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Kaufman Footwear fonds : 2005 accrual.

Accrual consists of records retained by members of the Kaufman Family relating to Kaufman Footwear. Most files originated with A.R. Kaufman and include factory orders and memoranda, catalogues, material relating to shoe testing, material relating to the history of the company and photographs. Fonds contains clippings, correspondence, ephemera, publications, mss., newsletters, photographs, and videocassettes,.

Kaufman Footwear

William H. Kaufman fonds.

Fonds consists of records relating to the career and activities of William H. Kaufman, primarily his volunteer and charitable activities in Kitchener, Ontario. Includes correspondence, ephemera, financial records, minutes, handwritten notes, reports, etc.

Kaufman, William Hutton

Ralph G. Stanton fonds.

Fonds consists of material relating to the activities, interests and career of Ralph G. Stanton from 1935 to 1995, beginning with his school days in the 1930's and 40's. Consists primarily of personal and professional correspondence to and from Ralph G. Stanton and family members, friends, colleagues and students. Includes clippings, correspondence, ephemera, examination papers, periodical articles, memoranda, etc.

Stanton, Ralph G.

Dr. Donald D. Cowan fonds.

Material created and accumulated by Donald Cowan related to his career at the University of Waterloo and contributions to the field of computer science.

Cowan, Donald D.

Dare Foods Limited fonds.

Fonds consists of records generated in the course of business by Dare Foods Limited and its subsidiary companies. It includes financial statements; account books; minutes; correspondence; letters patent; legal records; share registers; biscuit, cracker and candy formulas; architectural drawings; biscuit, cracker and candy packaging samples; price lists; photographs; television, radio and print advertisements; publications; artifacts; manuals; the records of J.R. Worthington; internal newsletters; and newspaper clippings. Fonds also contains the records of The Almer Company Limited and Sunbeam Shoes, companies acquired privately by Carl Dare.

Dare Foods Limited

Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation fonds.

Fonds consists of material relating to the history and operation of the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation from its founding in 1984 to the present. It includes correspondence, committee minutes and agendas, ephemera, financial statements, publications, reports, speeches, photographs, sound recordings and video recordings and electronic records.

Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation

Harry Byers fonds

Materials relating to the professional and personal life of Harry J. Byers. Includes biographical documents, including his passport and WW1 papers, ephemera, clippings and correspondence as well as approximately 270 photographs of Harry Byers and his family. Also included are photographs from Byers' time living in Russia, and a diary recounting the two years he was there.

Byers, Harry J.

Frederick Arthur Edmonds fonds.

Fonds consists of four notebooks kept by Frederick Arthur Edmonds as diaries as well as a typed transcript. The notebooks include details regarding Edmonds' experiences during WWI.

Edmonds, Frederick Arthur

Kaufman Footwear fonds.

Fonds consists of material relating to the history, operation and products of the Kaufman Rubber Company, later Kaufman Footwear. Includes catalogues of products, documentation of formulae, compounds, in-house "written standard practice" manuals illustrating industrial processes. Includes corespondence, clippings, ephemera, memoranda, photographs, publications, reports, and sound recordings.

Kaufman Footwear

Anne Innis Dagg fonds.

Material relating to the activities, career, research and writings of Anne Innis Dagg. Files contain extensive annotations and commentary by Anne Innis Dagg.

Dagg, Anne Innis

J. Wesley Graham fonds : 2003 accrual : WATFAC files.

Accrual consists of material relating to the history, organization and operation of Waterloo Foundation for the Advancement of Computing, Inc. from its foundation in 1974 to 1998. A large portion of the files deal with individual fellowships funded by WATFAC. Includes correspondence, reports, legal documents, financial information, electronic records (computer disks) and photographs.

Graham, J. Wesley (James Wesley)

Walter Bean Community Trails Foundation fonds.

Fonds consists of material relating to activities and operations of the Walter Bean Community Trails Foundation from 1998-2002. Includes artwork, clippings, correspondence, ephemera, maps, minutes, photographs, publications, speech notes and videocassettes.

Walter Bean Grand River Community Trails Foundation

Augustine, Ham, Kaufman family fonds.

Material related to the lives and activities of members of the Augustine and Kaufman families of Kitchener, Ontario and of the Ham family of Toronto, Ontario, in particular of the parents, aunt and grandparents of Mary Ham. Includes biographical information, clippings, correspondence, diaries, ephemera and photographs.

Augustine, Ham, Kaufman family

Westmount Golf and Country Club (Kitchener, Ont.) fonds.

