Adam, R. B. (Robert Borthwick), 1863-1940

Robert Borthwick Adam was a prominent manuscript collector. He was born in England in 1863 as Robert Borthwick Adam Scott, son of John Scott and Jean (Adam) Scott. In 1872, he was brought to Buffalo, N.Y, and adopted by his uncle, Robert Borthwick Adam (1833-1904), a prosperous department store owner. He assumed his uncle's name and eventually inherited the department store, as well as a substantial collection of British rare books and literary manuscripts, many of them relating to Samuel Johnson. Adam published a four-volume catalog of his private library. By his wife Lena Benjamin Stevens Adam, he had two daughters, Harriet (Adam) (Black) Servis, and Florence (Adam) Conrad; and one son, Robert Borthwick Adam III (1918-1993). Adam died in 1940, and his Johnson collection was sold by his children to Donald and Mary Hyde in 1948.