Dr F. S. Ferguson

Dr. Frederic Sutherland Ferguson (1878-1967) joined the firm of Bernard Quaritch at the age of eighteen in 1897. He was a major contributor to Pollard and Redgrave's "A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640" (the STC), and was himself joint editor of a later edition. He also compiled "Title-Page Borders used in England & Scotland 1435-1640" (1932, with R. B. McKerrow), etc.

From 1928 to 1943 he was managing director of Quaritch, retiring in 1947 to work in the British Museum on a comprehensive catalogue of early English books. He left his working materials to the British Museum and a collection of Scottish books to the Bodleian Library, while in 1954 he had presented a collection of early Scottish books to the National Library of Scotland. Other segments of his library are now at the John Rylands Library and the University of Illinois.

He served as president of the ABA in 1934, president of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Sociey 1935-1936, and as president of the Bibliographical Society in 1948-1950, receiving the Society's Gold Medal in 1951.