The fonds consists of material relating to the history and operation of the Westmount Golf and Country Club in Kitchener, Ont. from its beginnings in 1929-1930 to 2000. Original documents include Board of Directors and other committee minutes, financial statements, tournament planning files, publications and ephemera as well as photographs and slides. The bulk of the fonds consists of manuscripts and other material gathered and prepared in for the publication of a 50th Anniversary history, Westmount Golf and Country Club, published in 1981.

Westmount Golf and Country Club (Kitchener, Ont.)

Schneider family collection : accrual 2004

Accrual consists of material relating to descendants of Johann Christoph and Anna Elizabeth Schneider, in particular Herbert J. Schneider and J.M. Schneider Inc. Includes clippings, correspondence, audio cassettes, photographs, etc.

Schneider family

Schneider family collection : accrual 2003

Accrual consists of material relating to descendants of Johann Christoph and Anna Elizabeth Schneider, their families, friends and activities. It also contains genealogical information about the Schneider and Ahrens families. Includes clippings, correspondence, audio cassettes, photographs, etc.

Schneider family

Schneider family collection

Fonds consists of material relating to descendants of Johann Christoph and Anna Elizabeth Schneider, their families, friends and activities. It also contains genealogical information about the Schneider and Ahrens family origins in Germany and relatives there. Includes clippings, correspondence, ephemera, films, manuscripts, photographs, slides, etc.

Schneider family

Edwin B. Dunke fonds.

Accounts of the German Baptist Church from 1894-1923. The volume contains lists of members, including many familiar local names, and statements of accounts. It also contains documents relating to the Benton St. Baptist Church, including annual reports and financial statements ca. 1919-1930.

Like many other Kitchener natives, E.B. Dunke seems to have purchased land in Saskatchewan, documented by one file of correspondence.

Edwin Dunke was probably the proprietor, or part owner, of Dunke and Co., a grocery store at 35 King. St. E. between Queen and Benton Streets. The "day books" of this store, complete with customers' names, purchases and store inventories reveal the daily lives, diets and purchasing patterns of local families and individuals from 1896 to 1930.

Dunke, Edwin B.

William Dendy fonds.

  • SCA146-GA119
  • Accession
  • [ca. 1900], 1921-[194-], 1963-1993, predominant 1970-1992
  • Part of William Dendy fonds.

Fonds consists of materials documenting William Dendy's life and career as an architectural historian including university course notes, research material for published works, research material on the history of Canadian architecture and other research interests such as Forest Hill, Hamilton, the architects Frank Darling and William Somerville, and the Massey family. Some materials relate to Dendy's teaching activities, Toronto walking tours and consultancy projects.

Also present are articles, card files, clippings, correspondence, electronic records, ephemera, manuscripts, maps, manuscript and typescript notes, as well as photographs, negatives, and approximately 40,000 slides (including more than 17,000 images of Canadian architecture, urban space, and landscape). The slides were taken by Dendy and are each individually identified by him.

Dendy, William

Mary Johnston fonds.

The fonds consists of materials belonging to Mary Johnston which she acquired during her time as a school teacher and principal, as a member of various teachers organizations, and during the time she spent serving on various education-related local and provincial committees. This collection consists of correspondence, legal documents, minutes and other supporting documents re meetings, course materials produced for training courses and workshops, summary reports and other supporting documents re conferences, clippings, publications, printed materials, scrapbooks, and ephemera.

Johnston, Mary

Eric P. McCormack fonds : 2003 accrual

The accrual consists of materials documenting Eric McCormack's career as a writer. It contains manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, ephemera, and correspondence.

McCormack, Eric P.

Eric P. McCormack fonds.

The fonds consists of materials documenting Eric McCormack's career as a writer. It contains manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, ephemera, and correspondence.

McCormack, Eric P.

Concordia Club fonds.

The majority of the archives of the Concordia Club were destroyed either as a result of the ransacking of the club by the 118th Batallion in 1916, or as a result of the fire of Nov. 17, 1971. As a result the earliest records of Concordia have largely been lost forever. A very small number of items can be traced back to the Concordia Male Choir (1873-1914). These take the form of two items of correspondence, programs for the "Sängerfests", clippings, and photographs. A small number of archival records also can be found which belonged to the "Deutscher Club, Kitchener" (1925-1930), and include a set of house rules, letters patent, and photographs. Some records from the 1930s have also been preserved to this day, and include artifacts, clippings, legal documents, a membership list, photographs, and programs of events. However, the majority of the materials date from the 1950s onwards. These materials document the history of the Concordia Club since the 1950s, and include artifacts, audiovisual material, clippings, correspondence, ephemera, financial records, legal documents, membership records, minutes of meetings, photographs, publications, and scrapbooks.

