Discover something new with Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) events. Each one brings extraordinary collections to life through innovative, accessible programming. Our events - whether lectures, exhibitions, or interactive experiences - connect audiences with active research and the treasures of our libraries. Join us for dynamic in-person and virtual opportunities to explore, engage, and be inspired.
Watch past events on YouTube and explore the full list by clicking on the year below. You can watch recordings by clicking into the event title, and the recording will be linked from the event page.
2025
- Event: On the Other Side of the Poem: The Joe Fishstein Collection of Yiddish Poetry with Claire Sigal, 19 February 2025.
- Event: Old Books and New Research: Uncovering the Forgotten Works of Mary Hinckley to Answer New Ecological Questions with Dr. Jessica Ford (Biology, Dawson College), 25 February 2025.
- Event: Defying Time and Season: A Panel Conversation on the Life and Work of Dr. Barbara Althea Jones with research panel Dr. Miranda Hickman (Department of English and Director of Poetry Matters Initiative, McGill University), Avryl Bender (U3, McGill University), Jayda Smith (U2, McGill University), Dr. Nalini Mohabir (Geography, Concordia University) and Dr. Alison Donnell (Humanities, University of Bristol). Readings by Shanice Yarde (poet, educator, and associate director of Anti-Racism and Equity Education, McGill University), 4 March 2025.
- Event: It’s Alive!: Using Rare Books and Special Collections to Teach History with Eddie Paul (Jewish Public Library of Montreal) and the ABQLA (Association des Bibliothécaires du Québec/Quebec Library Association) in conversation, 27 March 2025.
- Event: Bibliotheca Naturae: Studies in Natural History, Hidden Hands Edition. Presentations of faculty and student research on materials in Rare Books and Special Collections, as part of the Hidden Hands in Natural Histories project, 2 April 2025.
- Event: Book Design Panel: The Association of University Presses (AUP) Book, Jacket, and Journal Show with Kathleen Fraser (Managing Editor at McGill-Queen's University Press), David LeBlanc (Studio oneoneone, winner of 2025 Scholarly Typography Award), and Pata Macedo (graphic designer and faculty member at the Design and Computation Arts Department at Concordia University).
- Event: Library Staff Event: End-of-Summer Internal Curator Talk about Book, Jacket, and Journal Show display in the McLennan lobby exhibition space with Amanda Wheatley, 13 August 2025.
- Event: Parent Welcome Weekend: Tour of Rare Books and Special Collections exhibition “New at McGill” with Ursula Carmichael (Liaison Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University Libraries), 22 August 2025.
- Event: Tastes and Traditions: What Stories Menus Tell with author Nathalie Cook, hosted in partnership with Westmount Public Libraries, 28 September 2025.
- Event: Leonard Cohen Research Workshop, hosted by Rare Books and Special Collections, 6-7 October 2025.
- Event: Conversation with a Curator: Small but Mighty with Ursula Carmichael, 30 October 2025.
- Event: Curious and Creepy Costume Collections: Pop-up exhibit with Jacquelyn Sundberg and Ursula Carmicheal, 31 October 2025.
- Event: Conversation with a Curator: Everything but the Blueprint Hybrid Tour with Tellina Liu, 12 November 2025.
- Event: Conversation with the Curators: New at McGill Hybrid Tour with exhibition curators and staff from Rare Books and Special Collections, 3 December 2025.
2024
- Event: Tastes and Traditions: What Stories Menus Tell with author Nathalie Cook, hosted in partnership with Westmount Public Libraries, 28 September 2025.
- Event: Leonard Cohen Research Workshop, hosted by Rare Books and Special Collections, 6-7 October 2025.
- Event: Conversation with a Curator: Small but Mighty with Ursula Carmichael, 30 October 2025.
- Event: Curious and Creepy Costume Collections: Pop-up exhibit with Jacquelyn Sundberg and Ursula Carmicheal, 31 October 2025.
