Book traces

Hi, I'm Jessica, the Librarian here in Special Collections & Archives. As you may have guessed from my job title I Love (with a capital L) books. It isn't just the content of the books that I am interested in, but the physical books themselves and what they can tell us about the time during which they were created, who they were owned or read by, and how the written word was transmitted.

Variety is the spice of life

Hi, my name is Sue and I am a Library Associate in Special Collections & Archives. When I started here in November 2015 I knew there would be a lot of variety to my days, but I hadn’t anticipated just how much!

With our blog, we like to profile some of the interesting, curious or one of a kind items from our archival collections and rare books. We also want to show you what we do here day to day to help demystify the archives world.

Outlines of the theory and practice of midwifery, 1796

Alexander Hamilton (1739–1802) was a professor of midwifery at Edinburgh University. He was a successful practitioner and writer on midwifery, and contributed to the establishment of the Lying-in Hospital (later the Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital) in 1791. Today we look at his Outlines of the theory and practice of midwifery, from 1796.

Playboy Ultra, 1975

This week, while processing a new collection, we came across this lovely collection of new typefaces from 1975, From Letragraphica Some New Faces. Each typeface is shown, with an accompanying photograph on the facing page of a person presumably embodying its style.

Hi, I’m new here

My name is Danielle.  I started work as Digital Archivist with Special Collections & Archives on February 1st. Part of my role will be thinking through how to share digitized selections from our holdings online. It’s going to take some time, but the upside for you is being able to enjoy the results from the comfort of your home, couch, bed, wherever – it’s completely your call!

Make It Kitchener

One fine morning last November, a gentleman named Eric Rumble walked through our door, looking for pictures for an exhibit he was curating for the City of Kitchener, called Make It Kitchener. The exhibit featured modern images reflecting the city's economic development strategy coupled with similarly themed images from its past (that's where we came in.)

The Great Water Tower Caper

In 1958, 3 students at the then-called Waterloo College Associate Faculties (now the University of Waterloo) climbed the water tower on Lester Street, and painted the word BEER on the side of the tank.

History 250 class visit to Special Collections & Archives

Special Collections & Archives is committed to student success and we support faculties and departments in class or in library instruction using our collections.  One example of this recently took place when we welcomed Professor Ian Milligan’s class (HIST 250) from the department of history to Special Collections & Archives.  The class was divided into 2 groups; one group visited us while the second attended a session led by the library’s history librarian Jane Forgay, about research strategies, tools, and library services.

Fore-edge paintings

A fore-edge painting is one done on the edges of a book's pages, so that the painting is only visible when the pages of the book are fanned.

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