Blog Archives

200 Reasons to Give to McGill Library

Student Alisa Nosova wearing a mask and a red McGill24 hat standing in Library stacks with a cut-out that says "J'aime McGill".

McGill24, the University’s annual day of giving, is back Wednesday, March 9, 2022. Over a 24-hour period, donations will be made around the world with the aim of impacting current and future McGillians. Everyone has a unique reason for giving …

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Couched in Unintelligibility: Agonies of The Times

people reading newspapers

By Ronny Litvack-Katzman, Research Assistant, ROAAr Numbers, letters, and pseudonyms, reversed text, symbols, and foreign language words –the most infamous encrypted agony ads contained all these and more. Throughout the 19th century, ciphers and codes were a covert means for …

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Ephemeral expressions in the Madeleine Parent fonds

The finding aid for the Madeleine Parent fonds is now available on McGill’s Archival Collections Catalogue. The fonds of the labour and social activist holds countless narratives, from Parent’s union work and writings to the history of Canadian unionism. Moreover, …

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A whole romance contained in four little lines: Introducing the Agony Column

Princess Henry of Battenberg reads the newspaper aloud to Queen Victoria in “A Glimpse of the Queen’s Home Life.” From the Illustrated London News (26 January 1901): 130. Illustrated London News / Gale Digital Scholar Lab

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman, Research Assistant, ROAAr “A whole romance contained in four little lines”, “seven words [that] gave a three volume novel in a nutshell” — such are the descriptions that 19th-century commentators gave to the collection of personal advertisements …

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Campus Royalty

Queen Beryl and her court

We spoke with royalty for this week’s episode of Voices from The Footnotes, our ROAAr library podcast. McGill royalty to be precise. Step back in time to 1949, 1951 and 1958, as Beryl Rapier, Dorothy Baxter and Rae Tucker Rambally …

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Food for Thought: Riddles and Riddling Ways Exhibit

Explore different mealtime riddle practices in this curated exhibit of items from McGill’s Collections and beyond, and the way games, puzzles and play both educate and entertain. One way to connect with family and friends is over a meal or …

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Caption This: Should have stayed home

Caption This! We offer you a new series for a new year. This photo from our McGill University Archives Photo Collection is one of many about which we have little information. While often we may have a date range, some …

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Zoom Backgrounds | McGilliana: 200 Years of Student Life

Felt “M” patch, undated. McGill University Archives, (2006-0083.11.1).

Brighten up your virtual learning spaces with new Zoom backgrounds featuring postcards and objects from ROAAr’s most recent virtual exhibit McGilliana: 200 Years of Student Life. “Each item in this [bicentennial] exhibition is part of one or many stories about …

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The Taylor White Project, 2018-2021

Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus), water colour by Peter Paillou, undated. Taylor White Collection: MSG BW002, item 042. Blacker Wood Collection, Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill Library.

By Victoria Dickenson, Professor of Practice, McGill Library This project was funded by Insight Development Program at Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Overview The Taylor White Research Project focused on the documentation and analysis of a unique “paper …

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Digitization Grant Update: George Mercer Dawson

By Alex Kohn, Digital Collections & Copyright Librarian As we reported back in May, we are the fortunate recipients of a grant from the British Columbia History Digitization Program, which has allowed us to digitize over 1,586 items (letters and …

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