The Bob Gibson Collection of Speculative Fiction

The Bob Gibson Collection of Speculative Fiction consisting of approximately 28,000 hardcover and paperback books, pulp magazines and other materials reflect the collecting activities of the late Bob (William Robert) Gibson. It is a gift from his son Andrew Gibson. The collection of early science fiction and documents reflects society's changing attitudes toward science and provides an outstanding resource for the study of culture from the 18^th trough the 20^th century.  The collection is deemed to rank well with collections such as the Merril Collection at Toronto Public Library.

Mr. Gibson contributed unique items to the collection by creating personal anthologies of works published in periodicals and providing cover illustrations for these personally selected works. His documentation of works in his collection led him to create an index of individual articles and books. In some instances the Gibson index is more complete than later published indexes for a particular author.