[1] Raymond Clare Archibald was born in South Branch, Stewiacke, Nova Scotia on 7 October 1875.

At his death the library contained 23,000 volumes, 2,700 records, and 70,000 songs in American and English poetry and drama.

At the presentation of his portrait to Brown University the head of the mathematics department, Professor Clarence Raymond Adams said of him: "The instincts of the bibliophile were also his from early years.

Possessing a passion for accurate detail, systematic by nature and blessed with a memory that was the marvel of his friends, he gradually acquired a knowledge of mathematical books and their values which has scarcely been equalled.

From modest beginnings he has developed this essential equipment of the mathematical investigator to a point where it has no superior, in completeness and in convenience for the user."