Concordia Club

R. J. Brown fonds.

Nineteen file folders of material (originally stored in a binder) relating to the Y.M.C.A. Chorus over the period 1935-1940. Materials include group photographs with members identified, itineraries, list of songs, a list of members, ephemera, one audio cassette, and current correspondence from the Y.M.C.A. and Schneiders. Also includes contemporary materials on archival donations of the materials.

Brown, Robert J.

Frances Kathleen Montgomery fonds.

Correspondence, diaries, ephemera, manuscripts, photographs and artifacts, documenting the life and career of Frances Kathleen Montgomery. Also present is a small amount of material, primarily photographs, relating to the Montgomery and Havey families.

Montgomery, Frances Kathleen

Haney, Haney, Kendall & Melville fonds.

Although few in number, the documents in this fonds are interesting the many insights they contain into the history of the local area. They consist mostly of land transactions, mortgages, declarations, and power of attorney. Some seem to have been retained as they pertain to personal or family business of members of the firm, such as documents relating to the estate of Christian Kumpf, whose daughter married A.B. McBride.

Some documents relate to well known names in the history of the area, such as David Kuntz of Kuntz Breweries and John Hoffman, for whom a survey of Waterloo was done in 1855, Thomas Hilliard, Charles Noecker, Ford S. Kumpf, etc.

Evidence of printing activity is present in legal forms printed by local booksellers and stationers for the firm. The documents contain evidence of trades and occupations of the time, including marble cutter, tailor, hotel keeper, farmer, woolen mill employee, button turner, shoe merchant, cabinet maker, tobbaconist, cigar box manufaturer, brewer, pumpmaker, telephone agent, etc. Also interesting to note is the shift to the use of a typewriter and the appearance of a female employee described as a "stenographer." Interesting also is the relative level of literacy evident in the signatures of individuals, particularly those of husbands and wives, many of whom are represented only by their "mark."

Haney, Haney, Kendall & Melville

Seagram Museum fonds.

The materials in this collection were assembled by Seagram Museum staff from a number of sources and reflect the museum's focus on the beverage alcohol industry in the North American context. It contains articles, clippings, correspondence, ephemera, etc. and includes correspondence with wine merchants re shipments by sea, information illustrative of bootlegging, prohibition, temperance, etc.

This fonds also contains accession registers, correspondence, invoice copies, purchase order copies, and other materials relating to the acquisition of book and archival material by the Seagram Museum Library and Archives.

Seagram Museum

Seagram family fonds.

The contents of these files were assembled by Seagram Museum Staff from a variety of sources, and consist of original documents, including clippings, correspondence, ephemera, estate records, photographs, scrapbooks, wills, etc. Some documents are photocopies. Wherever possible the original Seagram Museum accession number is included in the descriptions. As the materials were acquired from several sources, coverage is uneven. The largest group of materials centres around Joseph Edward Frowde Seagram, grandson of Joseph Emm Seagram, with lesser focus on his father, Edward Frowde, and grandparents, Joseph Emm Seagram and Stephanie Urbs. A few documents are present relating to the estate of Octavius Seagram, father of Joseph Emm, as well as wills and associated correspondence of Wiltshire Seagrams. Photographs of the McLachlan family of Guelph, Ont., of the Bland Family, and of Warnock family members are present, as is biographical material pertaining to the Hespeler family as well as to the Seagram family.

Seagram Family

Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Ltd. fonds.

This fonds contains originals and copies of correspondence, legal instruments, licenses, manuscripts, photographs, ephemera, plans, reports, and topical files relating to the early history of the Seagram Company to 1911, and from its incorporation in 1911 to 1928, when it was purchased by the Bronfman family. The records of Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Ltd., actually stretch beyond the 1928 date, as many records emanate from the Waterloo plant and document certain of its activities to the 1950's and 1960's. The sousfonds contains information about the incorporation of the company under its various names, on imports and exports of alcohol to and from the plant, on registration of labels, and on subsidiary operations such as feed stuffs. It also includes information about the distillery site itself, in the form of topical files, reports, plans and photographs. Information on local history is also present, as the Seagram family and company figured largely in local business, political and social circles.

Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Ltd.

United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area fonds

Material relating to the organization, administration and operation of the United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area from 1941-1994. Included are include correspondence, minutes and reports, financial records, publications, ephemera, scrapbooks, sound and moving image material, artifacts, and other material created or received in the course of business. The fonds includes material relating to the organization, management and results of yearly campaigns, as well as material relating to the allocation of funds to member agencies. Information about member agencies is present as well and includes their financial reports and ephemera. Publications issued by local, provincial and other social service agencies and United Ways help provide a context for understanding the larger framework within which the local organization functions.

United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area

Muskoka Lakes Association fonds.

