Open Collections

[Bookplate for Lesslie M. Sweetnam by F. F. H.]

[between 1870 and 1899]

1 bookplate : relief printing ; 8.2 x 7.6 cm

Canada

Prints

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Owner was Dr. Lesslie M. Sweetnam (August 1, 1859-December 11, 1901). Born in Kingston, Ontario, Sweetnam was educated at Upper Canada College and completed his medical degree at Toronto University in 1881. Specializing in 'the diseases of women,' he was professor of clinical surgery at Toronto University and surgeon at Toronto General and St. Michael's hospitals. Sweetnam's residence in Toronto, 'Bensfort,' located on the northeast corner of Church and Shuter streets, was pictured in 'Toronto, Old and New' (1891), a memorial volume marking the hundredth anniversary of the passing of the constitutional act of 1791. In 1901 at the age of 42, Sweetnam contracted septicemia or blood poisoning after operating on a man with gangrene. He died some nine or ten days later at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where he had gone for treatment. Sweetnam's obituary in the Journal of the American Medical Association called him 'one of Toronto's foremost surgeons.' Although the ex libris appears in 'A List of Canadian Bookplates, with a Review of the History of Ex Libris in the Dominion,' the owner's name is incorrectly spelled as 'Sweetman.' A copy of this ex libris is also available in the Philippe Masson Ex Libris Collection at McGill University, also under the misspelled name of 'Lesslie M. Sweetman M.D.'
References:
1) Medical News. (1901). JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, XXXVII (25), 1684-1689. doi:10.1001/jama.1901.02470510040010 Adam, G. M., & Scadding, H. (1891). Toronto, old and new: a memorial volume, historical, descriptive and pictorial, designed to mark the hundredth anniversary of the passing of the constitutional act of 1791, which set apart the province of Upper Canada and gave birth to York (now Toronto): to which is added a narrative of the rise and progress of the professions, and of the growth and development of the city's industries and commerce, with some sketches of the men who have made or are making the provincial capital. Mail Printing Company, Toronto, Ontario
2) The Philippe Masson Ex Libris Collection at McGill University, from http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/bookplates/

RBSC Bookplates

2012

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