Blog Archives

Student Spotlight: Marion Dessalles at Rare Books & Special Collections

Student employment in the McGill Library benefits the entire McGill community. At almost 100 strong this academic year, McGill Library student workers gain valuable work experience while engaging in academic pursuits.  Student navigators, curatorial interns, special project assistants and student …

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Take McGill’s hidden gems home with Ex Libris

This September, McGill launched a capital campaign and a new branding vision for the university. The fall of 2020 promises even more excitement as McGill’s bicentennial festivities get underway. As we look back and forward, this is a perfect moment …

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2019 Homecoming: Bienvenue, welcome back to McGill and the Library!

2019 Homecoming (September 26-28) is shaping up to be one of the biggest events of the year! McGill is making an historic announcement to reveal initiatives that will shape the future of our University as it enters its third century. …

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New SSHRC Funding for The Riddle Project

Riddle text

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has granted support to the project over the next two years to investigate this new genre from an interdisciplinary angle. The team, led by Nathalie Cooke, Associate Dean of ROAAr, includes an energetic …

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The Gwillim Project Receives Major SSHRC Funding

The 2019 results are in! The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has poured research funding into a new Partnership Development Grant based out of the McGill Library’s Blacker Wood Collection. The Gwillim Project centres around the …

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Karis Shearer awarded Raymond Klibansky Research Travel Grant

The McGill Library welcomes Dr. Karis Shearer to our Rare Books and Special Collections reading room! Dr. Shearer is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan campus) where she directs …

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Not a bad “Impression”: a fine Rembrandt Print in McGill’s Collection

Etching by Rembrandt, The Descent from the Cross, 1633. 52.2 cm x 41 cm. McGill Print Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections, European Folio section.

This is an excerpt from the article entitled “Not a bad “Impression”: a fine Rembrandt Print in McGill’s Collection” written by Maria L. Brendel. It was first published in Fontanus, Vol 10 (1998). In 1919 McGill received a seventeenth-century print …

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Content Warning: This Library Contains Colourful Language

A scene from God’s love to wicked little Joseph (circa 1840). The title character, “indeed a very wicked boy”, develops a penchant for outbursts of colourful language. By page 16, the boy is dead, apparently smote for his wicked tongue. PN970 A4 G6 1832. Sheila R. Bourke Collection.

La version française suit By Elis Ing, Liaison Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections “Pray, Goody, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue” (Pray Goody, ca. 1820). Colourful language makes many people uncomfortable. Profane, blasphemous or crude words are …

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McGill @Expo 67

Fifty-two years ago this month, Expo 67 – the 1967 International and Universal Exposition, opened its doors to the public. Expo was situated on two islands in the middle of the Saint Lawrence River, in view of downtown Montreal. More than 50 …

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Women in the Driver’s Seat

A handbook for all women who motor or who want to motor…  by Dorothy Levitt Advice for Women in Cars: –“Regarding coats—there is nothing like a thick frieze, homespun, or tweed, lined with Jaeger or fur. The former has the advantage of being lighter …

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