Records documenting most aspects of the activities of the Muskoka Lakes Association from 1894 to the 1990s, with some gaps in coverage. Materials present include correspondence, committee minutes and annual reports, financial records, legal records, publications, ephemera, audiovisual material, and artifacts.

Muskoka Lakes Association

Interview with Don Cowan.

A sound recording of an interview conducted by Dr. Anne Millar with Don Cowan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, for the Oral History Hub pilot project. The interview includes discussions about Cowan's family background, their decision to come to Waterloo and the path that brought them here, as well as their thoughts about the institution and where it will be at 100 years old, in 2057. Additional topics include computer science, IBM, Computer Science Days, math contests, WATFOR, WATFIV, MicroWAT, Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, intellectual property, startups, co-op, Wes Graham, Ralph Stanton, Doug Wright, Ken Fryer, Paul Dirksen, Paul Cress, and Pat Fisher. The interview was conducted virtually from Waterloo, Ontario. File also contains a transcript of the interview.

University of Waterloo Archives

Rev. F.J.T. Maines files (file 2 of 5).

Manuscript and typescript notes for and drafts of sermons, talks, etc. dating from 1931-1953, clippings regarding World War II, birding, manuscript and typescript copies of poems and sayings, and one 1941 Year Book containing 5 p. manuscript notes.

Maines Pincock Family

Black Oral Histories.

In partnership with the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism, the University of Waterloo Archives (UWA) conducted a series of interviews to capture the voices of Black students, faculty and staff connected to the University of Waterloo. The goal for the Black Oral Histories project was to preserve histories in a way that is familiar to Black identity and Blackness as the African diaspora has a deeply embedded oral history culture.

Interviewees were selected by members of an advisory committee that was struck to ensure the project captured a cross-selection of individuals from the Waterloo community. Working with Jermal Jones, Associate Director, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access, Library, six people were interviewed.

The interviewees include:

  • 1. Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae, artist, poet, and associate professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo

  • 2. Darrell Adams, Head Coach for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and formerly the Associate Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator and Recruiting Coordinator for the University of Waterloo men's football team

  • 3. Lannois Carroll-Woolery, Manager of Data Analytics & Reporting for the Department of Institutional Analysis & Planning at the University of Waterloo, and current President of the Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo Region (CCAWR)

  • 4. Dr. Murchison Callender, Professor Emeritus, School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Waterloo

  • 5. Samantha Lange, student studying physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo

  • 6. Dr. Vershawn Young, an artist, actor, diversity consultant and joint appointed professor in Communications Arts and English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo where he has been the director of Waterloo's Black Studies program since its launch in 2022

The collection contains the audio recordings and transcripts for each of the interviews.

University of Waterloo Archives

University of Waterloo Oral History Hub pilot.

The University of Waterloo Archives (UWA) conducted an oral history pilot project in 2022 to actively document the University’s history through the lived experiences of staff, faculty, and students. This project took place to ensure that the perspectives of the interviewees are incorporated into the archival memory.

Interviewees were selected by members of an advisory committee that was struck to ensure the project captured a cross-selection of individuals from the Waterloo community. Working with historian Dr. Anne Millar, several staff, faculty, and students were interviewed.

The interviewees include:

  • Aaron Francis, PhD candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs

  • Professor Anita Layton, Canada 150 Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine

  • Brandon Sweet, Associate Director, Internal and Leadership Communications, University Relations

  • Camille Huo, student, School of Pharmacy

  • Professor Don Cowan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Cheriton School of Computer Science

  • Jacky Beckford-Henriques, Swimming Head Coach, Athletics

  • Jennifer Shousterman, Executive Assistant, Office of the President

  • Judi Jewinski, retired Administrative Dean, Renison University College

The interviews include discussions about the interviewees family background, their decision to come to Waterloo and the path that brought them there, as well as their thoughts about the institution and where it will be at 100 years old, in 2057.

University of Waterloo Archives

Farm and home patterns scrapbook.

One scrapbook with patterns for knitting, embroidery, lace, crochet, and more, taken from the "Busy Fingers" column of Farm and Home magazine. The back of the scrapbook also includes handwritten lace and edging patterns with small samples of the work.

118th battalion, Kitchener, Ontario.

Film features scenes of the Kitchener fire department equipment including cars and horse-drawn fire vehicles leaving the station and traveling down an unidentified street. Crowds on a street, a street car, automobiles. The 118th Battalion on parade with crowds lining either side of the street and the downtown Kitchener area. Soldiers leaving a building and exercising on a field, possibly Victoria Park.

Kitchener-Waterloo Record

Knitting patterns and samples scrapbook.

One scrapbook with handwritten knitting patterns and samples. Patterns include a star quilt, edging, broad lace, lace for pillow cases, Grandma's lace, wristlets, lace insertions, crochet slippers, knitted block for a counterpane as well as an advertising leaflet for sewing silks.

