#30 – On Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

10 fun facts about the library (in an increasingly more interesting order)

Founded in 1827 as King’s College, the University of Toronto’s St. George campus is one of the most beautiful places in the city. Of all the buildings on this historic campus, there is one building in particular that is extra special. I say special because this building complex is home to not just one but two libraries: John P. Robarts Research Library and Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. While Robarts Library focuses on humanities and social sciences, Fisher has a special focus on rare books and manuscripts, and it is open to the public.

On Halloween evening this year, I got the opportunity to visit the Rare Books & Special Collections department at Fisher. While I visited Fisher before to see an exhibition, this tour was really the first time I got to know the library as a whole. I learned about the history of the department, the strengths of the collection, and how researchers can register and use the Fisher materials.

It was such a wonderful visit, and it left me inspired to share with you 10 awesome facts about the library.

Inside the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Here are 10 fun facts about the Fisher Rare Book Library (in an order that gets increasingly more interesting):

1. Fisher Library has the largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada.

2. The library has about 850,000 books and archival manuscript holdings of about 5km in length.

3. Fisher Library is named after Thomas Fisher (1792-1874), who came from Yorkshire to Upper Canada in 1821. A merchant miller, Fisher had a major influence on the Township of Etobicoke as a businessman, land developer and community figure.

4. In terms of chronology, the collections range from a 1789 B.C. Babylonian cuneiform tablet from Ur to works by contemporary Canadian writers.

5. Fisher has one of the best Alice in Wonderland collections in the world, thanks to the Joseph Brabant Lewis Carroll Collection which was donated in 1997. Rumour has it that the only Alice collection better than Fisher’s is the one British Library has.

6. Fisher also has an awesome collection of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, including the first-ever illustration of the monster. I got a glimpse of these as it was a Halloween-inspired tour:

Early editions of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

7. More awesome stuff: Fisher has a gorgeous copy of William Thompson’s “Sickness A Poem.” The design binding of the book was done by Michael Wilcox, an internationally renowned binder. I learned that ‘fine binding’ means that the binding is done by hand. So basically, everything that is on the book’s cover corresponds to a particular tool the binder has used. It’s a rare and beautiful craft! See below the cover of the book (please excuse the low quality of the photo):

   

   William Thompson’s “Sickness A Poem” with fine binding by Michael Wilcox

8. One of the oldest Medieval manuscripts acquired by the library is an 11th-century copy of “The four gospels in Greek: Codex Torontonensis” produced in Constantinople.

   In a 2018 interview with CBC, Pearce Carefoote, an Anglican priest & then-interim Head of Fisher, said the following about this copy of “The four gospels”:

   “Why I love it [The four gospels copy] is because the decoration of the book, even though it's a Christian book, is very Islamic. And it comes from the period just before the first crusade when Christians and Muslims were living together in peace and learning from one another and sharing techniques of manuscript production. This book is a preservation of that record of that time of harmony in the history of Western Civilization.” — Pearce Carefoote (CBC interview)

9. Fisher has one of the largest collections of Portuguese postcards in the world. This includes postcards printed in the late twentieth century featuring prints of Portugal in colour. The collection includes depictions of various Portuguese regions including Lisbon, Madeira, and the Algarve.

10. Last but definitely not least: FISHER IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! GO VISIT! if you get a chance to be in the area. You don’t have to be affiliated with the University of Toronto to visit Fisher and use its resources!

I am so grateful for the Fisher Library team for this beautiful tour of the Rare Books & Special Collections department. It was such an inspiring way to spend the Halloween evening.

And of course, thank you for reading! Wishing you a LIT(erary) November!

PS: Here are some more fun Halloween-inspired items I got to see at Fisher:

Halloween-inspired items at Fisher Library (October 31, 2024)