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May is Canadian Jewish Heritage month and this is thus a good time to highlight two rare and important Jewish-Canadian publications.
Milston, Sheli M. Ṿi azoy tsu ṿern a Ḳanader birger (Toronto: Blackstone Publishing Co., 19–?)
The title of this little book translates as “How to Become a Canadian Citizen.” Presumably a Holocaust-era imprint, this book includes what would have been very important guidelines for Jews fleeing Europe’s tempests once they arrived in Canada, in their native Yiddish.
According to the cover its contents include these three topics: The law regarding naturalization in Canada; Laws Concerning Deportation; The rights of a citizen in time of war.
The author is identified on the cover as a “Lawyer from Osgoode Hall, Toronto,” the law school of York University in Toronto.
Only one other copy is recorded in institutional holdings worldwide.
 
Ḳanade: a zamelbukh (Ṭoronṭo : Ferlag “Ṿisen”; 1919)
The title of this early Yiddish literary anthology translates as: “Canada: A Collection.” Contributors include important Canadian Jewish poets and authors, such as J.I Segal, Shimen Nepom and Abraham Rhinewhine, all immigrants to Canada form eastern Europe.
 
Did you know that you can now directly donate to the Judaica fund, which supports the purchase of new material in this area? link in bio!

May is Canadian Jewish Heritage month and this is thus a good time to highlight two rare and important Jewish-Canadian publications.
Milston, Sheli M. Ṿi azoy tsu ṿern a Ḳanader birger (Toronto: Blackstone Publishing Co., 19–?)
The title of this little book translates as “How to Become a Canadian Citizen.” Presumably a Holocaust-era imprint, this book includes what would have been very important guidelines for Jews fleeing Europe’s tempests once they arrived in Canada, in their native Yiddish.
According to the cover its contents include these three topics: The law regarding naturalization in Canada; Laws Concerning Deportation; The rights of a citizen in time of war.
The author is identified on the cover as a “Lawyer from Osgoode Hall, Toronto,” the law school of York University in Toronto.
Only one other copy is recorded in institutional holdings worldwide.
 
Ḳanade: a zamelbukh (Ṭoronṭo : Ferlag “Ṿisen”; 1919)
The title of this early Yiddish literary anthology translates as: “Canada: A Collection.” Contributors include important Canadian Jewish poets and authors, such as J.I Segal, Shimen Nepom and Abraham Rhinewhine, all immigrants to Canada form eastern Europe.
 
Did you know that you can now directly donate to the Judaica fund, which supports the purchase of new material in this area? link in bio!

Some things do not change much over time, namely the kinds of books people read and keep as reference sources at home. This exhibition showcases materials from the three best-selling genres of later seventeenth and eighteenth-century English print: household manuals, religious works, and light entertainment. The first encompassed practical guides from almanacs to cookbooks and gardening texts. The second consisted of devotional and didactic literature. The third comprehended a motley assortment of publications ranging from pamphlet novellas to sensational news and the latest theatrical songs. This is some of the first affordable print telling English people how to live their everyday lives.

This exhibition was curated by Professor Jennifer Mori, Department of History, University of Toronto.

Popular Culture in Early Modern English Household Print is now open!
Admission is free!
All Welcome!
May 19, 2026 - August 14, 2026

Today we are featuring a new acquisition in the area of Middle Eastern studies related to military life in the early nineteenth century.
Created in the wake of the Vak’a-i Hayriyye, this remarkable Ottoman military work was produced for presentation to high-ranking officers of the newly established elite army. Following the dissolution of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, a new imperial force emerged—disciplined, modern, and directly loyal to the throne.
This volume offers a detailed portrait of that transformation. It outlines the structure of the “Victorious Army,” from uniforms and weaponry to codes of honour and financial organization. The text also explores military tactics and strategies, illustrated through accounts of major historical battles.
Includes 17 finely executed copper-engraved maps, depicting army formations, encampments, and sieges bringing the mechanics of early 19th-century warfare vividly to life
Title: [ʻAsâkir-i Mansûr] (The Victorious Soldiers)
Date: 1245 H [1829/30 CE]
Language: Ottoman Turkish