- Event: Conversation with a Curator: Everything but the Blueprint Hybrid Tour with Tellina Liu, 12 November 2025.
- Event: Conversation with the Curators: New at McGill Hybrid Tour with exhibition curators and staff from Rare Books and Special Collections, 3 December 2025.
- Event: Provenance and the Orphans of Offenbach: Judaica collections at McGill and the Jewish Public Library, with Jacquelyn Sundberg (McGill Rare Books and Special Collections) and Eddie Paul (Jewish Public Library) in conversation, 23 January 2024.
- Event: Conversation with the Curator: Living Spaces: Moshe Safdie’s Early Affordable Housing Projects in North America, with Tellina Liu, 31 January 2024.
- Event: Black Politics in Dark Times: Revisiting Fear of a Black Nation After Ten Years with David Austin (author of Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal, 2013, winner of the 2014 Casa de las Americas Prize), 12 February 2024.
- Event: The Book as Evidence with conservator Christine McNair, CCI, 20 February 2024.
- Event: Menu Matters with Prof. Nathalie Cooke (McGill University), 12 March 2024.
- Event: Knitting in the Stacks, with Jacquelyn Sundberg, 12 April 2024.
- Event: Starry Messengers Drop-in Exhibition with Lauren Williams, 8 April 2024.
- Event: Unexpected Scrapbooking, virtual event with Jacquelyn Sundberg (RBSC) and Allie Alvis (Winterthur Library), 24 April 2024.
- Event: Conversation with the Curator: What’s in the Cards with Jacquelyn Sundberg (RBSC), 22 May 2024.
2023
- Event: Vernissage - News and Novel Sensations with Guylaine Beaudry (Dean of Libraries, McGill University), Nathalie Cooke (McGill University), Ronny Litvack-Katzman (McGill University), Octavian Sopt (McGill Library), and Jacquelyn Sundberg (McGill Library), 11 January 2023.
- Event: Coffee with a Codex, An Hour of Hours, with Dot Porter (UPenn) and Nicolas Hermann (Kislak Centre at UPenn), 4 January 2023.
- Event: The Art of Bookbinding / L’art de la reliure; Odette Drapeau presented with the twelfth Robert R. Reid prize and medal for lifetime achievement in the Book Arts in Canada, 8 February 2023.
- Event: Moments In Time / Instantporels Game Launch with Jacquelyn Sundberg, Sam Pappas, and Bianca Tri, 20 February 2023.
- Event: De-stress and Sketch: Nuit Blanche with the Visual Arts collection, 25 February 2023.
- Event: 3.1415 Ins-PIE-ring: A Pi Day Celebration with Jacquelyn Sundberg (outreach librarian, McGill University), Kristen Howard (librarian and historian), and Marcy Goldman (McGill alumna and professional baker), 15 March 2023.
- Event: A Collection of Souvenirs; A Spotlight on Quebec Postcards with Lora Baiocco (Archives Librarian at Westmount Public Library), 21 March 2023.
- Event: Evening with Ana María Gómez López, Larose-Osler Artist in Residence, 3 April 2023.
- Event: 'What a nuisance sex is!': Women Plant Collectors in the 19th Century, with Prof. Tina Gianquitto, (Professor of Literature in the Division of Liberal Arts and International Studies at the Colorado School of Mines), 11 April 2023.
- Event: Japanese Art Night with ROAAr and JSAM, 11 April 2023.
- Event: Knitting Natural HerStory, with librarian Kristen Howard and Jacquelyn Sundberg, 30 May 2023.
- Event: “I paint birds and I don’t care where they come from”: A Peek into Depictions in 18th and Early 19th Century Indian Bird Paintings, with ornithologist Subbu Subramanya, 22 September 2023.
- Event: Sri Lanka medical manuscripts as sources for medical history and the revitalization of traditional knowledge, with Danister Perera, 17 October 2023.
