©2006. State University of New York at Buffalo. All rights reserved.

Collection Overview

Processing Information

Encoded by: Jessica Tanny and Amy Vilz, December 2005

Processed by: Archives staff, c. 1966

Finding aid updated by: Jessica Tanny, July 2005

Terms of Access and Use

The James Nichol Johnston Papers, c.1850-1917 are open for research.

Copyright

Copyright is held by the State University of New York at Buffalo, University Archives. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Preferred Citation

[Description and dates], Box/folder number, MS 19, James Nichol Johnston Papers, c.1850-1917, University Archives, State University of New York at Buffalo.

See the Archives' preferred citations instructions for additional information.

Acquisition Information

Collection was donated by Mrs. F.J. Batson (née Margaret Kittinger), grandniece of James Nichol Johnston, September 27, 1966.

Biographical Note

James Nichol Johnston was born in Donegal, Ireland in 1832, the son of Gerald and Jane Nichol Johnston. The family moved from Ireland to Canada in 1847 and settled in Buffalo, NY in 1848. As a young man, he became an agent at the iron-works company of Pratt & Letchworth and became a lifelong personal friend of William Pryor Letchworth. Letchworth introduced Johnston to the prolific literary culture of the Buffalo and Western New York areas. In 1858, Johnston and Letchworth were both members of the Nameless Club, a literary discussion group with members of "peculiar and varied talent.¹"

Throughout his life, Johnston was very interested in poetry and verse. He spent several years hunting through newspaper clippings of The Buffalo Courier and The Buffalo Sunday Express collecting the "published and unpublished songs of Buffalo men and women.²" In 1904 he published the anthology, The Poets and Poetry of Buffalo in order to bring the writings of local poets into one representative book. "I have watched," he writes in the preface to the anthology, "the flowering of this native verse with a very warm interest from the early years of my life in Buffalo, when I began acquaintances with men and women in the older circles of those to whom poetry is a delight.³" Four years later, he published a slim volume of his own poetry, Donegal Memories.

Johnston's life and work was centered around friends and poetry. At his death, friends and family called him "devoted.. He had a ready wit; he was an unusually interested and well-informed conversationalist. His time was always at the command of a friend for all the services he could perform.⁴" Johnston died in Buffalo on February 14, 1918.

Scope and Content Note

Scrapbooks of Jane Nichol Johnston, contains poems, essays and items of local interest from Buffalo newspapers, c.1850-1880; scrapbooks of James Nichol Johnston, c.1902-1917; photographs of Western New York people and places; volumes of poetry by Buffalo authors, c.1860-1915.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in four series: Series I. Scrapbooks, Series II. Photograph albums, Series III. Photographs, Series IV. Printed writings.

Container List

Search Terms

Separated Materials

University of Buffalo Campaign Committee, The Spirit of New Buffalo, 1920 was removed to the University Archives collections.