John MacKay Shaw
John MacKay Shaw was born in 1897 in Glasgow, Scotland. He immigrated to the United States at a young age, where he enrolled into the army in 1917. He returned to the United States in 1917 after a brief trip to Scotland. He then found work as a public relations executive with the Bell Telephone System until he retired in 1959.
During that time, he began a family. Shaw read poems regularly to his children, until they asked for poems about themselves. Shaw began writing his own poetry about his children. This sparked a hunt to find poetry written by other loving fathers about their children. His collection grew to over 6,000 volumes, which he donated to Florida State University in 1959.
This collection highlights a small sample of books he had collected and poetry he had written. It highlights his relationship with his family as well as the influence he had over prominent authors such as Dr. Seuss and Phyllis McGinley. His passion became a valuable collection of memories and stories.