Alexander Crawford Lamb | |
|---|---|
 From John Maclauchlan, A Brief Guide to the "Old Dundee" Historical Collection, facing p.16. | |
| Born | 21 February 1843 Dundee, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 29 April 1897 (aged 54) London, UK |
| Pen name | A.C. Lamb |
| Occupation | Writer, Art collector, Antiquarian, Hotelier |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Genre | Non-fiction, collections |
| Spouse | Mary Ann Worrall |
| Children | two sons and four daughters |
Alexander Crawford Lamb (21 February 1843 – 29 April 1897) was a Scottish hotelier, art collector, antiquarian and writer. He amassed a considerable collection of paintings, literary works, china, furniture antiquities and other ephemera and memorabilia. His most notable literary achievement was the publication of a massive volume entitled Dundee: its Quaint and Historic Buildings (1895).
A. C. Lamb was born in Dundee on 21 February 1843. He was the son of Thomas Lamb, who founded Lamb's Temperance Hotel in Murraygate, Dundee in 1828, and of Jessie Crawford. Lamb was educated at the High School of Dundee before being apprenticed to the baking and confectionery trade. After completing his apprenticeship he went to Liverpool, Manchester, and to Edinburgh to gain experience in hotel management. In 1867, Lamb was given charge of a temperance hotel established at 64 Reform Street,[1] (the building was recently headquarters of the Alliance Trust). Soon after, the Murraygate hotel was sold off, and he took over the family business when his father died in 1869. On 3 July 1872, he married Mary Ann Worrall (1851–1937) in Dundee and they had two sons and four daughters. They were Mary (b. 1873), Jessie (b. 1879), Helen Kidd (b. 1881), Thomas Crawford (b. 1883), Maggie Robertson (b. 1885) and George Buxton (b. 1887).[2] In 1878, Lamb was made a member of the Society of Antiquaries. He was also a member of the Fine Art Committee in Dundee, of the Graphic Arts Association (now the Dundee Art Society) of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, and other societies.[3] He died in London on 29 April 1897.
Lamb's hotel business was very successful and presumably provided the financial means whereby he amassed the immense Lamb Collection which "now forms one of the largest and most varied collections of local history material in Scotland".[4] On his death the collection was acquired by Edward Cox and donated to the City of Dundee. The artefacts are now in the City Museum and over 450 boxes of written and printed material are available and catalogued at the Local History Centre in Dundee Central Library, Wellgate, Dundee. His library included quarto and folio works of Shakespeare, and first editions of Burns, Scott, Dickens and Ruskin. In particular, he collected items pertaining to the history of Dundee. "Views of old buildings, examples of early and recent typography, consecutive specimens of Dundee journalism, coins, medals, and tokens, and relics of almost every conceivable kind which illustrated the evolution of the city's trade and commerce, were obtained, carefully stored, and zealously guarded."[5] This collection formed the basis of exhibitions in 1892–93 and 1896, the catalogues of which are mentioned below.
This book contains large and impressive lithographs of around fifty quaint buildings, streets and closes demolished in the 1870s onwards, together with authoritative historical descriptions of them. Their locations are pinpointed on an 18th-century map of the city also included. Queen Victoria was presented with a particularly lavish copy of the book (it is perhaps the copy now available in the British Library). It was reviewed in The Spectator of 19 October 1895: "Mr Lamb deserves high praise for his painstaking and interesting work, which must have cost many years of self-denying labour. It is too large and costly to pass into the hands of the general public, though a judicious selection might easily be made for their use; but many in Dundee can well afford to purchase it, and they ought not to miss the opportunity of possessing themselves of a splendid memorial of their ancient city.... A word of praise must be given to the illustrations which adorn Mr Lamb's sumptuous volume."
