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Sol Eisen collection.
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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.

Sol Eisen collection.

Collection consists of four files donated as part of the Sol Eisen collection of Canadiana. These items include a ms. of Mexican plays, a music manuscript, a receipt for work completed by a slave on chain gang, and materials related to the life of Frederic William Wile.

Eisen, Sol

Hunting the slipper.

File consists of one musical manuscript. written on staff paper. The manuscript is oblong and features numerous short songs, as well as small portions of notation. Notation is written in two distinct hands.

Eisen, Sol

Receipt for work performed by enslaved Black female.

File consists of one receipt, in French, for work performed by an enslaved Black female named Maria on a chain gang in New Orleans in 1825. Translation reads "Wages for negress on the chain: The city treasury will pay to Mr. D. Fitch the sum of 11 piastre and 50 cents for forty six days of work by his negress Maria, employed by the public works from August 9 to October 3." The document is signed by David Fitch and Precend Lament [?] and is dated at New Orleans, Oct. 3, 1825.

Attached to the receipt is what appears to be a clipping from the vendor catalogue which listed the item for sale. It reads:
"174. NEGRO CHAIN GANG LABOR RECEIPT. Printed document, in French, signed, one page, oblong small quarto. Nouvelle-Orleans, 1825. Interesting if not gruesome document. Receipt for labor in the chain gang performed by a negress."

Eisen, Sol

La ultima calaverada.

File consists of one ms. containing three plays in Spanish. The plays are La Ultima Calaverada, Puntapie y un Retrato, and Por no Escrivirle las Senas. The plays are each stamped with the seal of the Municipality of Puebla, indicating that they have been read and okayed by the censor.

Eisen, Sol

Sol Eisen notebook.

One notebook kept by Sol Eisen listing books he purchased, names of contacts, historical notes such as lists of philosopher and poets, names of people who attended Sunday School at his synagogue, timetables, definitions and more.

Eisen, Sol

Wile, Frederic William : ephemera.

File consists of ephemeral material related to Frederic William Wile. The first item is correspondence from Harvey Washington Wiley of the Good Housekeeping Institute discussing the disadvantages of white bread. Wiley was a noted chemist who worked for the United States Government, and later for the Good Housekeeping Institute. The file aslo includes a certificate appointing Wile as a Major, Staff Specialist in the Officers' Reserve Corps of the Army of the United States. An identification photograph of Wile was attached to the certificate.

Eisen, Sol