ReSToRe THe pRoMISe

Restoring the Historic First Library of the College of Charleston

MacKenzIe lIbRaRy pRojecT

One of the most remarkable men and one of the most

remarkable libraries in colonial Carolina are at the center of this intellectual mystery. Though forgotten today, John Mackenzie of Charles Towne was one of the pre Revolutionary era’s most outspoken champions. Mackenzie boldly called on all levels of society to stand up to Great Britain’s Townsend Acts, taxing the colonies without representation.

A native of Charleston and educated at Cambridge, he was admitted to the Bar in 1759, became a planter and served in the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly. He was a hero to the “person in the street” for extending the right to vote as liberally as it ever was in this time. His death in 1771 prompted one poet to lament: “All social virtues fired his honest breast, but Public Love shone brighter than the rest.”

DISCOVERIngMACKEnZIE’S

LEgACY

More than

800 books,

actually.

*All illustrations found in volumes from the Mackenzie Library.

It was his private library that showed his public love best.

John Mackenzie, a Goose Creek planter and Charles Towne

diplomat, donated his vast library to the Charleston Library Society until the laws debated for the creation of a college were passed. He buttressed his gift with a thousand pound contribution toward building and endowing the College. War broke out in 1776, and a fire consumed Charleston in 1778, burning nearly all the contents of the Library

Society; seventy-seven titles of Mackenzie’s library survived – scorched, yet intact – with the elegant gold stamp of his name a reminder of the man who wanted to endow the world with political liberty and freedom of thought. Now, the Friends of the Library plan to reassemble a lost treasure that was destined to establish the College’s library in the first place.

Rebuilding Mackenzie’s libRaRy

In 1771, before it received its charter, the College of Charleston received its first donated book.

A year after Mackenzie’s death, a list of the more

than 800 volumes and 413 titles in his library was published. The place and publication date of each volume is listed, allowing us the opportunity to find the same editions that were destined for us. The books range from poetry to prints, politics and planting, and span the globe and centuries: published between 1633 and 1769, from Boston to Berlin, from Eton to

Edinburgh and in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. If they had survived the fire, they would have offered the College’s first students extraordinary access to the classics, sciences, and summaries of human achievements up to the 1770s. By the time of his death, his collection of books comprised the second most valuable library in the colony, according to South Carolina historian Walter Edgar.

a HISToRIc

collecTIon

“The books range from poetry to prints, politics and planting, and span the globe and centuries...”

m Unknown. The Builder’s Dictionary, 1734

m Burke, Edmund. Account of Settlements in America, 1758

m Butler, Samuel. The Genuine Remains in verse and prose of Samuel Butler, 1759

m Chaucer. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1721

m Dickson, Adam. Treatise of Agriculture,

1762

m Huxham, John, M.D. An Essay on Fevers, 1757

m Sheridan, Thomas and Swift, Jonathan. The Intelligencer, 1729

m Le Blanc, Jean-Bernard. Letters on the English and French Nations, 1747

m Mackenzie, James. The History of Health and the Art of Preserving It, 1759

m Swift, Jonathan. The History of Last Four Years of the Queen, 1758

m Voltaire. The Philosophy of History, 1766

m Webb, Daniel. An Inquiry into Beauties of Painting, 1760

SelecT woRKS FoR acQuISITIon

For the complete list please visitblogs.cofc.edu/fol/mackenzie

Today, the Addlestone Library is Charleston’s most impressive

academic research center; and now steps are being taken to fulfill the wishes of one of its most distinguished founders. Through a combination of acquisition and restoration, the Friends of the Library plan to rebuild the Mackenzie Library, opening a remarkable door into time and providing a glimpse into the mind and mindset of a great collector.

ToDay’S pRojecT

...the Friends of the Library

plan to rebuild the Mackenzie

Library, opening a

remarkable door into time...

How you can Help SpecIFIc acQuISITIon SuppoRTSponsor the acquisition of a title that is special to you. View the Mackenzie Library Project wish list: blogs.cofc.edu/fol/mackenzie.

GeneRal acQuISITIonS SuppoRTSupport the project and allow the library staff to acquire titles in furtherance of the acquisition strategy of the Mackenzie Library Project.

conSeRVaTIon SuppoRTSponsor an original Mackenzie volume currently on hand but in desperate need of conservation and restoration.

GIFTS-In-KInDContribute a book on the wish list in-kind. Tax-deductible contributions to the College of Charleston Foundation through in-kind gifts are possible.

SUPPORT THE

MacKenzIe lIbRaRy pRojecT Please contact Jenny Fowler: fowlerj@cofc.edu

or 843.953.6620 or visit blogs.cofc.edu/fol/mackenzie.

*All illustrations found in volumes from the Mackenzie Library.