New to our digital catalogue: Found inside the ‘The princess baker’ by William Lunan & Son (1879) in our Cookbook Collection, Rare Books and Special collections.
Inside cover. William Lunan & Son. (1879). The princess baker.
Page 2. William Lunan & Son. (1879). The princess baker.
To read the whole 16 page booklet and find some great recipes you can download it from our catalogue or you can see the original by visiting our Rare Book and Special Collections reading room during opening hours.
Our Rare Books and Special Collections copy of Newton’s Opticks was one of the first things we digitized years ago. Recently we went back to the archival master files and reprocess the pages in full colour to enhance the readability of the marginalia. Sometimes cited as McGill MS 46 this is Newton’s own copy with extensive manuscript additions and corrections.
You can download the full book from our catalogue or you can see the original by visiting the Rare Book and Special Collections reading room during opening hours.
Page 139. Newton, Isaac, Samuel Smith, and Benjamin Walford. 1704. Opticks. London: Printed for Sam. Smith, and Benj. Walford, printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince’s Arms in St. Paul’s Church-yard. McGill University Library Rare Books & Special Collections.
Page 73. Newton, Isaac, Samuel Smith, and Benjamin Walford. 1704. Opticks. London: Printed for Sam. Smith, and Benj. Walford, printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince’s Arms in St. Paul’s Church-yard. McGill University Library Rare Books & Special Collections.
Page 35. Newton, Isaac, Samuel Smith, and Benjamin Walford. 1704. Opticks. London: Printed for Sam. Smith, and Benj. Walford, printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince’s Arms in St. Paul’s Church-yard. McGill University Library Rare Books & Special Collections.
Travelling Library bookplate. Book no. 26. Date received 1901. McGill University Library. Rare Books and Special Collections.
Beginning in 1899, this travelling library was supported by the McLennan family and administered by McGill University. It operated mainly in rural Quebec. In 1978 its functions were absorbed by the programme of the Bibliothèque centrale de l’Estrie.
— Summary from the description of Record Group no. 40 from Volume one of ‘A Guide to Archival Resources at McGill University’. McGill University Archives. 1985.
Want to see more vintage McGill library bookplates? We’ve put a small selection on Pinterest for easy browsing from the Philippe Masson Collection of Ex Libris digital collection.
In addition to digitizing the McGilliad we have also recently put online the full run of 18 issues of the McGill Fortnightly review.
McGill Fortnightly review was founded by F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith as an independent undergraduate journal after it was announced that the Students’ Council couldn’t support the publishing of the McGill Daily Literary supplement which is detailed in the first issue editorial. The student publication ran from 1925-1927 and featured modernist poetry and prose.
Front page of the The McGill Fortnightly Review first issue from 1925. http://mcgill.worldcat.org/oclc/428073817
Read more about the McGill Fortnightly review in Ken Norris’ 1980 English thesis “The role of the little magazine in the development of modernism and post-modernism in Canadian poetry” which is available online in our institutional repository, eScholarship.
You can download all of the issues from our catalogue or you can see the original by visiting the Rare Book and Special Collections reading room during opening hours.
Map of the Island of Montreal prepared by J. Rielle in 1892. Cadastral map showing in detail land owners’ homes and locations. Hand coloured and mounted on cloth backing. Full size is 89 x 169 cm and folds down to 30 x 22 cm. Folded and fully bounded with gilt title on cover, illustrated floral end papers.
Cartographic Mathematical Data: Scale approximately 1:3382. 1.87 in. to 1 mile. .69 in. to 1 arpent.
Close up of Mount Royal Park. Map of the Island of Montreal prepared by J. Rielle in 1892. Cadastral map showing in detail land owners’ homes and locations.
folded G3452 M65 1892 R54. Map Room – Rare Books & Special Collections. McGill Library.
Map of the Island of Montreal prepared by J. Rielle in 1892. Cadastral map showing in detail land owners’ homes and locations. Click on the image to view it larger.
folded G3452 M65 1892 R54. Map Room – Rare Books & Special Collections. McGill Library.
You can download the map from our catalogue or you can see the original by visiting the Rare Book and Special Collections reading room during opening hours.
When this map of the Montreal harbour came to us it’s small 11 x 15 cm cover hid a map that measured over 96 x 31 cm when unfolded. Too delicate to weigh down we shot this with our Betterlight 8K medium format camera. With a full image size of 9426 × 3352 pixels when you extract a JPG from the PDF you can get some really nice detail.
