Author Archives: William Denton

18th century Bible and typography masterpiece acquired by Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

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18th century John Baskerville Bible placed in the care of York University Libraries

Two hundred years after its printing a copy of John Baskerville’s folio edition of the Holy Bible – one of only 1,250 printed in Cambridge, England in 1763 – made its way to Canada. That same rare Bible was transferred by Richard Tottenham to York University Libraries’ (YUL) Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, making it one of only two copies in a Canadian academic library.

 John Baskerville’s folio edition of the Holy Bible was printed by Cambridge University Press in 1763. Baskerville was recognized as a type-setting trailblazer and Random House notes that this edition of the Holy Bible is, “a Baskerville masterpiece, regarded as the finest and most important work from Baskerville’s Cambridge Press.” The Bible was printed in Baskerville’s Great Primer type which is slender and delicate, combining elegance with readability – important traits since the book was intended to be read aloud from church pulpits. T.B. Reed describes the Bible in A History of the Old English Letter Foundries as Baskerville’s “magnum opus… his most magnificent as well as most characteristic specimen.” 

Michael Moir, university archivist and head of Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, notes the scholarly value that this Bible can bring to coursework and research at York. “At first glance one may think a Bible would be an excellent teaching aid for humanities courses, but I think it could seamlessly be integrated into fine arts curriculums and research – specifically book design courses,” says Moir. “John Baskerville is known as a typographic expert and this folio edition of the Holy Bible can be a valuable resource for fine arts undergraduate students studying the evolution of the printing process and typography.”

Second Marquess of Ely

Speaking to the authenticity and longevity of this 250-year-old Bible are hand-scribed records of birth and baptismal dates within Tottenham’s family, dating back to the year 1810. These recordings trace Tottenham’s lineage and suggest the year in which the Bible was originally purchased by the second Marquess of Ely (Tottenham’s ancestor.) Preserving these familial references was important to Tottenham and part of the reason that he decided to bestow the Bible to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections. “My siblings and I wanted the Bible to be housed at York so it could be studied and used to enhance scholarship and research,” Tottenham explains. “But I also knew it would be well preserved which was important to me because the Bible contains references to my ancestry.”

This Bible has been entrusted to the archives due, in large part, to a coincidental conversation between Tottenham and York University LA&PS professor, John Lennox. “Richard (Tottenham) and I have been friends and neighbours for many years and in a recent conversation he serendipitously mentioned that he inherited an 18th century Bible,” Lennox explains. “I thought it would be of great interest to scholars and researchers and a marvelous addition to our rare books collection. I mentioned to Richard that Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections would be able to conserve the Bible’s historical value while making it accessible to the public. I’m delighted about the whole thing and tremendously grateful to Richard for placing the Bible in York University Libraries’ (YUL) care and to Michael Moir for making it happen.”

For more information about John Baskerville’s edition of the Bible or how to integrate it into coursework and research, please contact:

Anna St.Onge
Archivist, Digital Projects and Outreach

 Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Room 305, Scott Library
astonge@yorku.ca

 

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Photograph and painting:

1)  (From left to right) Professor John Lennox, with friend Richard Tottenham, present John Baskerville’s 18th century Holy Bible to university librarian, Cynthia Archer.

2)  A painting of the second Marquess of Ely,  Richard Tottenham’s ancestor and purchaser of the John Baskerville Bible in the year 1810.

New eResource Trial: NewspaperDirect Library PressDisplay

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We currently have access to ProQuest’s Library PressDisplay on a trial basis.

Library PressDisplay provides online access to international newspapers in full-color, full-page format.  The collection currently includes more than 1,200 U.S. and international titles—from 94 countries in 48 languages.

You can access the trial here: https://www.proquest.com/trials/trialSummary.action?view=subject&trialBean.token=ASEIKA2FWAEGBYKY2OU9

The trial will run until June 14th.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact ereport at yorku dot ca


New eResource Trial: Encyclomedia

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We currently have access to Encyclomedia on a trial basis: http://scuola.encyclomedia.it/enter-eol

Encyclomedia Online is a multimedia project designed to aid the study and understanding of the history of European civilization, directed by Umberto Eco and produced by EM Publishers for Italian language institutes for italian language.
Encyclomedia covers the history of politics and government, social and economic history, the history of philosophy, religion, sciences, music and musical practice, communication, literature and theatre, and art and architecture.
Encyclomedia is a cross-disciplinary reference tool which employs digital reference technology to bring out spatial and temporal interconnections and facilitate users’ understanding of the context surrounding and the relationships between people, events, and ideas.

