Celebrating our 2 Millionth Volume

The Library's millionth book, an early edition of Samuel Johnston's Dictionary, was added to the collection approximately 25 years ago, almost 100 years after McMaster's founding. Since our millionth book reflected McMaster's strengths in humanities, we thought it appropriate that our 2 millionth volume reflect McMaster's strengths in science and engineering. With the assistance of Dr. Ahmed Ghobarah, Professor of Civil Engineering, and at that time, Chair of the Science and Engineering Library Users Committee, and Roger Gaskell, a book seller specializing in early science and technology, we selected a copy of Newton's Opticks offered for sale by the Bancroft Rare Book Library at the University of California, which already had a copy in its collection.

The purchase of this copy of Newton's Opticks was made possible through a generous bequest to McMaster University Library from the estates of Doris and Roy Roper. We are grateful to the Ropers for their generous gift, which will allow the purchase of many other books for future generations of McMaster scholars.