You can download the map from our catalogue or you can see the original by visiting the Rare Book and Special Collections reading room during opening hours.
![Harbour Commissioners of Montreal., & Kennedy, J. (1877). Plan of the wharves in the harbour of Montreal, 1877. Montréal: Printed by] the Burland Desbarats Co.](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/12/rbsc_map_wharves-harbour-montreal_foldedG3454M65P551877H3-closeup.png)
Close of Lachine Canal from the Plan of the wharves in the harbour of Montreal, 1877. Montréal: Printed by] the Burland Desbarats Co.
![Harbour Commissioners of Montreal., & Kennedy, J. (1877). Plan of the wharves in the harbour of Montreal, 1877. Montréal: Printed by] the Burland Desbarats Co.](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/12/rbsc_map_wharves-harbour-montreal_foldedG3454M65P551877H3.jpg)
Harbour Commissioners of Montreal., & Kennedy, J. (1877). Plan of the wharves in the harbour of Montreal, 1877. Montréal: Printed by] the Burland Desbarats Co.
![Harbour Commissioners of Montreal., & Kennedy, J. (1877). Plan of the wharves in the harbour of Montreal, 1877. Montréal: Printed by] the Burland Desbarats Co.](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/12/rbsc_map_wharves-harbour-montreal_foldedG3454M65P551877H3-cv-797x1024.jpg)
Cover of Plan of the wharves in the harbour of Montreal, 1877. Montréal: Printed by] the Burland Desbarats Co.
A gloomy winter day seems the perfect time to launch a digital exhibition about the therapeutic effects of the sun. The digital exhibit delves into the visual culture of Heliotherapy, an ancient practice of total bodily exposure to sunlight, and Phototherapy, an electric light therapy pioneered in the 1890s. How heliotherapeutic and phototherapeutic practices were disseminated and popularized within the history and visual culture of light therapeutics during the early twentieth century will be explored using illustrated texts and objects from the Osler Library‘s collection – so too will themes of pleasure and discomfort, ancient and modern, and the natural and artificial.
Take a break and learn more at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/sun/
Last month we started an ambitious project to digitize all of the back issues of the McGill Daily, the student newspaper founded in 1911. Starting in January the plan is to start collecting the +60,000 files into PDFs and run optical character recognition to make the papers fully searchable. Next up will to upload them to the Internet Archive and then create a digital collection that features more of our digitized student publications. Our hope is to preserve and create a searchable index to part of McGill student history. We hope to follow up by adding the publications that preceded the Daily, namely the McGill (University) Gazette 1873-1890, the McGill Fortnightly 1892-1898, the McGill Outlook 1898-1907 and the (McGill) Martlet 1908-1911.
Since that is still many months away I’ll tease you with just the front page of the first issue.
Searching the first issue of the McGill Daily (1911).
The McGilliad was a periodical published by the Arts Undergraduate society of McGill University from 1930-1931. According to the first issue editorial the periodical was started because some sutdents
… feel the need for some forum where they (the students) can exchange their intellectual and emotional experiences, where they can present to their fellow-beings their clarified conception of some bewildering phenomenon or some haunting passion. And it is to fill this need that the “McGilliad” makes its appearance.
The first year they published two issues in March and April of 1930 under the editorial direction of A. M. Klein.
In November 1930 publication resumed under the direction of David Lewis. In the last issue of our collection, Volume 2 Issue 5, the editorial happily announced that the Students’ Council had “definitely taken the journal under its jurisdiction. The “McGilliad” is now a legal student activity, resting on a basis of sound and lasting security.”
You can read and download all seven issues from our catalogue or you can see the originals by visiting the Rare Book and Special Collections reading room during opening hours.
The McGilliad. Vol. 1 no. 1 – 15 cents a copy
The McGilliad. Vol. 1 no. 2 – 20 cents a copy
The McGilliad. Vol. 2 no. 1 – 25 cents a copy
The McGilliad. Vol. 2 no. 2 – 25 cents a copy
The McGilliad. Vol. 2 no. 3 – 25 cents a copy
The McGilliad. Vol. 2 no. 4
The McGilliad. Vol. 2 no. 5 – 25 cents a copy
The new digital exhibition Writing in Company: Forms of Collaboration in Artistic Works and Scientific Knowledge 1700-1914 features 52 carefully selected page openings from across the McGill University library rare and special collections and aims to demonstrate the essentially collaborative nature of printed works. It calls into question the commonly perceived equation, “one work = one author.” Forms of collaborative practices are expressed in stage performance scripts, musical score interpretations, the serialized novel, and even in institutional protocols for collective expeditionary works.
