Canada and Sherlock Holmes
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 connections is the Toronto Public Library's Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, one of the world's largest library collections devoted to Sherlock Holmes and his creator. The collection is broad and international in scope, but particularly comprehensive when it comes to Canadian content.
In the Arthur Conan Doyle Room you can find Holmes-inspired stories by great Canadian writers.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection also maintains an archive of newsletters by Canadian Sherlock Holmes societies such as Canadian Holmes, published since 1973 by Toronto's own society, the Bootmakers of Toronto. There's also The Petrel Flyer from the Stormy Petrels of British Columbia; Buffalo Chips: the official newsletter of The Great Herd of Bisons of the Fertile Plains from Manitoba; and Minutes of the meeting of the Bimetallic Question from Quebec. For more of a focus on Arthur Conan Doyle, have a look at The Magic Door, a newsletter published by the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection.
Speaking of Arthur Conan Doyle, have you seen his travel photos from Canada in our Digital Archive?
You can even peruse the notebooks Arthur Conan Doyle kept during his journeys to Canada.
There are plenty of good, Canadian reasons to visit the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection in the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre at the Toronto Reference Library, and if you visit between August 19 and October 22, you can also view the Pop Sherlock exhibit in the Toronto Reference Library's main floor TD Gallery.
6 thoughts on “Canada and Sherlock Holmes”
Thank you, Peggy, for such an interesting blog about Canada and Sherlock Holmes. How fascinating that Arthur Conan Doyle visited Canada, and kept notebooks (of course!). I have been to the excellent Pop Sherlock exhibition and discovered that Sherlock Holmes had an older brother named Mycroft!
Thank you, Peggy, for such an interesting blog about Canada and Sherlock Holmes. How fascinating that Arthur Conan Doyle visited Canada, and kept notebooks (of course!). I have been to the excellent Pop Sherlock exhibition and discovered that Sherlock Holmes had an older brother named Mycroft!
Thank you, Peggy, for such an interesting blog about Canada and Sherlock Holmes. How fascinating that Arthur Conan Doyle visited Canada, and kept notebooks (of course!). I have been to the excellent Pop Sherlock exhibition and discovered that Sherlock Holmes had an older brother named Mycroft!
Excellent blog, Peggy. Brings back good memories of my visit to Toronto and the Conan Doyle room.
Excellent blog, Peggy. Brings back good memories of my visit to Toronto and the Conan Doyle room.
Excellent blog, Peggy. Brings back good memories of my visit to Toronto and the Conan Doyle room.