U of T receives $4-million donation to create Chinese-Canadian archive

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 21:55:44 +0000

noreen.rasbach Thu, 01/31/2019 - 16:55

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A new donation to U of T will create a Chinese-Canadian archive, building on existing collections including that of the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

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City & Culture

Archives

Donation

History

Humanities

U of T Libraries

University College

The University of Toronto will establish a Chinese-Canadian archive to collect, preserve and digitize cultural and personal records and stories from the Chinese diaspora in Canada, including oral histories, video and photographs.

The Richard Charles Lee Chinese Canadian Archive is made possible with a $4-million gift from an anonymous donor.

“The plan of building this archive to document Chinese and Chinese-Canadian lives over the last century provides this historical backdrop to the evolution of Toronto and Canada, and the fact that it's here in the University of Toronto is important,” says Joseph Wong, vice-provost and associate vice-president, international student experience.

“Toronto, having a long history of a Chinese diaspora, allows us to really take advantage of, and fully preserve, the rich cultural history and people-based history here in our backyard.”

The new archive seeks to safeguard that history for generations to come, says Larry Alford, U of T’s chief librarian.

“One of the things that happens is people build businesses, families come and they thrive and they contribute enormously, but when you get to the third and fourth generation, the documentation of that history, those contributions, begins to be lost,” he says.

The lives and stories of Chinese Canadians will also be captured in their own words through oral histories – a project that will expand on the work that’s already being done by Lisa Mar, associate professor of history and Richard Charles Lee Chair in Chinese Canadian Studies at University College, and her classes.

“Oral histories are amazingly important in preserving history and culture, as a way to understand what happened, how it happened, how people contributed and their own personal recollections,” says Alford.

One of the earliest photographs of Chinese Canadians from the Chinese Presbyterian Church (Toronto) Photo Collection

The archive will also build upon existing Chinese-Canadian collections at U of T, he says.

“We have extraordinary collections already, documenting Chinese history and culture,” he says. “We have the largest Chinese-language collection in Canada, one of the largest in North America, at the Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, and what we believe is the largest collection documenting Hong Kong outside of Hong Kong itself in the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library.”

The creation of the archive will foster a sense of belonging for Chinese Canadians, tracing Chinese-Canadian history back to the earliest immigrants, including those who helped to build the national railroad in the late 1800s, says Jack Leong, director of the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library. They were followed by the next generations who sacrificed their lives serving in the First and Second World Wars.

“My favourite item in the (Canada-Hong Kong) library is the original copy of the declaration of May as the Asian Heritage Month in Canada,” says Leong. "It provided the much-needed recognition of Chinese and other Asian Canadians to the building of Canada"

“Most of the early Chinese immigrants are actually from Hong Kong or the nearby Canton province area in China, moving to Hong Kong and staying there for a while before making their journey to Canada,” he says.

Central to cultural life for Cantonese immigrants in Canada was the Cantonese Opera, says Leong. The opera, which originates from Cantonese-speaking provinces in China, has been recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

“Cantonese Opera is the most important form of entertainment and cultural activity for Chinese immigrants up until the 1960s,” he says.

U of T holds a collection of photos, manuscripts, musical scores, performance programs and other materials from the Cantonese Opera in Toronto, which were donated by the Jai family. Leong says he would like to work with community members to continue to gather documentation of the opera in order to follow its history in Canada until present day – an initiative that will become an important part of the Chinese-Canadian archive.

Performers from the Cantonese Opera, which appears in U of T's collection, housed in the Canada-Hong Kong library

The donation will also assist U of T Libraries with the important task of digitizing existing and new collections of material related to the Chinese-Canadian community.

“We believe it will attract scholars from all over the world as we build the collection – scholars personally coming here to use materials but also scholars using the digital component from around the world,” says Alford.

“This isn't just intended to be an archive documenting the Canadian-Chinese experience in the GTA – but across Canada.”

There will also be community programming related to the Chinese-Canadian archives, including exhibits and talks about topical research and collections, he says.

The University of Toronto Libraries will be launching a search for a dedicated librarian to grow the archive and lead these initiatives.

Behind the scenes: New Heritage Minute puts spotlight on LGBTQ activist Jim Egan

Romi Levine — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Behind the scenes: New Heritage Minute puts spotlight on LGBTQ activist Jim Egan

Romi Levine Wed, 06/13/2018 - 00:00

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Jack Nesbit (left) and Jim Egan are the subject of the latest Heritage Minute (photo by Ali Kazimi, David Adkin Productions courtesy of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives)

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U of T Libraries holds the Heritage Minutes archive at its Downsview facility

Pride Month is an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the decades of activism and advocacy that brought about monumental change for the LGBTQ community in Canada.

The latest Heritage Minute, which premieres today, puts a spotlight on one of those activists – James “Jim” Egan. It will be the first Heritage Minute to address LGBTQ issues.

“He was a dynamo,” says Don McLeod, Egan’s biographer and the head of book and serials acquisitions at University of Toronto Libraries.

Egan, born in 1921, spent much of his life advocating for gay rights in Canada. As an openly gay man, he wrote regular letters to newspapers and tabloids from 1949 onward denouncing the way LGBTQ people were portrayed in the media and by the public.

At the time, “this was unheard of,” says McLeod, who is also the liaison librarian for sexual diversity studies. “He was a very brave man.”

In 1948, Egan met John “Jack” Nesbit, beginning their 52-year relationship.

In the 1980s, Egan and Nesbit were denied spousal support under the Old Age Security Act – a move that Egan challenged all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in 1995, but made a paramount ruling to include sexual orientation as grounds for discrimination in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“They had to change the laws in many different ways. I think it had quite a significant impact on the road to gay marriage, for example,” says McLeod.

While McLeod was working as a volunteer at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in the 1990s, he came across Egan’s archives, finding them so fascinating that he contacted Egan about writing a book.

Egan agreed – periodically sending McLeod tapes, which McLeod transcribed. In 1998, they published Challenging the Conspiracy of Silence: My Life as a Canadian Gay Activist.

During the making of the book, McLeod got to know Egan.

“He was quite an interesting character – he was pretty feisty and opinionated,” says McLeod of Egan, who was then in his 70s. “He was a no nonsense person – he didn't put up with fools.”

McLeod’s encyclopedic knowledge of Egan (in fact, McLeod just wrote the Canadian Encyclopedia’s entry on Egan) made him the perfect person to consult with on the creation of the Heritage Minute, says Davida Aronovitch, Heritage Minutes' manager for Historica Canada.

“Don was an amazing collaborator for this project,” she says. “It's so important to hear from someone who has that connection to be able to really bring us a greater intimacy with the subject matter.”

McLeod was able to confirm details from Egan’s life – from the crucial to the minute. Aronovitch recalls, for example, calling him up to ask about the rings Egan and Nesbit wore.

“We just wanted to confirm they did in fact wear them on their ring fingers and that they were gold bands because we were looking to get bands for the actors and we need to have them placed correctly,” she says.

Don McLeod holding Challenging the Conspiracy of Silence: My Life as a Canadian Gay Activist (photo by Romi Levine)

In 2014, Historica donated the Heritage Minutes archives to U of T Libraries' Media Commons – almost 300 banker boxes full of tapes, scripts and other items from its 26 years of broadcasting one-minute, dramatized moments of Canadian history – stored at U of T Libraries’ Downsview facility.

“We don't have the resources, nor the expertise, to store and archive them the way the Media Commons does at U of T,” says Aronovitch. “This was an arrangement whereby we hope these materials could be of interest to students and even to members of the public, but they would also be conserved.”

Beyond his work with McLeod, Egan has some strong U of T connections.

During the Second World War, Egan worked at U of T’s department of zoology as a departmental technician, says McLeod. He was then seconded to Connaught Laboratories where he worked in the insulin production factory until 1943.

“Jim was always interested in natural science – he had a lot of experience working on farms when he was a teenager in Ontario and he was keen on the natural world,” says McLeod.

Egan’s long life full of varied experiences was part of the appeal for Historica Canada when it was looking for a subject for its next Heritage Minute, says Aronovitch.

“This is a really unique story in that it spans a very many years,” she says. “What that means is we were able to show different aspects of the fight for equal rights within the LGBTQ movement just by sharing Jim's story.

"We certainly hope it will inspire people and that especially for any young people who are watching this and are looking to know they belong to a community that has a very important history and tradition of activism.”

Can you name these U of T legends?

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Can you name these U of T legends?

noreen.rasbach Thu, 03/08/2018 - 00:00

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Margaret Atwood is one of the University of Toronto's most famous alumnae, but do you know some of these other women who have had national and global impact? (photo by Marta Iwanek/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

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Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Honorary Degree

Trinity College

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Take our International Women's Day quiz

How well do you know the women of the University of Toronto? For International Women’s Day, we put together a short quiz about just a few of the alumnae and faculty who’ve smashed through ceilings and changed the world. (Answers below)

(Mark Neil Balson photo)

1. One of Canada's most accomplished scientists and educators, this feminist and Quaker was also one of its most renowned peace activists and received the United Nations Association in Canada's Pearson Peace Medal in 2002. A Holocaust survivor, she came to U of T as a postdoctoral student in 1949.

In 1967, she became the first female professor of what is now known as materials science and engineering, and in 1984 she became the first woman to receive the title of University Professor, the highest academic rank at U of T.

Recognized with more than 40 honorary degrees in her lifetime, she died in 2016 at the age of 94. You can access more than 150 boxes of textual records, photographs, posters and artifacts, and more than 150 tape recordings of her influential speeches and lectures at U of T Archives.

2. This double alumna (Bachelor of Arts degree and master’s degree) was Toronto’s third poet laureate. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, she is a professor at the University of Guelph and one of Canada’s leading writers, exploring themes of sexuality, feminism, race, gender, injustice, class and prejudice through novels, short stories, poetry and film as well as non-fiction and criticism. She founded Our Lives, Canada’s first Black women’s newspaper.

Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s award, she was admitted to the Order of Canada last year – and she’ll receive an honorary degree from U of T during convocation ceremonies this spring.

3. This astronomer was an expert on globular clusters, renowned for her catalogues of variable stars in globular clusters. As a young scientist, she worked as an unpaid volunteer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C. from 1931 to 1936. She brought her infant daughter to the observatory at night and had her sleep in a basket, to the amusement of the visiting Astronomer Royal of England, Sir Frank Dyson.

She began teaching at U of T during the Second World War, becoming a full professor in 1957. The founding president of the Canadian Astronomical Society, she was also an expert at communication and for 30 years, she wrote a popular weekly column on astronomy in the Toronto Star. Her book, The Stars Belong to Everyone: How to Enjoy Astronomy, was published in 1976 – the same year she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada. The asteroid 2917 was named in her honour. She died in 1993.

4. When she won her first gold medal at the Olympics in the summer of 2012, Associate Professor Margaret MacNeill of the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, called her “a gifted athlete and a fabulous student.”

“You see her close her eyes, doing her visualization techniques, and controlling her breathing,” said MacNeill, who watched the event live and during the rebroadcast. “I think my heart rate was probably higher than hers because she has the skills to control it and bring it down!”

This incredible athlete went on to win gold in trampoline at the World Championship in 2013 and at the Pan Am Games in 2015 before heading to Rio in 2016, where she became the first person in her sport to win gold in back-to-back Olympics. The alumna is now a master’s student.

(Photo courtesy of NASA)

5. She’s one of two U of T alumnae known for their careers as astronauts (the other is now Canada’s Governor General). The first Canadian woman to go to space, this U of T Mississauga alumna took a piece of her alma mater with her on board the space shuttle Discovery in 1992: the crest of Erindale College, as U of T Mississauga used to be known.

A member of the Medical Hall of Fame, she has a doctorate in neurobiology and certifications in sky diving and parachuting. A celebrated photographer, her photo essay books focus on the environment and natural landscape – including one on Canada's national parks.

6. She is believed to be both the first woman in the world to earn a doctorate in computer science and Canada’s first female computer scientist. She completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics and physics at U of T’s Trinity College in 1944, and soon afterwards enlisted in the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service.

For her doctoral studies in mathematical physics at Cambridge, she was supervised by computer science forerunners Maurice Wilkes and Alan Turing. Her dissertation, “Serial programming for real and idealized digital calculating machines” is considered the first on modern computing. This former assistant professor at U of T died at the age of 50 from a heart attack.

7. This alumna grew up singing in the choir of her local Baptist church in Fredericton, and she went on to perform for the Queen, among many, many others.

An internationally acclaimed soprano whose memoir is called Something Is Always on Fire, she earned a Bachelor of Music at U of T. Over the years she has performed for audiences at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Center, and in front of an estimated 65,000 people in New York's Central Park. Her 2005 performance in Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Bolcom won three Grammy Awards and Best Classical Album. She won a Juno in 2008 for her album, Surprise.

8. Hockey fans may remember this person as a pioneering female hockey player who won a spot in the Metro Toronto Hockey League in 1981 but was denied the chance to play because league regulations prohibited girls.

So the teen challenged the decision before the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which at that time allowed sexual discrimination in sports. After a series of challenges, the Supreme Court of Canada eventually upheld her appeal, opening the door for girls and women to compete with boys and men in sports in Ontario.

But the victory came at a cost – she faced countless incidents of discrimination, cruelty, and significant social pressure along the way.

Later, she attended U of T Scarborough, studying science. She is now a chiropractor with her own clinic.

Answers

1. Ursula Franklin

2. Dionne Brand

3. Helen Sawyer Hogg

4. Rosie MacLennan

5. Roberta Bondar

6. Trixie Worsley

7. Measha Brueggergosman

8. Justine Blainey (now Justine Blainey-Broker)

#UofTGrad17: Catcalls and pranks, a look back at U of T’s first convocations

Romi Levine — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 19:17:58 +0000

#UofTGrad17: Catcalls and pranks, a look back at U of T’s first convocations

Romi Levine Fri, 06/09/2017 - 15:17

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A photo of University College taken in 1868 by Octavius Thompson for Toronto in The Camera (photo courtesy of Fisher Library via Flickr)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

For a tradition steeped in formality, it’s hard to believe that convocation at University of Toronto was once a little rowdy.

Ceremonies in the 1870s and 1880s were so disruptive that The Varsity newspaper in 1884 went so far as to write: “We fear that few of the friends of the College will endure the torture of being present.”

“Before, during and after proceedings of convocation,” The Varsity wrote, the audience would break out into song. “Some, however, disgraced themselves by continuous howling, horn-blowing and catcalling.”

One of the earliest photos taken of a U of T convocation procession – in 1917 (photo by James & Sons Photographs via U of T Archives)

This forced Daniel Wilson, the president of the university, in 1888 – back then, it was just University College – to write in his diary about his attempt to control the students “who have shown a growing tendency to disorder on such occasions” and were “disposed to intrude college songs at inopportune times.”

His solution? To make music a part of the ceremony – handing over those duties to U of T’s glee club.

“The result proved in all ways satisfactory,” Wilson wrote.

Convocation in 1925 with grads lined up along King's College Circle (photo courtesy of U of T Archives)

There are also accounts of students throwing chestnuts and bags of flour on their classmates.

“What they tended to do is position themselves – especially if convocation wasn't taking place at Convocation Hall – up on a balcony and throw it down on people below,” says Harold Averill, assistant university archivist at U of T Libraries.

“It was just letting off steam – it was students being students,” he says.

“There tended to be a lot more pranks than there are now. We are very staid compared to them.”

Early convocations were not all pranks and howling. They were often opportunities to address important historic accomplishments.

The graduating class of 1885 was the first to include women – there were five for them, including the two daughters of the owner of the Globe, which later became The Globe and Mail.

Three of the women are pictured below – Margaret Langley, May Bell Bald and Ella Gardiner.