The physical exhibition was originally on display from April to August 2014 in the lobby of McGill’s Rare Books and Special Collections. It was curated by graduate students Stéphanie Favreau (UQAM) and Adina Ruiu (Université de Montréal), and made possible by the collaboration between Interacting with Print and Rare Books and Special Collections of the McGill Library.
This project afforded the opportunity to digitize about 12 items in full and add them to our library catalogue, bringing to light items from the Pauline Donalda Collection, consisting of a donation of music scores and related printed works, which this McGill trained singer offered to McGill University in the 1940s. To see and download the full version of each item you can click on the images to go to the record in our catalogue.
![Last two pages of the manuscript music score with Gabriel Fauré's autograph signature, 13 septembre 1902. Fauré, Gabriel, 1845-1924, composer. La fleur qui va sur l'eau : op. 85, no. 2 / Gabriel Fauré ; [poésie de] Catulle Mendès. MSG 994 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University - Manuscript Collection](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/11/rbsc_fleur_sur_leau_folio_vzrf27f_11to12.jpg)
Last two pages of the manuscript music score with Gabriel Fauré’s autograph signature, 13 septembre 1902.
Fauré, Gabriel, 1845-1924, composer. La fleur qui va sur l’eau : op. 85, no. 2 / Gabriel Fauré ; [poésie de] Catulle Mendès.
MSG 994 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University – Manuscript Collection
Der Kaiser und die Hexe, title within decorative border and engraved frontispiece. Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, 1874-1929. Der Kaiser und die Hexe / von Hugo von Hofmannsthal; mit Zeichnungen von Heinrich Vogeler. Berlin : Verlag der Insel bei Schuster & Löffler, 1900.
Colgate 6 I57 H64 1900 Rare Books/Special Collections – Colgate Collection
![Title page. Gounod, Charles, 1818-1893. Faust : opéra en 5 actes / de J. Barbier et M. Carré ; musique de Ch. Gounod ; partition chant et piano arrangée par Léo Delibes. Paris : Choudens, [186-?] M1503 G711 F42 C4 1860z Marvin Duchow Music - Rare Books](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/11/rbsc_faust_opera_5_acte_M1503G711F42C41860z-tp.jpg)
Title page. Gounod, Charles, 1818-1893. Faust : opéra en 5 actes / de J. Barbier et M. Carré ; musique de Ch. Gounod ; partition chant et piano arrangée par Léo Delibes. Paris : Choudens, [186-?]
M1503 G711 F42 C4 1860z Marvin Duchow Music – Rare Books
![Le sphinx, music score "14e tableau. Napoléon", and lithograph on opposite page. Fragerolle, Georges, 1855-1920. Le sphinx : épopée lyrique en 16 tableaux / poëme et musique de Georges Fragerolle. Ombres et décors de Amédée Vignola. Paris : Enoch : Flammarion, [1896?] (Paris : Charles Verneau, imprimeur lithographe) M1523 F8 S65 1896 Rare Books & Special Collections - Rosalynde Stearn Puppet Collection](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/11/rbsc_sphinx_folio_M1523F8S651896-pg34to35.jpg)
Le sphinx, music score “14e tableau. Napoléon”, and lithograph on opposite page.
Fragerolle, Georges, 1855-1920. Le sphinx : épopée lyrique en 16 tableaux / poëme et musique de Georges Fragerolle. Ombres et décors de Amédée Vignola. Paris : Enoch : Flammarion, [1896?] (Paris : Charles Verneau, imprimeur lithographe)
M1523 F8 S65 1896 Rare Books & Special Collections – Rosalynde Stearn Puppet Collection
Histoire aussi intéressante qu’invraisemblable, page 8 and illustration on opposite
Quatrelles, 1826-1893. Histoire aussi intéressante qu’invraisemblable de l’intrépide capitaine Castagnette, neveu de l’homme à la tête de bois / par Manuel ; illustrée de 43 vignettes sur bois par Gustave Doré. Paris : Librairie de L. Hachette et cie, 1862 (Paris : Ch. Lahure et cie)
PQ2337 L52 H57 1862 Rare Books/Special Collections – Napoleon Collection
At the height of her career, Yvette Guilbert becomes an author, telling her life story and writing about the pedagogy of singing and of the stage. We can retrace this demonstration of emotional expressions back to Charles Le Brun.