Bertram R. Davis "Robert Southey" Collection.

The collection centres on Robert Southey and Bristol and gives an overview of the social, political, and literary upheaval which gave birth to the Romantic movement and shaped the rest of the nineteenth century. The collection also contains material on Spain, Portugal and Brazil, Russia and Napoleon, France and the Revolution, as well as numerous works on travel in the British Isles and elsewhere. Also present is a selection of twentieth-century works which elucidate Bertram Davis' interests, friendships, and scholarly connections.

Almost all of Robert Southey's published works are represented, and almost all of these are in the first edition. Several works were formerly owned by Robert Southey.

The University of Waterloo has published a catalogue of the collection: Catalogue of the Bertram R. Davis "Robert Southey" Collection compiled by Jane Britton (PR4467 .U55x 1990).

Seagram Museum Rare Book Collection

In 1997, the Seagram Company and the Seagram Museum donated the rare book collection and the early archives held by the Seagram Museum Library to the University of Waterloo Library.

The collection of more than 1200 titles covers every aspect of the beverage alcohol industry. Topics include distillation, wine and wine making, brewing, viticulture, bottling and cooperage, taxation and government regulations, temperance and prohibition, the culinary arts, and advertising.

The collection complements the University of Waterloo Library's existing research collections in the fields of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the history of technology as well as the decorative arts, temperance, and social history.

The earliest imprint is the 1545 Italian translation of Charles Estienne's Vinetum..., an early work on viticulture. Other notable early works include De Secretis Remediis aut Potius Thesaurus by Konrad Gesner (1554), and Livre du Vigneron et du Fabricant du Cidre ... et Autres Vins de Fruits by Joseph de Mauny de Mornay (1838).

The collection includes many examples of fine bindings and illustrations.

Also present is a small group of books that belonged to the Seagram family.

Seagram Museum

Urban Planning Town Guide Collection.

  • Book Collection

Special Collections & Archives holds a variety of town guides from cities across the UK. Most significant urban centres in the British Isles are represented, and there is a comprehensive collection of guides to places which became Greater London in 1965.

The guides can provide a benchmark for assessing the very substantial changes which have affected British urban places in the past 60 years, and may be of interest to researchers in a variety of disciplines.

The town guides vary in size from a slender brochure of 30 pages for a small Urban District to large-format volumes of over 300 pages for a major City and County Borough such as Liverpool.

William Blake Collection.

  • Book Collection

The William Blake Collection consists of more than 200 titles of which the majority are facsimiles of Blake's works or privately-printed reprints and editions containing facsimiles of the illustrations. The collection also forms part of a larger collection devoted to joint painter-illustrator-author books that include followers of Blake, e.g. Palmer & Calvert, William Morris, Eric Gill, and David Jones.

One of the highlights of the William Blake Collection is the 1951 Trianon Press edition of William Blake's Jerusalem.

Blake, William

Sol Eisen Collection of Canadiana, Americana, Mexicana and Incunabula.

The Sol Eisen Collection of Canadiana is a collection of 179 rare, and in some cases, previously unrecorded, books, pamphlets, and printed ephemera from Quebec, Ontario, and Western Canada. The collection was presented to the University of Waterloo Library by Morton Eisen of Toronto in 1993. Sol Eisen (1898-1974), a Toronto lawyer, first began his "collecting hobby" with baseball cards in 1911. The focus of his collection eventually turned to rare books, and the variety and quality of the material he acquired are testimony to the diligence and enthusiasm with which he pursued his hobby.

Highlights of the Sol Eisen Collection of Canadiana include its earliest imprint, Nehiro-Iriniui Aiamihe Massinahigan (1767), a book of prayers and catechism for the Montagnais Indians by the Jesuit missionary, Jean Baptiste de La Brosse. This is one of the few books ever to be printed in the Montagnais dialect. Also important among the early imprints is, Traite de la loi des fiefs (1775), a compilation of four publications by Francois Cugnet which sets forth the basic principles of the civil law of the French Regime (still in force in the Province of Quebec).

Several imprints are of great rarity. Included in this category are a children's book printed in Brockville in 1826 entitled, First Book for Children; an 1839 edition of Wilson's Border Tales; and two previously unknown almanacs, The Upper Canada Almanac and Provincial Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 1831, and The Toronto Farmers' and Mechanicks' Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1838. Other items not noted in the standard bibliographies include an 1879 broadside printed in Winnipeg entitled, A Grand Display of Manitoba Products ... Selected for the Ottawa Exhibition. Only one other copy is known to exist of Swift's York County Almanac for the Year 1832, which is also of interest by virtue of its printer, William Lyon MacKenzie.

