Robert Borthwick Adam


Robert Borthwick Adam was a retailer and book collector from Buffalo, New York. In 1867, Adam co-founded the department store Adam, Meldrum & Whiting. Adam's home at in Buffalo, built in 1876, still stands.

Biography

Adam was born in Peebles, Scotland, February 4, 1833, to the Rev. Thomas Adam and Isabella Borthwick. He left school at the age of 10 and went to work in Edinburgh, where he lived until 1857. In 1855 he married Grace Harriet Michie.
In 1857 Adam left Scotland for the United States. He first settled in Boston and in 1867 moved to Buffalo. In 1872, Adam adopted his nephew Robert Borthwick Adam Scott, who then took the name Robert Borthwick Adam. Among's Adam's philanthropic activities were a longstanding involvement with the Buffalo YMCA which he served as President from 1897 until his death on June 30, 1904.

As a collector

In the 1880s, Adam began collecting rare books and manuscripts related to English Literature, with a particular focus on Samuel Johnson. The collection passed to his son, who continued to add to it. In 1931, the scholar L.F. Powell called the collection "unrivalled and without a competitor."
The collection was purchased by Donald and Mary Hyde in 1948 and now forms part of the Hyde Collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University.