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.

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.

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.

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).

The collection consists of 350 titles from the personal library of the philosopher and man of letters, George Santayana (1863-1952). The subject focus of this portion of Santayana's library, purchased by the University of Waterloo Library during the 1960's, could be characterized as interdisciplinary, with works in philosophy, literature, religion, and history. Many of the books were presented to Santayana by their authors. The collection is supplemented by reference and critical materials related to the life and work of Santayana as well as editions of Santayana's own writings. First or early editions of most of Santayana's works are included.

One of the most interesting and significant features of the Library of George Santayana is that many of the books from his personal library contain annotations in his own handwriting. These notes reveal his opinions and thoughts about the writings of others. The collection includes Santayana's own copies of his three-volume autobiography, with his corrections and notes to his publisher.

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.

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.

The Women and Work collection consists of 74 contemporary British and European imprints which focus upon women and the workplace.

Included are autobiographical accounts, which range from Dorothy C. Keeley's The Crowded Stairs: Recollections of Social Work in Liverpool 1919-1940 (London: National Council of Social Services, 1961) to Sex work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry (London: Virago Press, 1987). Other personal accounts include: The Life and Writing of a Working Woman (London: Virago Press, 1984) by Ada Nield Chew, which describes her work in the Women's Trade Union League and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; and Front Line Heroines: Stories of Ten Soviet Women (Soviet War News, 1945).

Commentaries on women in the workplace are represented by such titles as Women in Industry: a Marx House Syllabus (Southampton: Lawrence and Wishart Ltd., [n. d.]); Helping Women at Work: the Women's Industrial Council, 1889-1914 (London: Hutchison, 1985); and Willing Hearts and Ready Hands: the Labours and Triumphs of Earnest Women (London: Nelson, 1883).

The Indigenous publications collection is a selection of published holdings held by Special Collections & Archives related to Indigenous peoples in Canada and abroad. with a primary focus on First Nations, Inuit, Métis communities. The collection consist of of books, periodicals, zines, and other published materials, produced by, about, and in the language(s) of various Indigenous peoples and communities.

Titles in this collection are varied in topic and will be of interest to those interested in grassroots activism, self-determination governance, land rights and stewardship, community building, and settler and religious colonialism.

A book of prayers and catechism for the use of the Montagnais Indians by Jean Baptiste de La Brosse, a Jesuit missionary. This is one of the few books ever to be printed in the Montagnais dialect.

"This Psalm is from the new book of Hymns and Psalms translated and printed by John W. Sanborn, aided by the Seneca Indians."

Free quarterly publication containing reports, opinions, poetry, and essays from incarcerated members of the Native Brotherhood of Indians and Métis of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary.

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.

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.

The bpNichol Library of Science Fiction, acquired in 1990, consists of more than 500 science fiction titles from the private library of the late Canadian writer, Barrie Phillip 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.

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.

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 (D0128). Another early Latin edition (D1029) is dated 1510. This unique work is also bound in a palimpsest parchment, which shows traces of effaced Hebrew text. This particular edition is also a so-called "ghost edition" where for many years bibliographies listed it as having been printed in the year 1515, a mistake in reading the date in the colophon.

The collection includes the first translation of the Elements into a modern language (1543, D0126), and the first edition printed in France (1516, D0272).

The first English language edition (1570, D0127) is an important edition that features pop-up figures of polyhedrons to help learners visualize Euclidean shapes. It is also includes the most comprehensive notes on Euclid to that point, also written by translator Henry Billingsley. The preface is also of note, as it was written by John Dee, alchemist and more to Queen Elizabeth I. The printer was John Daye, one of the preeminent printers of Post-Reformation England. At some point in the lived history of the book conservation work was done and binder's waste in the form of 14th century mss were discovered.

One of the most famous forays into pedagogical experimentation is the Byrne edition, using coloured printing (1847, G1947). Created by mathematician Oliver Byrne, it covers the first 6 books of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, and attempts to present Euclid's proofs in terms of pictures using only primary colours. It was published by William Pickering and printed by Chiswick Press. Although it was, and still is, considered an important item in the history of printing, it unfortunately directly contributed to the bankruptcy of the firm six years later.

