Blog Archives

The Unknown Unknown: Finding the Jean Drapeau Collection

Photo d’Expo 67 tirée de l’album de photos personnelles de Jean Drapeau.

La version française suit By Chris Lyons, Head Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections — I think the most exciting part of my job as a rare book librarian is in discovering the “unknown unknowns,” to use Donald Rumsfeld’s turn …

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Contest! Decode This Curious Hieroglyphick Valentine

Detail Hyroglyphik

By: Anna Dysert, Librarian, Archival & Rare Book Cataloguing Decode the image below for a sweet Valentine’s Day message and win a prize! Printed some time in the mid-19th century, this clever Valentine’s rebus comes from McGill’s uncatalogued collection of greeting cards dating …

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Waxing Nostalgic: McGill@Expo67

Passport interior cropped. Credit: Jennifer Garland

La version française suit By Jennifer Garland, Associate Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections McGill@Expo67 is an exhibition in the McGill Library that celebrates Expo 67’s 50th anniversary and explores the role of Expo 67 in teaching and research and …

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Celebrate Homecoming 2017 at the Library

McGill Library’s ROAAr units have planned an eclectic mix of tours, hands-on events, and lectures for McGill Homecoming (Thursday October 12 – Saturday, October 14). Explore Montreal and McGill architecture then and now, learn how to transcribe weather information from …

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Table Setting Riddles 101: The Solution Set

Eliza Smithson's signature, Smithson Cookbook Collection.

By Nathalie Cooke, Professor and Associate Dean, Archives & Rare Collections, McGill University Library Thanks to all who took up our riddling challenge offering answers from across Canada and abroad (including England, Ireland, and New Zealand). We promised to provide some …

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Visualizing Montreal and McGill with Historypin

C.O.T.C Training on McGill Campus

By Sarah Severson, Assistant Librarian and Coordinator, Digital Library Services Walking around Montreal it’s easy to get lost in the past looking at all the old buildings. What if you could search for a place on a map and click to see …

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Table Setting Riddles 101

The Doncaster Collection. Photo: Lauren Goldman

By Kat Despain, Research Assistant to Nathalie Cooke, Professor and Associate Dean, Archives & Rare Collections, McGill University Library Do you like puzzles? Do you like food history? Do you want to win $25 at the McGill bookstore? Take up our riddling …

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Share your piece of Expo ’67 history

Slide Meredith Dixon Expo 67 Slide Collection

Are you a McGill community member? Were you at Expo 67? This fall, McGill Library and the McGill School of Architecture will exhibit our collection of Expo ’67 memorabilia and ephemera in the lobby of the McLennan Library Building. We …

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Putting Canada on the map

A plan of the harbour of Chebucto and town of Halifax, 1750

by Margaret Blandford & Greg Houston O Canada, happy birthday to you! Here’s an early birthday gift from us to you. Take a look at these rare maps from our collection and discover Canada in new ways. Click on the …

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Mapping 375 years of progress: rare Montreal maps from 1556-1946

La Terra de Hochelaga nella Nova Francia (1556)

By Margaret Blandford and Greg Houston In celebration of the 375th anniversary of Montreal, McGill Library’s Collection Services is showcasing digitized Montreal rare maps held by the library’s Rare Books and Special Collections from May 15-22, 2017. The maps were …

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