Other notable items include two books printed in the Cree language at Moose Factory, one in 1896, and the other in 1859.

William Dendy Library.

The William Dendy Library consists of more than 3,500 books and 2,500 periodical issues. For the most part, the collection focuses on the history of architecture, but other topics, such as music and literature, are featured as well.

Artists books

  • Book Collection
  • 1934-2017

Artists’ books (defined as: books or book-like objects over the final appearance of which an artist has had a high degree of control; where the book is intended as a work of art in itself) can be located using the library catalogue. Authors include Palmer & Calvert, William Morris, and David Jones.

All items in this collection are located in Special Collections & Archives and are non-circulating.

Fine bindings

  • Book Collection
  • 1630-1973

Many of the holdings of Special Collections & Archives represent fine bindings, unique bindings and the works of famous printers and binders. Examples include signed bindings, metal, velvet and papier-mache bindings, and bindings by well-known bookbinders such as Joseph Zaehnsdorf, and Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

B.M. Bower Western Novels Collection.

  • Book Collection
  • 1910-1950

The B.M. Bower Western Novels Collection, acquired in 2015, consists of over 70 American western novels written by Bertha Muzzy Sinclair (known as B.M. Bower) and her husband Bertrand Sinclair. Many of the books in this collection also feature pictorial cover art.

Bower, B.M.

British Women's Periodicals Collection

  • Book Collection
  • 1893-1977

The British Women's Periodicals Collection is made up of some 35,000 issues of British women's magazines published from 1893 to 1977. The majority of titles were published by the Amalgamated Press and publishers which it absorbed, and many copies are, in fact, copies from the publishers' own archives. Most titles in the collection are very rare.

Because these magazines were aimed at a mass market audience, the British Women's Periodicals Collection offers a unique opportunity to examine the interests and concerns of British women during the time period covered. The collection's content is primarily "popular" fiction written for a female audience, but magazines for children and youth are also well represented. Cooking, crafts, advice columns, fashion, health, and inspirational topics are also featured. Of particular interest are the advertisements, which illustrate contemporary attitudes in a vivid manner.

Euclid and the History of Mathematics.

  • Book Collection
  • 1557-1981

The nucleus of this collection, begun by the University of Waterloo's first dean of Graduate Studies, Dr. R. Stanton and the University's first librarian, Mrs. Doris Lewis, during the 1960's, is 45 editions of Euclid's Elements of Geometry The collection has continued to be developed as a special collection. A collection of 110 nineteenth century mathematics books was acquired in 1981.

The earliest edition of Euclid's Elements of Geometry is dated 1505. The collection includes the first translation of the Elements into a modern language (1543), the first English language edition (1570), the Byrne edition, using coloured printing (Pickering, 1847), and the first edition printed in France (1516).

The collection includes 9 of the 46 editions listed by Thomas-Stanford in his Early Editions of Euclid's Elements (which lists editions published prior to 1600), some of which are of "great rarity" according to Thomas-Stanford. The collection is particularly useful in showing the transmission and teaching of the Elements from almost the earliest printed form to modern texts. Unusual methods of presenting geometry are represented in books with movable stand-up diagrams from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and the "Pickering Euclid" of 1847, which uses colours rather than letters to describe theorems.

Henry H. Crapo Dance Collection.

  • Book Collection
  • 1604-1985

The Doris Lewis Rare Book Room houses a sizeable special collection of rare materials related to the history of dance and ballet. The nucleus of the dance collection is the 150 items donated in 1975 by Dr. Henry Crapo, a former University of Waterloo faculty member. Dr. Crapo has continued to support the collection over the years.

Dr. Crapo's donation contains some rare and beautiful works on ballet: works by Negri, Caroso, Noverre, De la Cuisse, Arena, Dumanoir, Blasis and Bakst. The subject strengths of the collection reflect Dr. Crapo's interests in choreography and dance notation.

Of the seventeenth-century materials found here, some of the finest are Negri's Nuove inventioni de balli (Milan: 1604); Caroso's Nobilita di Dame (Venice: 1605), and Du Manoir's Le mariage de la musique avec la dance (1664).

The largest addition to the dance collection was the 300-volume collection acquired with the assistance of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant in 1982. This collection, with imprints ranging in date from 1687 to the mid-twentieth century, adds a new research dimension in the form of illustrated works containing lithographs and engravings of the period of the Romantic ballet. The provenance of the majority of works in this collection--a portion of the personal library of George Chaffee--a leading dance writer of the twentieth century, accounts in part for its strength. Many of the books Chaffee consulted in his research for his most famous writings on ballet are now a part of the Waterloo collections.