- Event: La Collection Jacqueline Lambert-David de manuscrits voltairiens with Ann Marie Holland, curator at Rare Books and Special Collections,18 October 2023.
- Event: Voltaire Manuscripts: Traces of Celebrity with Prof. Nicholas Cronk (McGill University), 18 October 2023.
- Event: Genealogy 201: Finding Information in McGill's Collections and in Indigenous Records with Jenn Riley (Associate Dean at McGill Library), Kristen Howard (Assistant Librarian at Humanities and Social Studies Library at McGill University), and Delores LaPratt (Assistant to Vice Dean of Libraries at McGill University), 19 October 2023.
- Event: Book Launch: Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire with authors of book, Elizabeth Gwilliams and Mary Symonds, 25 October 2023.
- Event: McGill Medical Student Research Symposium, Osler Library Event, 31 October 2023.
- Event: Trance, Dance, and Surrealism: Françoise Sullivan & Les Automatistes in World War II-era Montréal with Prof. Abigail Susik (Willamette University), 16 November 2023.
- Event: Coffee with a Codex: Medical Manuscripts & Marginalia with librarian Dot Porter (UPenn) and Prof. Faith Wallis (McGill University), 30 November 2023.
- Event: Vernissage: The Victorian World in Flux with presentations by Student Curators, 1 December 2023.
2022
- Event: Conversation with Nancy Springer, Author of the Enola Holmes Series with Nancy Springer, 11 January 2022.
- Event: Science and Friendship at McGill; A Few Insights, 20 January 2022.
- Event: Weaving words in textiles: Conversation with a Curator with Deborah Goodman Davis, 26 January 2022.
- Event: 1919: The Year of the Revolutionary Black Messiah with Prof. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, 10 February 2022.
- Event: Knitting 101 with ROAAr with McGill librarians Jacquelyn Sundberg, April Colosimo, and Kristen Howard, 14 February 2022.
- Event: Hidden in Plain Sight: Artist Amy Suo Wu Reveals the Potential of Invisible Ink with Amy Suo Wu, 23 February 2022.
- Event: Knitting in Code with Kristen Howard, 9 March 2022.
- Event: ROAAr Book Club Presents: Riddles and Riddling Ways, 23 March 2022.
- Event: Talking Telescopes; Then & Now with Trottier Space institute, Jacquelyn Sundberg, Lauren Williams, Dallas Wulf and Sajjad Nikfahm-Khubravan, 7 April 2022.
- Event: Dexterity and Craftsmanship; Artist Talk with Myriam Dion, 13 April 2022.
- Event: Victorian Sensation Novels and the News with Jessica Valdez, 10 May 2022.
- Event: Magnifying the Royce Gale Miniature Book Collection with Kristen Howard, 19 May 2022.
- Event: Gwillim Student Symposium with presentations by students, 15 September 2022.
- Events: Scholarship at the Source: Allister Neher on Art and Anatomy in Nineteenth-Century Britain with Allister Neher (McGill University), 21 September 2022.
- Event: Illuminated Deities: Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Devotional Texts in McGill’s Rare Books and Special Collections with Prof. Hamsa Stainton (McGill School of Religious Studies), 6 October 2022.
- Exhibit: Vernissage - Biblioteca Britannica, 13 October 2022.
- Event: Building McGill with Prof. David Covo, 19 October 2022.
- Exhibit: Vernissage - LGBTQIA2S+ McGill Student, Faculty, and Staff Activism, 26 October 2022.
- Event: Hooked; Fishing for Ted Hughes In and Beyond the Archive with Mark Wormald, 27 October 27 2022.
- Event: Medical Student Research Symposium. Osler Library Event, 1 November 2022.
- Event: The 45th Annual Osler Lecture: Policing The Womb In the Wake of the American Judiciary Osler Library Event, 2 November 2022.
- Event: Professor Joseph Lella Symposium. Osler Library Event, 3 November 2022.
