Joseph N. Nathanson (1895 - 1989) Joseph Nathanson was born in New York City on April 24, 1895, the son of Benjamin Nathanson and Fanny Bach. His father died when he was an infant, and left the family in such dire straits that his widow had to rely on the New York Jewish Community to inter him according to the prescribed rites. His mother remarried a rabbi from Ottawa, Ontario. Her situation was so desperate that she could only afford to bring her infant son Joseph with her to her Ottawa home, leaving his siblings to be "adopted" by members of the family. In his early teens, Joseph was determined to become a physician and to earn his tuition, he translated documents for immigrants newly arrived in Ottawa from Eastern Europe. In time, he accumulated some $600 - enough to get him to attend his chosen medical school - McGill University. Dr. Joe's story is the epitome of the American dream - literally - from rags to riches . He recounts his days as a student at McGill - so destitute, that had it not been for the kindness of a Baptist minister turned professor, who invited him to his home every weekend for at least two solid meals, he would have starved to death. He used to recount staring at those eating beans in Child's Restaurant, and hoping that he too, one day, would be able to be like them. He also received help from the employees of the Telegraph Office on the corner of Peel and Ste-Catherine who saved for him their used blue blotters so he could use them for his shoes to keep out the snow and cold. What a difference his education and hard work meant! After graduating from McGill, he returned to Ottawa where he married Harriet Dover. He practiced medicine there for four years after which he moved to New York City where he became an obstetrician and gynaecologist as well as a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Cornell University Medical School. In time, he established himself on New York's Park Avenue as a renowned physician . He had two children - a son Bernard, and a daughter, Marion. It was in his role as father that Dr. Joe first became aware of Abraham Lincoln. "Daddy," Marion said one day, "I have to write an essay on Abraham Lincoln. Can you help me?" Unperturbed by her father's solution that she use the school library collection, she opted for papa's insights. Unfamiliar with Abraham Lincoln's life story, Dr. Joe went to his favourite bookstore, and purchased Abe Lincoln Grows Up by Carl Sandburg. Inside the cover of this monograph he recounts "The first Lincoln item which I purchased in 1937, and started me on the road to become a collector of Lincolniana, and a student and great admirer of the beloved martyred Abraham Lincoln. I purchased this volume in order to assist my darling daughter, Marion Enid Nathanson with writing a composition on Abraham Lincoln. She was then a little girl, charming, vivacious and with beautiful blue eyes, seven and one-half years of age." What followed was an unrelenting quest to acquire monographs, pamphlets, memorabilia, sculptures and prints, which lasted for the rest of his life. Dr. Joe lived a long and successful life. In December 1986, after a series of negotiations with McGill, some as far back as the 1950s, he chose to donate his collection to McGill's Library, for as Dr. Nathanson once noted, he considered McGill to have moulded not only his career, but his character as well. It was, he was heard to say, the most significant institution in his life - and he owed it. Project Curator: Dr. Kathleen Toomey, History Bibliographer Humanities and Social Sciences