History of the Book

There is a great variety of material—Canadian, English and European—in the collection documenting the history of the book. In addition to a number of single items and small collections including a copy of the will of Thomas Bewick's daughter Isabella (1883), a letter of Jean Baptiste Bodoni (1792), a letter of Fleury Mesplet (1789), and two letters of Brown and Gilmour (1768), there are a number of large archival collections. Of particular interest are the papers of the English book designer Christopher Sandford (c. 1926-1960) and the closely related collection of Golden Cockerel Press papers (1937-1955). The papers of Robert Russell Reid document the work of this Canadian typographer for the period 1945-1973. There is a small body of material documenting the career of Thoreau MacDonald as a book illustrator. As well, the collection holds the business papers of the Montreal bookseller William P. Wolfe (ca 1960-1980). There are a number of drawings and some textual material of the Canadian-born children's author and book illustrator Palmer Cox (1840-1924). Cox was the author of the famous Brownie books.