In 1985, another grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made it possible for the Library to purchase over two dozen books supportive of the Crapo Collection.

Special Collections & Archives has prepared a digital exhibit featuring some of the items from the Henry H. Crapo Dance Collection.

Marie Stopes and the History of Birth Control Book Collection.

This collection, funded by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Kaufman Footwear of Kitchener, Ont., consists of about 400 items published between 1906 and the 1980's related to the British birth control pioneer, Dr. Marie Stopes. A collection of archival material, the Marie Stopes archive, complements the book collection.

Included are first and scarce editions of Marie Stopes' writings on contraception, her early works in the fields of botany and geology, as well as much of her literary output. First and variant editions of her best-known books, Married Love, and Wise Parenthood, both published in 1918, are also present. The collection includes first editions of Stopes' first two published works, The Study of Plant Life for Young People (London, 1906, call number F9984), and Ancient Plants (London, 1910, call number G7956).

The collection contains an extensive selection of supporting materials about contraception and family planning by other authors. Highlights include Annie Besant's pamphlet, Law of Population (London: n.d., call number F11010), early issues of the journal, Birth Control News (call number HQ763.B46x), L. Darwin's What is Eugenics (1932, call number F9966), and W. J. Robinson's Fewer and Better Babies (New York: 1934, call number F10053).

Stopes, Marie

Gustav Seide Jakob Lorber mysticism collection

  • Book Collection
  • 1961-[2015]

Collected by Gustav Seide, this collection includes primarily works by 19th century German mystic Jakob Lorber and his circle such as Gottfried Mayerhofer. Also included are works by other mystics including Emanuel Swedenborg and religious texts including the Bhagavad Gita. Of particular note is a complete set of Lorber’s seminal work “Das große Evangelium Johannis” of the Great Gospel of John.

Seide, Gustav

Lesbian Literature Collection.

  • Book Collection
  • 1942-1980

The collection consists of 169 paperback books featuring Lesbian themes.

During the post-war period, from the late 1940's to the 1960's, a significant amount of Lesbian material became available amidst the proliferation of popular fiction published as paperback originals (sometimes referred to as "pulp" fiction). Some authors represented in this collection are: Ann Bannon, Paula Christian, Valerie Taylor, Artemis Smith, Randy Salem, March Hastings, Gale Wilhelm, Marion Zimmer Bradley (writing under the names Lee Chapman and Miriam Gardner), and Marijane Meaker (writing under the names Ann Aldrich and Vin Packer).

Hogarth Press and Virginia Woolf Book Collection.

  • Book Collection

This collection is made up of 25 first or early editions of the 35 titles by Virginia Woolf as well as 62 titles printed by the Hogarth Press. 47 of the Hogarth Press items date from the 1917-1938 period during which Virginia Woolf was associated with the Press.

Highlights of the collection include a first edition of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, and its sequel, Three Guineas, and first editions of her last two novels.

This is a representative collection that contains one example from each of most of the different series (for example, the Day to Day series, Hogarth Letters, Hogarth Essays), and examples of very early printings of some 20th century writers, such as Robert Graves, Edith Sitwell, and Gertrude Stein.

Hogarth Press

Women's Press Club of Toronto Library.

The library of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Women's Press Club is made up of presentation copies of books written by and donated by the club's members in addition to books published by significant Canadian women writers. There are over 200 books in the collection.

Included are works by such well-known figures as Mabel Dunham, Emily Murphy, Marjorie Freeman Campbell, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Katherine Hale. Also present are a number of books presented to the club by notable Canadian figures. Included are a copy of John Buchan's The Three Hostages, which he presented on October 23, 1924 "in memory of a delightful visit", Igor Gouzenko's The Fall of a Titan, which contains not only a lengthy presentation inscription but also a sketch done by him, and a signed copy of the first Canadian edition of Mazo de la Roche's Jalna.

Also included are a number of scarce children's stories in a Canadian setting, a copy of The National Ballet autographed by Margot Fonteyn, and an early biographical directory, Morgan's Types of Canadian Women, published in 1903.

Fred and Minnie Maines Library.

The collection is made up of approximately 600 books, periodicals, and ephemera related to spiritualism, psychic phenomena, and alternative religious movements. The book collection complements the archival portion of the donation, the Fred and Minnie Maines fonds.

The collection includes the library maintained by the Church of Divine Revelation and the Radiant Healing Centre, established by Newton and Jenny Pincock in St. Catharines. Fred and Minnie Maines continued to add to the collection over the years.