Today we are featuring a new acquisition in the area of Middle Eastern studies related to military life in the early nineteenth century.
Created in the wake of the Vak’a-i Hayriyye, this remarkable Ottoman military work was produced for presentation to high-ranking officers of the newly established elite army. Following the dissolution of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, a new imperial force emerged—disciplined, modern, and directly loyal to the throne.
This volume offers a detailed portrait of that transformation. It outlines the structure of the “Victorious Army,” from uniforms and weaponry to codes of honour and financial organization. The text also explores military tactics and strategies, illustrated through accounts of major historical battles.
Includes 17 finely executed copper-engraved maps, depicting army formations, encampments, and sieges bringing the mechanics of early 19th-century warfare vividly to life
Title: [ʻAsâkir-i Mansûr] (The Victorious Soldiers)
Date: 1245 H [1829/30 CE]
Language: Ottoman Turkish

Today we are featuring a new acquisition in the area of Middle Eastern studies related to military life in the early nineteenth century.
Created in the wake of the Vak’a-i Hayriyye, this remarkable Ottoman military work was produced for presentation to high-ranking officers of the newly established elite army. Following the dissolution of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, a new imperial force emerged—disciplined, modern, and directly loyal to the throne.
This volume offers a detailed portrait of that transformation. It outlines the structure of the “Victorious Army,” from uniforms and weaponry to codes of honour and financial organization. The text also explores military tactics and strategies, illustrated through accounts of major historical battles.
Includes 17 finely executed copper-engraved maps, depicting army formations, encampments, and sieges bringing the mechanics of early 19th-century warfare vividly to life
Title: [ʻAsâkir-i Mansûr] (The Victorious Soldiers)
Date: 1245 H [1829/30 CE]
Language: Ottoman Turkish

Today we are featuring a new acquisition in the area of Middle Eastern studies related to military life in the early nineteenth century.
Created in the wake of the Vak’a-i Hayriyye, this remarkable Ottoman military work was produced for presentation to high-ranking officers of the newly established elite army. Following the dissolution of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826, a new imperial force emerged—disciplined, modern, and directly loyal to the throne.
This volume offers a detailed portrait of that transformation. It outlines the structure of the “Victorious Army,” from uniforms and weaponry to codes of honour and financial organization. The text also explores military tactics and strategies, illustrated through accounts of major historical battles.
Includes 17 finely executed copper-engraved maps, depicting army formations, encampments, and sieges bringing the mechanics of early 19th-century warfare vividly to life
Title: [ʻAsâkir-i Mansûr] (The Victorious Soldiers)
Date: 1245 H [1829/30 CE]
Language: Ottoman Turkish

Registration is now open for a workshop on radical and independent publishing in Latin America.

This workshop will introduce key concepts and practices emerging from the work of
independent, artisanal, radical, and community-focus editors and publishers in the region, and provide an opportunity to participants to work with books and printed matter, while reflecting on topics such as autonomy, democracy, rights, and other possible futures through the book arts.

Saturday, 6 June 2026 | 1:30-3:00PM
Printing with the Current: Independent Publishing in Latin America Today
Instructor: David Fernández
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Free. All welcome. Register online (link on bio)

Image: “+ books - bullets”, in Henry Güiza. Yo paro, yo produzco. Bogotá: Big Sur Books, 2021.

#ThikingThroughPrinting #printing #bookarts #rarebooks #specialcollections

Our ephemera collections contain material on *the other* Star Wars.
The nickname for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the ‘Star Wars’ program was the reason for protests in Canada by the Toronto Peace Education Centre, Toronto Disarmament Network, The Regina and Saskatoon Peace Councils and many others.
#maythe4th #starwars

Our ephemera collections contain material on *the other* Star Wars.
The nickname for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the ‘Star Wars’ program was the reason for protests in Canada by the Toronto Peace Education Centre, Toronto Disarmament Network, The Regina and Saskatoon Peace Councils and many others.
#maythe4th #starwars

