Treatment of Magnolia Warblers drawing by William Pope. In 1917, Toronto Public Library acquired 226 drawings of birds and mammals by William Pope (1811–1902). Pope lived much of his life in what is now Ontario. He was Canada’s first artist-naturalist of European background. Learn more in our post about Pope. These beautiful watercolour and ink […]
One must-see item in TD Gallery’s new exhibit, Alice Opens the Door, depicts 40 scenes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. This amazing poster came to the Toronto Public Library’s conservation lab brittle, torn and in pieces. Learn about the intensive conservation treatment that strengthened the poster and reunited its pieces.
Aaniin My Indigenous learning journey was recently accelerated when I stepped into the role of the TD Gallery Curator just before the installation of the current Indigenous-themed exhibit Pathways: Following traces of Indigenous routes across Ontario. As someone with an interest in history, and as a Canadian, I am ashamed to say that I knew […]
Photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org The remains of the HMS Terror have been found in the waters of a Nunavut bay, according to reports by various news sources. This tremendous discovery marks an important moment in Canada's history, and solves a mystery that has been 168 years in the making. On May 19, 1845 Sir John Franklin […]
This is our closing piece on the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Parapan Am Games. To highlight our sports collection at the Toronto Reference Library, we looked at athletic facilities, various aspects of sport, special materials collected on the Pan American Games and, last but not least, we’ll look at competitive sports and the disabled. Sport […]
One of the more unusual collections in the Humanities & Social Sciences Department at the Toronto Reference Library is the Municipal Election Campaign Literature Collection. This primary source collection of pamphlets, flyers, and door hangers put out by candidates running for mayor, alderman (now known as councillor) or school trustee have been collected and preserved […]