The trial expires May 30th.

If you have any questions about the trial please contact ereport at yorku dot ca

New eResource: Nineteenth Century Collections Online

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We recently acquired Nineteenth Century Collections Online from Gale.

nineteenth

Nineteenth Century Collections Online contains 3 separate collections:

British Politics and Society

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society includes tens of thousands of primary sources related to the political climate in Great Britain during the “long” nineteenth century.

Asia & West Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange features a range of primary source collections related to international relations between Asian countries and the West during the 19th century. These documents include government reports, diplomatic correspondence, periodicals, newspapers, treaties, trade agreements, NGO papers, and more.

Corvey Collection of European Literature

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection includes the full-text of more than 9,500 English, French and German titles. The collection is sourced from the library of Victor Amadeus, whose Castle Corvey collection was discovered in the late 1970s. The Corvey Collection  includes fiction, short prose, dramatic works, poetry and more.

Finnish-Canadian “memories” donated to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

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Varpu LindströmYork University professor Varpu Lindström is known as a “memory keeper” in Finnish-Canadian communities. What’s extraordinary about the “memories” that Lindström keeps is that they aren’t just hers – they are reminiscences of many Finns who immigrated to Canada in the 1880s to early 1900s as a result of economic depression and war in Finland. Lindström has donated her retrospective collection of professional and scholarly research to York University Libraries’ (YUL) Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections with the intent of preserving these historical documents for future generations.

Varpu Lindström was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1948 and immigrated to Canada in 1963. She pursued a distinguished career as a professor and scholar at York University, specializing in North American social history, immigration, and women’s studies. Lindström is recognized both nationally and internationally as an expert in Canadian immigration history, particularly that of Finnish-Canadians. Her research has manifested itself into several publications such as Defiant Sisters : A Social History of Finnish Immigrant Women in Canada, 1890-1930 and From Heroes to Enemies : Finns in Canada, 1937-1947. Lindström was also a researcher and historical consultant for the National Film Board’s 2004 critically acclaimed documentary, Letters from Karelia.

Several decades of Finnish-Canadian research has resulted in Lindström creating, acquiring, and now donating to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections over 7.2 metres of textual records. These records include diaries, family correspondences, financial ledgers, war-relief funding and other organizational records, sound recordings of oral histories, folk music, documentary films, and over 1,000 books, almanacs, and plays published by Finnish authors in North America.

“I think it would be great to have Lindström’s collection integrated into undergraduate coursework and research here at York University,” says digital projects and outreach archivist for Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, Anna St. Onge.  “Documents from Lindström’s collection give researchers a sense of the immediacy of history and could certainly add realism to Canadian history coursework that focuses on North American immigration and settlement.”

 In addition to primary source material, Lindström acquired photocopies of rare documents such as two volumes of a Soviet register of Finnish war crimes, a list of persons found in the mass grave at Karhumaki, and Soviet lists of North American Finns who journeyed to Karelia to help build a socialist utopia.

Pertti Kaski collectionAlso a part of Lindström’s donation is the Pertti Kaski photograph collection which has been digitized and uploaded to Yorkspace.

Chronicling the immigration experience from the perspective of a teenage girl, Lindström has given Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections a collection of correspondences between herself and her best friend back in Finland, Kaisa Lindberg, written from 1963 to 1965. Many of these letters were published in the 2012 book, Letters from an Immigrant Teenager. Lindström’s generous donation to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections has helped to position York as a leader in Finnish-Canadian research in North America, advancing new efforts to preserve the records of the Finnish community in collaboration with the archives of Lakehead University and the Finnish Canadian Association.

For more information about Varpu Lindström’s donated documents or how to integrate this special collection into coursework and research, please contact:

St. Onge, Anna
Archivist, Digital Projects and Outreach

Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, Scott Library 3rd Floor
astonge@yorku.ca

 To see the finding aid for this collection, see: 

http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000558.htm

 *Images from the Pertti Kaski collection, showing a group of Finnish family and remnants of a postcard from Helsinki, 25 June 1918. YUL, Clara Thomas Archives, ASC08114