Our ephemera collections contain material on *the other* Star Wars.
The nickname for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the ‘Star Wars’ program was the reason for protests in Canada by the Toronto Peace Education Centre, Toronto Disarmament Network, The Regina and Saskatoon Peace Councils and many others.
#maythe4th #starwars

Our ephemera collections contain material on *the other* Star Wars.
The nickname for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the ‘Star Wars’ program was the reason for protests in Canada by the Toronto Peace Education Centre, Toronto Disarmament Network, The Regina and Saskatoon Peace Councils and many others.
#maythe4th #starwars

We are treated to printed and real-life views of cherry blossoms in the reading room today.
View of Kiyomizudera from the Illustrated Guide to Kyoto and its Suburbs by Yoshii Tsunetaro. Osaka: T. Nakashima, 1891.
🌸

For World Book Day 2026, we’re presenting materials from our collections that promote democratic access to books, reading, writing, and orality inspired by the Agenda LLEA (2025) @cerlalc and @segibdigital of the @UNESCO

This display is organized by students in the graduate course INF2162: Rare Books and
Manuscripts (Winter, 2026) at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto.

Thursday, 23 April 2026 | 12–7 pm
Maclean Hunter Room | Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Free. All are welcome.

@ischool_to @uoftlibraries @uoft

Image: Spread from Bolom chon. San Cristóbal de Las Casas, México: Taller Leñateros, 2008.

A quick burst of short poems for #poetrymonth 2026: Industrial Sabotage #47/CURVD H&Z 404, edited by jwcurry, 14 January 1990.
The issues of Industrial Sabotage held at Fisher vary from crumpled poems in a film canister to this issue of 35 rubber-stamped cards held in a business card holder.
Each short poem is by a different author whose name is stamped on the verso of each card.
Fisher call number K-11 00155

A fabulous book talk today by Amelia Ackerman discussing ‘Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms’

A fabulous book talk today by Amelia Ackerman discussing ‘Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms’

Have you experienced Arctic Fever?
In just a a few weeks, our current exhibition Arctic Fever: Image and Narrative in North Circumpolar Voyaging of the Long Nineteenth Century will disappear like the winter snow.
Visit the exhibition during our opening hours until 24 April!
Free and Open to all!

Have you experienced Arctic Fever?
In just a a few weeks, our current exhibition Arctic Fever: Image and Narrative in North Circumpolar Voyaging of the Long Nineteenth Century will disappear like the winter snow.
Visit the exhibition during our opening hours until 24 April!
Free and Open to all!

Have you experienced Arctic Fever?
In just a a few weeks, our current exhibition Arctic Fever: Image and Narrative in North Circumpolar Voyaging of the Long Nineteenth Century will disappear like the winter snow.
Visit the exhibition during our opening hours until 24 April!
Free and Open to all!

CBC's The National featured a segment yesterday about unlocking the mystery of a parchment fragment from @massey_college using the Multispectral Imaging System for the Humanities and Archives (MISHA) at the Fisher Library!
Link in bio

“First started bird study 10 years ago today…”
In special collections, we think even the smallest anniversaries matter, and that the little moments can be noteworthy.
This entry from Canadian naturalist and ornithologist James Little Baillie’s journal made almost exactly 96 years ago commemorates the tenth anniversary of when he began to study birds in 1920.
Baillie joined the staff at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1922 and served in many positions there until his death in 1970. He wrote a weekly column on birds in the Toronto Evening Telegram beginning in 1931 which would continue for 39 years. A prolific lecturer and writer on the topic of ornithology, he also wrote over 300 articles.

James Little Baillie papers. Ms Coll 00127

“First started bird study 10 years ago today…”
In special collections, we think even the smallest anniversaries matter, and that the little moments can be noteworthy.
This entry from Canadian naturalist and ornithologist James Little Baillie’s journal made almost exactly 96 years ago commemorates the tenth anniversary of when he began to study birds in 1920.
Baillie joined the staff at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1922 and served in many positions there until his death in 1970. He wrote a weekly column on birds in the Toronto Evening Telegram beginning in 1931 which would continue for 39 years. A prolific lecturer and writer on the topic of ornithology, he also wrote over 300 articles.

James Little Baillie papers. Ms Coll 00127