The collection of shorthand books was formed by John Mabon Warden of Edinburgh (1856-1933). Warden was an actuary for the Scottish Equitable Insurance Company. He started work at the company in 1874 as a junior clerk and gradually worked his way up to secretary of the Company, retiring in 1926. He had a wide range of private interests, such as mathematical problems, genealogy, Esperanto (becoming a leading scholar of the language) and stenography.

He built up a comprehensive collection of shorthand manuals from the 16th to the 20th century, mainly in English, but with some works in foreign languages, together with works of literature, sermons, reports of trials, etc. reproduced in shorthand.