- Event: Search and ye shall find: Medieval music manuscripts in the digital age with Julie E. Cumming (Professor, Music History and Musicology), Ichiro Fujinaga (Associate Professor, Music Technology), and Ann Marie Holland (Rare Books Librarian), 15 November 2022.
- Event: Artist Talk with Angela Grauerholz, 18 November 2022.
- Event: Warp and Weft, Weaving by the Numbers with Jacquelyn Sundberg and April Colosimo, 6 December 2022.
- Event: Fabricating Reams with Papeterie Saint Armand with Denise Lapointe and David Carruthers (paper artisans), 13 December 2022.
2021
- Event: A Place for Everything; The Curious History of Alphabetical Order with author Judith Flanders, 22 January 2021.
- Event: Virtual ROAAr Book Club, Children’s Edition, 27 January 2021.
- Event: Play with Language and the Nonsense of Alphabet Books with Robin Hoffman, 9 February 2021.
- Event: Rare Stitches: Knitting Inspired by Illuminated Manuscripts with librarians Jacquelyn Sundberg and Kristen Howard, 18 February 2021.
- Event: The Books We Love: Reading in Hard Times, 24 February 2021.
- Event: The Reader Belongs to the Play: Artists’ Books and the Library with Clara Drummond and Maggie Welch, 16 March 2021.
- Event: Quiz That SO?! Trivia and Game Launch, 18 March 2021.
- Event: The Many Faces of Norman Bethune Osler Library Panel Discussion, 23 March 2021.
- Event: Book Launch | AMAZE - A McGill A to Z Experience, 30 March 2021.
- Event: ROAAr Book Club | A Bibliophile's Brushstrokes with Michelle Macleod (VAC) and Hannah Deskin (VAC), 7 April 2021.
- Event: ROAAr Book Club | ROAAring in the Garden; From Seed to Harvest with librarian Dana Ingalls, 19 May 2021.
- Event: Online Escape Game 101, 27 May 2021.
- Event: ROAAr Book Club: The Tastes of Summers Past, 16 June 2021.
- Event: Montreal's Built Environment; Planning, Design, Sustainability, and Social Equity with Prof. Nik Luka, 16 September 2021.
- Event: Vernissage: Mcgilliana; 200 Years of Student Life with Aeron MacHattie, 29 September 2021.
- Event: Birding Mount Royal Yesterday and Today, 5 October 2021.
- Event: Seeing Double: Photographic Portraiture in McGill’s Visual Art Collection with Michelle Macleod (McGill Visual Art Collection), 20 October 2021.
- Event: Research and the Osler, 2 November 2021.
- Event: ROAAr Book Club Presents | Pulling Prints with George Walker. Printing demonstration in McGill’s Book Arts Lab with George Walker and Librarian Lauren Williams, 17 November 2021.
- Event: Printing and Thinking with Andrew Steeves and Lauren Williams, 8 December 2021.
- Event: Show and Tell: The Secrets of Women with artist Caroline Boileau and historian Margaret Carlyle, 15 December 2021.
2020
- Event: The Ludic Generation: Harnessing the Potential of Interactive Learning in Higher Education with Dr. Paul Darvasi and Shawn Young, 16 January 2020.
- Event: Launch for the McGill Book Arts Printing Lab, 30 January 2020.
- Event: "Saturn and Melancholy": A McGill Queen's University Press Book Launch with Philippe Despoix, Georges Leroux, Alberto Manguel, and Jillian Tomm, 5 February 2020.
- Event: Learning Your P's and Q's: Printing with Moveable Type, 12 February 2020.
- Exhibit: "Enlightenment Architectures": Sir Hans Sloane's Catalogues of his Collections with Kim Sloane, 17 February 2020.
- Event: Helping Students Get a Clue - Serious Play and Orientation in the Special Collections Library with Luke Aeschleman and Emily Jack, 27 February 2020.
- Event: "Trace Elements": The Commissario Guido Brunetti Series. with Donna Leon and Judith Flanders, 9 March 2020.
- Event: Before the Screen: Sketching, Play, and Creativity in the Making of Disney Animation with Mike Wiesmiere, 12 March 2020.
- Event: "Objectives & Dragons": Finding the Adventure in your Content with educational technologist Kristin Ziska-Strange, 14 July 2020.
- Event: "Play Where the Knowledge Lives:" Why Libraries are Obvious Spaces for Play with Megan Lotts and Matthew Shoemaker, 28 July 2020.
- Event: "How Do They Win?" Collaborative Game Creation as Impetus for Class Discussion and Research with Russell Hall and Glenn Kuhmhera, 4 August 2020.
- Event: “Leveling Up" Academic Library Gaming Collections and Services with Michelle Goodridge, 25 August 2020.
- Event: Puppetry as a Tool for Transformation with puppeteer Jesse Stong, 17 September 2020.
- Event: Playing Dress Up: Demystifying Costume Design with Professor Catherine Bradley of the McGill Costume Shop, 22 September 2020.
- Event: "Performance, Play, and Female Empowerment": The McGill Archives and the Genealogy of Women's Basketball in Canada from 1900-2020 with Kelsey Blair, 6 October 2020.
- Event: “Solving the Disruption”: Revealing The McGill Library’s Orientation Game, Raising Spirits: A Timely Diversion, 13 October 2020.
- Event: Resurrection Cakes and the Pleasures of Metaphorical Recipe with Rebecca Earle, 27 October 2020.
2019
- Event: How Did Indigenous Land Become Colonists' Property? with Prof. Allan Greer (McGill Department of History and Classical Studies), 16 January 2019.
- Event: Curiosities of Conception, 24 January 2019.
- Event: What Legacy? Louis Dudek and Creative Writing with Prof. Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia), 29 January 2019.
- Event: Black Ink for Black Liberation with George Elliott Clarke, 31 January 2019.
- Event: Corps qui hantent d’autres corps with [JM1] Caroline Boileau (Larose-Osler Artist-in-Residence), 7 February 2019.
- Event: Saints Alive! Rediscovering Chant Manuscripts at McGill with Prof. Julie Cumming (McGill University), 21 February 2019.
- Event: The Question That Stumped Darwin: Ants and Evolution with Prof. Ehab Abouheif (McGill University), 26 February 2019
- Event Nuit Blanche: Alive at Night: Art, Music & History at McGill. In partnership with the Schulich School of Music & the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation. Tour, multimedia presentation, and musical performance in Redpath Hall, 2 March 2019.
- Event: Fifty Years On: Gay Liberation? with Prof. Brian Lewis (McGill), 13 March 2019.
- Exhibit: Visible Storage Gallery with Vanessa Di Francesco, 27 March 2019.
- Event: Medieval Art in Manuscripts with Dr. Joan Friedman (Art Historian), 9 April 2019.
- Event: Universal Medicine: Lessons from 17th-century England with Dr. Lauren Kassell (University of Cambridge), 12 April 2019.
- Event: DRAW Hackathons for the Planet, April 2019.
- Event: Earth Day Pop-up Exhibition: Rare Treasures of the Natural World in McGill’s Special Collections & Archives, 23 April 2019.
- Exhibit: Osler's Leonardo Da Vinci Collection with Dr. Rolando Del Maestro, 2 May 2019.
- Event: Identities, Networks, & Culture. Second Annual Colloquium of St. Andrew's Society/McEuan Foundation Chair in Canadian-Scottish Studies, 3 May 2019
- Event: Discover & Write from McGill's Blacker Wood Natural History Collection, 4-5 May 2019.
- Exhibit: The First Reliable Home Pregnancy Test and its Little-Known Connection to Montreal,7 May 2019.
