Note: This article includes historical materials from the collections of Toronto Public Library. Who tells the story, and how the story is told creates tensions when trying to present content written by settlers about Indigenous people. These materials can reflect offensive historic attitudes, and in some cases, were created by individuals directly involved in acts […]
Toronto Public Library's Digital Archive is a great way to explore books from the past. In previous posts, I looked at Canada's first cookbook and a 19th-century book on learning how to draw. For Remembrance Day, I decided to move forward in time to the First World War. I found this book: Knitting Instructions for […]
Have you ever wanted to learn to draw? Before you answer with "I can't even draw a straight line," let me assure you that drawing is a skill that anyone can learn. Portion of a frontispiece from A Catechism of Drawing (1818). The two things needed to learn to draw are time and instruction. You […]
Illustrations from The Cook Not Mad (1972 edition). Now that we're staying home due to COVID-19, I've seen many people baking bread and experimenting with their pantries. This modern pandemic seems to have brought us back to earlier times. In this spirit, I thought it'd be interesting to test a recipe from an early cookbook. […]
Anyone who has explored Toronto Island beyond Centre Island's roller coasters and picnic facilities is likely to have been surprised and charmed by the residential areas on Wards and Algonquin Island. The history of the Island is the subject of a new documentary that covers everything from its geological origins until the successful conclusion in […]
With the shelves of every branch stocked with books to fuel a desire for learning and self-improvement, the library is your go-to location for New Year's resolutions. In addition to the things you can check out at a branch or online, you can find inspiration for the new year in the rare and vintage materials […]
Just in time for Canada 150, London fog meets maple leaf in Canada and Sherlock Holmes, a new publication by the Baker Street Irregulars. Edited by Ontarian Peter Calamai and Nova Scotian Mark Alberstat, this is an impressive collection of essays by Canadian writers and articles about Canadian connections to Sherlock Holmes. One of these […]
Hieroglyphics [‘Ancient Worlds and their Stories: Wielders of Wonders’.] created by TPL librarian Steven Shubert Toronto Public Library’s Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books presents a new exhibit Ancient Worlds and their Stories: Wielders of Wonders at the Lillian H. Smith branch. The exhibit showcases how ancient civilizations and their wonders have been represented in children’s […]
“Houses of ill-fame in Toronto? Certainly not. The whole city is an immense house of ill-fame….” ̶ C.S. Clark, Of Toronto the Good: A Social Study: The Queen City of Canada as it is, 1898 Join us at the Toronto Reference Library on Monday, March 6 for a free lecture on the history of one Toronto's […]
Ever wonder where the nickname "Toronto the Good" comes from? Opening this Saturday, February 11, our new exhibit Vice & Virtue takes a look back at the moral reformers and the moral panics that shaped Toronto's reputation as a strait-laced city in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Admission is free. The exhibit is on display in Toronto […]