Quebec

The collection was given to the library in 1946 by the Montreal book collector Norman H. Friedman. The some 150 volumes in the collection include first and early edition of Stevenson's works and books about Stevenson. Records for the holdings are in the McGill Library on-line catalogue.

This collection was formed by the Canadian puppeteer Rosalynde Osborne Stearn to be a comprehensive library on the puppet theatre with representative examples of puppets characteristic of different periods and countries. The collection was given to the library in 1953. It includes some 2714 books and periodicals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the puppet theatre in various European languages as well as scripts for puppet plays. There are puppets (171) from Europe, Asia (including shadow puppets), and the Americas, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

The Norman Friedman collection of the Polish Jewish artist Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was acquired in 1976. The collection comprises 55 titles including the Haggadah (1939, one of 125 copies) and a presentation copy in wrappers of Le juif qui rit (1926); 13 drawings and six boxes of illustrations, ephemera and various other material relating to Szyk.

The original part of the Lande Canadiana Collection, named after its benefactor, Dr. Lawrence Lande, was acquired in 1965, and comprised some 2300 items. To this original donation several additions were made between 1965 and 1975, both by gift and purchase. The Lande Collection now consists of some 12,000 items, including pamphlets, maps, prints (among them over fifty early views of Montreal), periodicals, government documents and broadsides, as well as books.

The nucleus of the collection was given to the library in 1946 by the Montreal book collector Norman H. Friedman. To this was added the library's holdings of Kipling and subsequent purchases. The collection of some 1541 items includes first, early, variant and collected editions of Kipling's works. As well, single issues of periodicals containing articles and stories by Kipling are in the collection.

The identity of the eighteenth-century polemicist who was responsible for the series of letters to the London Public Advertiser, from 21 January 1769 to 21 January 1772 has long been a subject of debate and speculation. These letters were republished in 1772 as the Letters of Junius. The letters themselves remain after more than two hundred years a most startling example of political polemic and invective. The main part of the Junius collection was acquired in 1999; it had once been in the collection of the Mercantile Library Company of Philadelphia.

The D.H. Lawrence collection, some sixty titles, is particularly rich in first, early and variant editions. There is also early criticism.

The collection was purchased in 1970 from the collector Thomas Judson Jackson of Carbondale, Illinois. It includes early and variant editions of Malcolm Lowry's published works and translations of Under the Volcano. As well, there are books and periodicals containing contributions by Lowry; books by his wife and books and periodicals mentioning him or containing reviews and criticism. There is correspondence between the Canadian poet Earle Birney and Thomas J. Jackson concerning the preparation of a bibliography (unpublished) of Lowry's work (1966-1970).

Dr. Casey Albert Wood, a McGill graduate, had a very successful career in the United States as an ophthalmologist. His interest in the differences in the eyes of birds and humans eventually led to a broader interest in ornithology and it was he who in 1920 founded the Blacker-Wood Collection as an ornithology library with a supporting collection in vertebrate zoology. The focus of the library gradually came to incorporate all aspects of zoology except entomology.

amber [dot] lannon [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Amber Lannon) 514-398-1027

Head Librarian

tatiana [dot] bedjanian [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Tatiana Bedjanian) 514-398-7383

Liaison Librarian

robin [dot] canuel [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Robin Canuel) 514-398-4698

Liaison Librarian

susan [dot] czarnocki [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Susan Czarnocki) 514-398-1429

Electronic Data Resource Service (EDRS)

eamon [dot] duffy [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Eamon Duffy) 514-398-4697

Government Information Service

The Canadiana Pamphlet collection was begun in the 1960s and now comprises some 8,000 items dealing with all aspects of Canadian life: politics, social life, religion, business etc. Approximately 5% of the material is pre-Confederation; as well, there is much French language material.

Sources for Background Information

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias