Blog Archives

Wartime correspondence in the Madeleine Parent Fonds

Every year on November 11, Canadians remember the men and women who have served their country. Traditionally, we honour the departed, but Remembrance Day is about all of those who served. During WWII, on the front or as prisoners of …

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More Zoom Backgrounds: ROAAr edition

Back by popular demand, we’ve got more Zoom backgrounds for students, faculty and staff to use as we start the academic year. In April, we featured campus places and library spaces. This time, we invite you to take in and …

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Launch | The McGill Library Orientation Game – “Raising Spirits: A Timely Diversion”

As we all prepare for a virtual fall semester, the McGill library is offering an innovative activity to welcome new, current, and former McGillians back to campus, even if only in spirit. We hope to draw everyone back from afar with the aid of their computers: to …

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McGillians Then and Now

This year, for the first time in McGill’s almost 200-year history, convocation ceremonies will be held virtually, with a second convocation, an in-person academic procession and ceremony, in 2021. Until then, to celebrate this exceptional Class of 2020, we thought …

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#Quarantunes: a ROAAr staff selection

Many, many (like a thousand) years ago, when I was a very anxious university student, I got the idea to make mix-CDs for people. It seemed like it would make for a nice distraction. I posted an anonymous ad online, …

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DRAW needs you!

Looking for something to do while you’re self-isolating and social-distancing? Would you like to contribute to weather, climate science, and history? Come help us transcribe weather records from the past on DRAW! You can join a community of citizen scientists …

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Winter Carnival Nostalgia

By Phoebe Fisher, Student, McGill University Archives A patron recently asked me to retrieve all of the programs we had for the McGill Winter Carnival. As a 2020 McGill student, when I heard “winter carnival” I mostly thought of college …

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Christmas riddle: What is the link between an eminent geologist, Christmas spirits, the founder of the Scouts and J.K. Rowling?

By: Éloïse Poncet, student, McGill University Archives I was walking around campus the other week when I saw the two enormous Christmas trees in the front entrance of the Arts building. Similarly, to the Montreal store’s Christmas windows, having these …

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R. Tait McKenzie’s The Sprinter: The Growth of an Iconic Image

By Phoebe Fisher, Student, McGill University Archives   I recently received an inquiry from a family member of Thomas Graydon, a past McGill employee who was presented with a Sprinter statue by the McGill track team in circa 1911. The …

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#adventuresincataloguing : retracing the lived history of books

La version française suit By Megan Chellew, Coordinator, Cataloguing & Metadata; Robin Desmeules, Rare Books Cataloguer and Anna Dysert, Rare Books Cataloguer The practice of cataloguing rare books goes beyond simply describing the title and contents of a particular object. …

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