Many titles in the field of spiritualism are represented, such as B. F. Austin's The Prophet of Nazareth and the Seer of Poughkeepsie (Los Angeles: B. F. Austin, n.d.); Albert Durrant Watson's The Twentieth Plane (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918); Florence Marryat's There is no Death (London: Rider, 1920); Thirty Years Among the Dead, by Carl A. Wickland (Los Angeles: National Psychological Institute, 1924); and several works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Several copies of Jenny Pincock's seance accounts, Trails of Truth (Los Angeles: Austin, 1930), are available, along with the original manuscript and notes.

Also present are numerous journals from the spiritualist community, such as Light: a Journal of Spiritualism, Psychical, Occult and Mystical Research, The Occult Digest, and Two Worlds: Monthly Magazine Featuring Spiritualism and the Supernormal. A complete run of Progression, published by the Radiant Healing Centre is present. Other subjects represented include the Theosophical Society, psychic healing, numerology, and vegetarianism.

Titles of Canadian literary interest include several first editions of works by E. J. Pratt (many of which are dedicated to Jenny Pincock and her husband, Newton, a childhood friend of Pratt's), a copy of Elsie Pomeroy's Sir Charles G. D. Roberts: a Biography (Toronto: Ryerson, 1943) which contains a dedication inscription to Jenny Pincock from Roberts' widow, Joan, and Jenny Pincock's own book of poetry, Hidden Springs (Privately printed, 1950), with an introduction by E. J. Pratt.

Rosa Breithaupt Clark Architectural Collection

The Rosa Breithaupt Clark Architectural Collection is the result of an endowment made by Herbert Spencer Clark in 1982 in memory of his late wife, Rosa Breithaupt Hewetson Clark, formerly of Kitchener. Included in purchases made through this endowment are exemplary treatises from the sixteenth to the twentieth century supportive of the School of Architecture's cultural history emphasis.

Awards made in 1987 and 1990 by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada under their programme supporting the development of specialized research programmes enabled the collections to grow significantly. The first grant was dedicated to the purchase of landmark titles in the history and theory of architecture. Since the discourse of architecture ultimately looks back to the Roman writer, Vitruvius, it was appropriate that the first acquisition using these funds was a rare edition of a Vitruvian treatise printed in 1536.

The second of the SSHRC grants was awarded in 1990 specifically to support the collection in an area of critical importance: architectural developments in Northern Europe and on the North American frontier which have a profound effect on architectural theory and urban development in Canada.

A third award made by SSHRC allowed the Library to purchase The Dictionary of Architecture issued by the Architectural Publication Society (1853-1892), described as a monument to nineteenth-century scholarship.

Grand River Conservation Authority Library

The Grand River Conservation Authority Library was donated in 2005, accompanying the archival records of the Authority and its predecessors.

The Library was maintained at the GRCA headquarters for reference and research use and consists of works by and about the GRCA, including both internal and external reports and studies, periodicals, and monographs.

Unpublished library items are described as part of the GRCA archives while published items are catalogued as print material and are listed in the library catalogue.

Grand River Conservation Authority

Lady Aberdeen Library on the History of Women.

Included are some 1400 items which document the history of women through biographies and memoirs, literature, historical works, and records of women's organizations in Canada and elsewhere. Highlights among the older works in the collection include an 1852 edition of Roughing it in the Bush, by Susanna Moodie; the 1879 edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; and the 1836 edition of The Backwoods of Canada, by Catherine Parr Traill.

The University of Waterloo has issued a catalogue of the collection: A Catalogue of the Lady Aberdeen Library on the History of Women in the University of Waterloo Library, compiled by Jane Britton (Waterloo, Ont.: University of Waterloo Library, 1982).

B.P. Nichol Library of Science Fiction.

  • Book Collection
  • 1967-2014

The B.P. Nichol Library of Science Fiction, acquired in 1990, consists of more than 500 science fiction titles from the private library of the late Canadian writer, B.P. Nichol (commonly referred to as bpNichol).

Many well-known science fiction authors' first works were issued only in paperback, and this collection includes many key titles in the science fiction genre which are extremely scarce today as a result of the vulnerability of the paperback format to deterioration. The books in this collection feature many striking examples of cover art.

Private Press Book Collection.

The Private Press book collection includes items from more than 1,000 presses in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. This collection has been developed as a representative collection, with intensive coverage of selected presses, such as Hague & Gill, St. Dominic's Press, Nonesuch Press, and Golden Cockerel Press, to provide scope for in-depth study of the history and development of these particular presses. A sample selection from a wide range of other private presses gives an overview of the private press movement in the twentieth century.

Atrocities Against Indigenous Canadians for Dummies.

  • Book Collection
  • 2018-2020

A collection of seven zines created by Jenna Rose Sands on topics including cultural appropriation, residential schools, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Pow Wow etiquette and the 60s scoop. Much of the artwork is hand-drawn and includes collage work.

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