Honourary Degrees - Presentation - William K. Lamb
- A-3648
- Item
- 1956
F.H. Auld, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Dr. William K. Lamb, archivist and librarian, Ottawa, at Convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium.
Bio/Historical Note: Born in 1904 in New Westminster, British Columbia, William Kaye Lamb received his BA in 1927 and MA in 1930 from the University of British Columbia. He completed his PhD at the London School of Economics in 1933, under the tutelage of Harold Laski. From 1936-1937 he was President of the British Columbia Historical Federation. From 1934-1940 Lamb was the Provincial Archivist and Librarian of British Columbia. In 1936, he was also appointed Superintendent of the BC Public Libraries Commission. From 1940-1948 he was the University Librarian of the University of British Columbia. From 1948-1968 he was the Dominion Archivist of Canada, and from 1953-1968 he was the first National Librarian of Canada. In 1949, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was its president from 1965-1966. In 1969, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Between 1964-1965 he served as president of the Society of American Archivists. Lamb specialized in the early history of British Columbia. He edited and wrote a number of scholarly books relating to explorers of Western Canada, including George Vancouver, Daniel Williams Harmon, and Sir Alexander MacKenzie, as well as a volume on the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Lamb died in 1987.