Notes, drafts and revisions of writings, sketches, and watercolours.
Archival Collections Finding Aids
The Library houses over 750 manuscript collections covering a wide range of subject areas. Holdings range from a collection of about 40 third-century B.C. Egyptian papyri to papers of the co-discoverers of insulin: Banting, Best, Collip and Macleod; and finally to drafts, research notes, and correspondence of Canadian authors such as Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Leonard Cohen, Mazo de la Roche and Josef Skvorecky. The majority of our manuscript collections date from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries and pertain to Canadian historical, literary, artistic or scientific fields.
Collections of personal papers are listed by the surname of the creator or collector, e.g. Birney, Earle. Institutional records are listed under the name of the institution, e.g. Royal Canadian Institute.
Collection level records for many of the manuscript collections appear in the on-line catalogue, along with links to finding aids in pdf format.
Papers, 1980-2013. 165 boxes and items.
Correspondence, journals, drafts for speeches and lectures, family papers and photographs, scrapbooks.
Papers, 1798-1924. 69 boxes and items.
Notes, drafts and manuscript for writings on the Canadian north west, and correspondence.
Papers, [192-]-1940. 11 volumes.
Business and personal correspondence, notes and drafts for his writings, photographs.
Papers, 1920-1954. 46 boxes.
Mavis Gallant correspondence.
Papers, 1980, 2007. 1 box.
Lecture notes and glass slides, drawings, commonplace book, scrapbook, sketchbook, notes, correspondence, and notes, drafts and photographs for her biography by Constance McRae.
Papers, 1876-1981. 37 boxes and items.
Material relating to his publications, most notably drafts and proofs for his novels; correspondence; and other personal and professional files.
Papers, 1996-2018. 19 boxes.
Correspondence, manuscript drafts, photographs, books.
Papers, 1945-2003. 118 boxes and items.
Manuscripts and photographs for his books, and clippings and reports about Toronto.
Papers, 1967-1979. 6 boxes.
Files relating to Percy G.B. Westmacott (1830-1917), who was a British mechanical engineer and Mable N. Nobel, the daughter of Percy G.B. Westmacott who served a nurse with the Red Cross during World War I.
Papers, 1880-[1930s]. 1 box.
Correspondence from authors concerning his anthologies of poetry.
Papers, 1891-1921. 1 box.
Material related to the complete work and life of the Toronto poet.
Papers, 1956-2012. 10 boxes and items.
Drafts, typescripts, tearsheets for published novels and short stories, drawings and sketches, correspondence.
Papers, 1905-1954. 44 boxes.
Correspondence, notes for writings, sermons and speeches, diaries, photographs, rubbings of Chinese inscriptions and carvings.
Papers, 1897-1955. 46 boxes.
Notebooks and drafts of poetry, book reviews, articles, lectures and other literary endeavours. There is also an extensive collection of research materials compiled for an unfinished bibliography of Contact Press.
Papers, 1968-2018. 95 boxes and items.
Correspondence (mainly with family) and scientific writings.
Papers, 1918-1956. 11 boxes.
Includes notes by Whittier, as well as correspondence and notes about Whittier and his papers by Reverend J. B. Silcox and Samuel T. Pickard. Also includes notes by Silcox and collected print material about poet Robert Browning.
Papers, 1840-1857. 1 box.
Typescripts of poems and of published texts, correspondence.
Papers, 1946-1961. 4 boxes.
Purchase records for Will's book collection.
Records, 1961-1962. 2 boxes.
Manuscript drafts, research materials and interview transcriptions of contemporary Australian poets, correspondence, and copies of her published work. It also includes research material for a book on Anne Langton.
Papers, [197-]-2005. 39 boxes.
Architectural drawings and blueprints.
Drawings, 1922-1929. 43 plans in mapcase. Microfilm.
Includes drafts, correspondence, photographs and other material mainly pertaining to Edmund Wilson’s O Canada: an American’s notes on Canadian Culture (1965).
Papers, 1962-1973. 1 box.
Notes and drafts for his translations of Czech writers into English.
Papers, 1982-ongoing. 52+ boxes.
Includes files relating to the life and work of writer and editor, Morris Wolfe.
Papers, 1942-2016. 39 boxes.
Correspondence about settling in Canada and working for Colonial Church Society, extracts from diary about the Mackenzie Rebellion.
Papers, 1834-1871. 1 box (45 items).
Manuscript and mimeographed materials relating to history of labour and socialist movements in Ontario and Canada.
64 boxes and items.
Notes, manuscripts, galleys for his books, editorial correspondence.
Papers, 1983-ongoing. 41 boxes.
Drafts and manuscripts, revisions, proofs, notes and editorial changes for published and unpublished work.
Papers, 1965-2015. 51 boxes.
Correspondence and literary ephemera from bookseller Irene McGuire, owner of the Toronto-area bookshop Writers & Co. Among the correspondents include Graeme Gibson, Nan Talese, Alberto Manguel, Helen Garner, Greg Gatenby, W.P. Kinsella and Douglas Fetherling, and others.
Records, [198-]-[199-]. 2 boxes.