the things I picked are kind of old favorites. So I've got The Hound of the Baskervilles manuscript page, but I've also got a manuscript of a story he wrote for kids, who Conan Doyle wrote, called Billy Bones. It's kind of a Robert Louis Stevenson treasure adventure.

I've got a manuscript that Conan Doyle wrote, which is science fiction, called The Horror of the Heights, about early airplane flight and pilots being attacked.

And by the way, I hope none of our attendees is going to get attacked by CrowdStrike and Delta. We really hope everybody makes it to the conference.

But I also had fun in telling the story through the exhibit of newer things that have come into the collection. So we have an amazing little selection of greeting cards and postcards. One of our newest acquisitions, over 100 postcards and greeting cards related to Sherlock Holmes.

Now, don't have those all out, but those are some of the fun things that people will see in the exhibit, which runs past the conference. It'll be open until September 20, in Anderson Library on the West Bank campus.

CATHY WURZER: You sound like a kid in a candy store, really. Honestly, your voice--

TIM JOHNSON: I have too much fun, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: I know. I was going to say, obviously, you have a lot of fun at your job.

So what stokes the enthusiasm and the love for this?

TIM JOHNSON: Part of it is, as curator, not only of Sherlock, but all the main rare book collection and special collections, I get to play with 4,000 years worth of printed and written stuff, going from cuneiform tablets to papyri fragments to medieval manuscripts and up to things produced this last year.

But Holmes is-- in some ways, the Holmes people here, the Norwegian Explorers, got their hooks in me early and kind of kept pulling me in. And I was always a bit of a fan. I'd read the stories as a kid. I'd seen the Basil Rathbone movies. I loved Jeremy Britt when he was on PBS-- he is my Sherlock-- and everything that's come since then.

So it's just so much fun. And the people I have met. I mean, it's an amazing international community of Sherlockians. We enjoy each other's company so much, and that's going to be one of the really fun things about this conference is seeing people I haven't seen in a number of years, because of the pandemic.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. Well, I wish you well. I hope you enjoy. This is going to be a great celebration, this 50th anniversary celebration, this weekend.

Thank you, Tim, and have a wonderful time.

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TIM JOHNSON: Thank you, Cathy. It's going to be great.

CATHY WURZER: Tim Johnson is the EW McDermott Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota. Sounds like a ton of fun.