Recent acquisitions

Waffle Women in Politics: The Candidacy of Ellie Prepas in the 1972 Canadian Federal Election

As the City of Toronto heads into a mayoral race with three of the six leading candidates being women, let’s look back at a very different election landscape as the Clara Thomas Archives highlights the achievements of Professor Ellie Prepas during her time as a member of the Waffle movement within the New Democratic Party [...]

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The Victoria Psalter and Baskerville's Milton-January 2023 Highlights

Jones, Owen. The Psalms of David. London [Day & Son], 1861.
This book of the Psalms of David by architect and designer Owen Jones, also called the Victoria Psalter because its dedication to Queen Victoria was accepted, is one of the most ornate examples of Victorian bookbinding and chromolithography. With its design, illumination, and binding Jones wished [...]

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Music, Miniatures, and Costume Books-December 2022 Highlights

Foster, Myles Birket and Kate Greenaway. A Day in a Child's Life. London: George Routledge and Sons, Broadway, Ludgate Hill, 1881.
Kate Greenaway and her illustrations of children in historical dress, plain backgrounds, flowers, and coloured borders have been featured on this blog before. Her association with printer Edmund Evans and publisher George Routledge was also established [...]

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Edges, Elephants, and Ads - September 2022 Highlights

Moule, Joseph, Andrew Crichton, James Duncan, and Robert Hamilton. Lives of Eminent Naturalists: with Engraved Portraits Accompanying Each. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars, 3 St. James' Square, 1840.
This book contains a series of essays about naturalists Hans Sloane, Pliny the Elder, Abraham Gottlob Werner, Peter Camper, John Hunter, and Maria Sibilla Merian. However, like so many of these [...]

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Kate Greenaway, Aquatints, and Dominion Glass - August 2022 Highlights

Greenaway, Kate. Almanack for 1883. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1883.
This almanac is the work of Kate Greenaway, an English artist part of the Aesthetic Movement which focused on the beauty of art and championed the idea of "art of art's sake." At this point in her career Greenaway was working with printer Edmund Evans, who [...]

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Drill, Volvelles, and Plate marks - June/July 2022 Highlights

Coffin, N. A System of Drill, for the Militia, of Upper-Canada. York: Printed by Robert Stanton, 1830.
Published before Confederation, and even before the incorporation of Toronto in 1834, this short work outlines instructions for equipment and movement drills, and battalion and platoon exercises. These exercises were important in a time when precise movements were needed on the [...]

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