- Event: To Market! To Market! with Julian Armstrong (Food Writer) and Oliver De Volpi, (Executive Chef, McGill University), 22 May 2019.
[JM1]not found
2018
- Event: Uncensoring Charles and Frances Burney with Peter Sabor & Stewart Cooke, January 23, 2018.
- Event: The Tragedy of the Tet Offensive with Prof. Lorenz Lüthi, 31 January 2018. [watch]
- Event: James Forbes (1749-1819): Discovery and Perplexity with Ethel Groffier, (Emeritus Researcher), 27 February 2018. [watch]
- Event: ‘Can Anything Be More Absurd?’: Reading Hume in Eighteenth-Century Britain and America with Dr. Mark Towsey (University of Liverpool), 20 March 2018. [watch]
- Event: The Eyes Have It: An appreciation of Casey Wood's Contribution to Ophthalmology, Ornithology, and the McGill Libraries, 20 April 2018.
- Event: Beyond the Rainbow; The Spectacular Colours of Birds | Au-delà de l’arc-en-ciel; les couleurs spectaculaires des oiseaux with ornithologist and evolutionary biologist Bob Montgomerie, 21 April 2018. [watch]
- Event: Voltaire and the Art of the Miscellany with Prof. Nicholas Cronk of Oxford University, 24 April 2018. [watch]
- Event: Vehicule days: Exhibit/ Reading/ Performance, 26 April 2018.
- Exhibit: Intus et in cute: L’Autopsie du regard au savoir, 26-27 April 2018.
- Event: Nerve Centre Colloquium: Kick-Starting ROAAr and More Towards the Future, 11 May 2018.
- Exhibit: De Musei Fabrica: Cloth and Stitch Inspired by the Maude Abbott Medical Museum, 17 May 2018.
- Event: ROAAr on the Road, Special Lecture in Picton, ON--What is Canadian Cuisine? Lessons from Generations Past, 16 September 2018.
- Event: Open House, 21 October 2018.
- Event: Guided Tours of ROAAr Collections, 12-13 October 2018.
- Event: Treasures for our Children: Jewish Foodways for the 21st Century, in partnership with Library and Community Events, City of Westmount, 28 October 2018.
- Event: The Fabric of the Human Body (Vesalius, 1543): Images and Icons for the History of Medicine with Professor Hélène Cazes (University of Victoria), 30 October 2018.
- Event: Many Women, Many Voices; Stories from McGill Collections, 8 November 2018.
- Event: Montreal at the Front: Personalities of the Great War with Alexander Reford (Director of Les Jardins de Métis Reford Gardens), 7 November 2018.
- Event: Books That Pop! Historical Children's Books inthe Sheila Bourke Collection with Professor Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (Pennsylvania State University), 21 November 2018.
- Event: Keep or Shred? How to get Businesses to Start Valuing their Archives with Anders Sjöman (Centre for Business History in Stockholm), 5 December 2018.
2017
- Event: Foodways & Fisticuffs: the Larger than Life Personalities who Shaped Quebec Cuisine with Prof. Nathalie Cooke and Julian Armstrong, 4 & 11 October 2017.
- Event: Montreal’s Architectural Heritage in the Canadian Architecture Collection with Prof. David Covo (McGill University), 14 October 2017.
- Event: The Canadian Jewish Experience with Rabbi Adam Scheier, 25 October 2017.
- Event: Where was Democracy? The Case of Woman Suffrage in Canada with Prof. Veronia Strong-Boag (University of British Columbia), 1 November 2017.
- Event: Christmas Ain't What It Used to Be with Judith Flanders, 15 November 2017 [watch]
- Event: Making History in 1860s Canada with Prof. Elsbeth Heaman (McGill University), 22 November 2017.
- Event: Climate in the Age of Empire: Weather Observation in Colonial Canada, 27 November 2017.
2016
- Event: Voltaire Symposium, 8 April 2016.