Baldwin Room manuscripts: from Abbott, Anderson Ruffin to Zieman, Margaret (Kirkland)
The Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, located in the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Special Collections Centre on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library, includes a manuscript collection with over 1500 entries consisting of historical letters, diaries, plans, notebooks, speeches and other unpublished items detailing the private lives of Canadian individuals and organizations from the 18th century to the present day.
The origin of the collection dates back to 1886, when Toronto's first Chief Librarian, Dr. James Bain, bought an account of the Seven Years' War in America written by an anonymous officer and established the collection with the aim of preserving Canadian history and making it accessible to the public.
We're pleased to announce that there is now an online inventory of the library's manuscript collection available to be browsed from anywhere with an internet connection. The inventory is organized alphabetically, with columns listing the name or title of the main entries, the date(s) of creation and/or publication, a brief summary of the contents and its location in our stacks. If the item is listed in our 1954 Guide To The Manuscript Collection in the Toronto Public Libraries, clicking on the "Y" in that column will take you to the appropriate page in the eBook version of the Guide available on the TPL website. Lastly, some manuscripts have more detailed print finding aids available in the Special Collections Centre; those are marked with a "Y" under the "Detailed Inventory Available?" column. Presently, none of them are available online but may be added in the future.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the manuscript collection, contact the Special Collections department by email at trlspc@torontopubliclibrary.ca or by phone at (416) 393-7156.
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