Guilbert, Yvette, 1865-1944. L’art de chanter une chanson / Yvette Guilbert. Paris : B. Grasset, 1928.
MT892 G85 1928 Rare Books & Special Collections
A later example of the small café-concert music score, this piece replaces the illustration on the cover page with a photograph of the artist.
Stretti, R., composer. Un Mari à l’essai : chansonnette / paroles de Delormel et Garnier, musique de R. Stretti
Marvin Duchow Music – Rare Books
Cover illustration: smiling sorcerer with an owl on his shoulder surrounded by images of some of the predictions mentioned in the texts.
Ouvrard, Eloi, 1855-1938 composer. Les prédictions : chansonnette comique / paroles de Queyriaux et Chicot, musique de E. Ouvrard.
Marvin Duchow Music – Rare Books
![Title page. Recueil de ces messieurs. Amsterdam [i.e. Paris] : Chez les frères Westein, 1745. PQ1268 R43 1745 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/11/rbsc_amsterdam_freres_westein_PQ1268R431745-tp.jpg)
Title page.
Recueil de ces messieurs. Amsterdam [i.e. Paris] : Chez les frères Westein, 1745.
PQ1268 R43 1745 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University
![This collection of burlesque stories, undated, brings together an edition of the Étrennes de la Saint-Jean, and the second edition of the Écosseuses ou les oeufs de Pasques, introduced as the second part of the Étrennes for the first time in 1757. Caption of the frontispiece: "Vers par rapport à ce présent Livre. De la Langue il est le soutien, / De plus, c'est qu'il y a du génie: / Commere, est-ce que ça n' vaut pas bien / Un compliment de l'Académie?" Caylus, Anne Claude Philippe, comte de, 1692-1765. Les Ecosseuses, ou, Les oeufs de Pasques : suivis de l'Histoire du porteur d'eau, ou, Les amours de la ravaudeuse, comédie : seconde partie des Etrennes de la Saint-Jean. A Troyes : Chez la veuve Oudot, et se trouvent à Paris, chez Duchesne ..., [1782?] PQ1961 C4 E4 1782 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/11/rbsc_ecosseues_oeufs_pasques_PQ1961C4E41782-engravingtp.jpg)
This collection of burlesque stories, undated, brings together an edition of the Étrennes de la Saint-Jean, and the second edition of the Écosseuses ou les oeufs de Pasques, introduced as the second part of the Étrennes for the first time in 1757. Caption of the frontispiece: “Vers par rapport à ce présent Livre. De la Langue il est le soutien, / De plus, c’est qu’il y a du génie: / Commere, est-ce que ça n’ vaut pas bien / Un compliment de l’Académie?”
Caylus, Anne Claude Philippe, comte de, 1692-1765. Les Ecosseuses, ou, Les oeufs de Pasques : suivis de l’Histoire du porteur d’eau, ou, Les amours de la ravaudeuse, comédie : seconde partie des Etrennes de la Saint-Jean. A Troyes : Chez la veuve Oudot, et se trouvent à Paris, chez Duchesne …, [1782?]
PQ1961 C4 E4 1782 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University
Title page from vol. 17 of a collected work on French theatre.
Offenbach, Jacques, 1819-1880. La jolie parfumeuse : opéra-comique en trois actes / de MM. Hector Crémieux et Ernest Blum ; musique de Jacques Offenbach. Paris : Tresse & Stock, 1891 (Lagny : Imprimerie Émile Colin)
PQ1222 C66 v.17 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University
![Title page. Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. Monte-Cristo : drame en cinq actes et six tableaux / de MM. Alexandre Dumas et Auguste Maquet ; musique de M Varney ... [Paris] : N. Tresse, éditeur, Palais-Royal, [1848?] (Paris : Impr. de Boulé). PQ1222 C66 v.17 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University PQ2235 D43 N37 1890z Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University](https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/files/2014/11/rbsc_monte_cristo_drame_PQ2235D43N371890z-tp.jpg)
Title page.
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. Monte-Cristo : drame en cinq actes et six tableaux / de MM. Alexandre Dumas et Auguste Maquet ; musique de M Varney … [Paris] : N. Tresse, éditeur, Palais-Royal, [1848?] (Paris : Impr. de Boulé).
PQ1222 C66 v.17 Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University
PQ2235 D43 N37 1890z Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University