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.

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.

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.

Original accession includes over 115 Heitmatbücher (German for "home books") that document the stories and histories of the villages that were inhabited by the Danube Swabians (German: Donauschwaben) in Central Europe: Romania, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia. Many of these books also contain genealogies, some dating back to the 18th century. The Heimatbücher are a unique and rich resource for anyone interested in the history and migration of the Donauschwaben people.

An addition to the Henry Fischer Schwaben Heimatbuch Collection contains 13 items documenting the history and genealogy of Donauschwaben people living in southeastern Europe. Many of the titles are rare, having been created by and for the communities and published in only small print runs.

A genealogist, Mr. Fischer has devoted much of his life to documenting the history of his people and to collecting these Heitmatbücher.

Materials relating to the research and teaching life of Dr. Ralph Chou. Includes materials on ocular safety, viewing solar eclipses, and safety standards and regulations. Also present is a collection of materials from the Science Teacher's Association of Ontario of which Dr. Chou was a member.

Materials created by the Science Teacher's Association of Ontario and collected by Dr. Ralph Chou during his time as a member of the organization.

STAO guide on auditing your laboratory for safety.

STAO guide to laboratory safety.

STAO guide to safety in physics classrooms.

STAO safety committee guide to running a safe science program.

STAO safe science education plan of action for school boards.

STAO annual conference final report.

STAO annual conference final report.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO health and safety reference guide for science and technology curriculum grades 1-8. Second edition.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO annual conference programme.

STAO board meeting minutes and related materials from October 13,2007-May 15, 2010.

STAO board meeting minutes and related materials from October 4, 2003-May 12, 2007.

Photocopy of the STAO letters patent.

STAO safety committee meeting minutes and related materials from January 23, 2004-April 14, 2007.

STAO safety committee meeting minutes and related materials from September 25, 1992-November 26, 2003.

STAO health and safety reference guide for science and technology curriculum grades 1-8. Ontario edition.

STAO safety committee meeting minutes and related materials from September 21, 2007-July 5, 2011.

STAO safety committee meeting minutes and related materials from April 20, 2013-April 26, 2014

Files kept by Ralph Chou during his time on the STAO safety committee relating to activities and projects of the committee. Includes notes on publications, workshops, and science teacher safety questions.

STAO safety committee guide to safety in junior & intermediate science.

STAO design guide for science laboratory facilities.

Draft of a training manual created by STAO for science teachers for grades 9-12.

Volunteer manual for members of the STAO safety committee.

STAO annual report for the year ending August 31, 2006.

STAO health and safety reference guide for secondary school science.

STAO health and safety reference guide for science and technology curriculum K-9.

STAO guide to aspects of safety in school science and technology for key stages 1 and 2.

STAO guide to safety in chemistry classrooms.

STAO science works workshop on energy and control for grade eight students.

STAO science works workshop on astronomy for grade nine students.

STAO guide to lab safety in experiments.

Papers published by Dr. Ralph Chou during the course of his career.

Research for and copies of the article “optical protection factors of selected safety lenses” for the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

Article by Ralph Chou, and Anthony Cullen.

Article by Ralph Chou, J.G. Strong, G.C. Woo, and J.A. Holterman.

Chapter article written by Ralph Chou for a publication from the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia.

Article by Ralph Chou, Gloria Yuen, Thao Ngo, Brian Cheng, Stephen Dain.

Book chapter by Ralph Chou and Donald Pitts.

Materials relating to a course on problems in environmental vision taught by Ralph Chou at the Department of Optometry, Hogeschool van Utrecht.

Article by Ralph Chou.

Article by Ralph Chou.

Notes from a workshop designed for faculty members in the School of Optometry to help ensure that they were teaching to a standard above the College of Optometrists of Ontario quality assurance standards.

Article by Ralph Chou.

Article by Ralph Chou and Weylin Eng.