(Photo courtesy of U of T Archives)

In the early 1850s, Alexander T. Augusta – the first black medical student in Canada West – completed his medical degree at Trinity Medical College.

And this year, U of T will be hosting its first-ever Black Graduation celebration, a student-led effort to celebrate the achievements of Black students across the three campuses. The celebration on June 22 at Hart House will include speakers from the Black academic community, awards presentations, a DJ and artists who will perform live painting during the event.

Grads today are finding other ways to have fun, using Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat to share their moments.

(Photo by Krista Boniface)

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Margaret Atwood's handwritten first draft at U of T's Fisher Library

Romi Levine — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 20:30:35 +0000

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Margaret Atwood's handwritten first draft at U of T's Fisher Library

Romi Levine Mon, 04/24/2017 - 16:30

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‘The Handmaid's Tale’ has been translated into numerous languages in countries around the world. Copies of the novel from Iran, Canada, Germany and China (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Subheadline

Ahead of the TV adaptation premiere, U of T News looks at rare items in Margaret Atwood's 600-box archive

The television adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s iconic novel The Handmaid’s Tale is set to hit the small screen on Wednesday.

Fifteen years before The Handmaid's Tale was published, Atwood began providing material – from manuscripts to personal letters – to the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

The award-winning author and poet has deep roots at the University of Toronto – she completed her undergrad at Victoria College and was the writer in residence in 1972. She’ll be returning to her alma mater on Wednesday for a screening of the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, followed by a Q & A at Innis College.
A page from Atwood's first handwritten draft of The Handmaid's Tale, complete with notes and amendments (photo by Romi Levine)

The 10-episode drama, which begins airing this week, will introduce Atwood’s story of Offred, a handmaiden trapped in a patriarchal dystopia, to a large North American audience. But the 1985 novel has long been considered part of the canon of Canadian literature.

The library has over 600 boxes-worth of material spanning almost 50 years, including the first handwritten draft of Handmaid’s Tale, says Jennifer Toews, modern manuscripts and reference librarian at Fisher. The collection includes book covers of the novel from all over the world, including in Iran where the book is quite popular, and a draft of the libretto from the Danish opera adaptation of the novel.

“She donates almost every year. It keeps growing and growing,” says Toews.

Fisher Library also has the playbills Atwood illustrated and printed while at Victoria College and comics she’s drawn over the years under the pseudonym Bart Gerrard – many of which have never been published.

Atwood illustrated these playbills for her peers at Victoria College while she was an undergrad. "She had a little business where she would design and print them and sell them to the college," says Toews (photo by Romi Levine)

Academics, writers and fans come from all over the world to access Atwood’s archival material, says Toews.

“There's a group of scholars, and they're waiting for the next instalment of papers – they're waiting to pounce on the new material, and start writing papers and planning colloquiums,” she says.

Some of Atwood's comics feature 'Survivalwoman' who Toews says is somewhat autobiographical (photo by Romi Levine)

Anyone can access Atwood’s archive – items listed online can be requested through the Fisher Library website.

Toews works with Atwood’s assistants to sort through and categorize her archives. She has had the chance to meet with the author several times.

“She's very nice, very attentive and very helpful,” she says with a giggle. “I'm laughing because we sat [Atwood] at one of these tables. It was a really horrible one unfortunately with all kinds of dents in it, and she pulled a marker out of her bag and filled them in. She's pretty cool.”

Nobel laureate Derek Walcott dies: U of T's Fisher library has 160 boxes of his drafts, notes and sketches

ullahnor — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:01:00 +0000

Nobel laureate Derek Walcott dies: U of T's Fisher library has 160 boxes of his drafts, notes and sketches

ullahnor Mon, 03/20/2017 - 16:01

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U of T has more than 160 boxes of Derek Walcott's notes and drawings. Walcott in Italy in 2008 (photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

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Archives belonging to Saint Lucian poet and playwright Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, are housed at the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

Walcott, who died Friday, had connections with Toronto's Caribbean community, says Professor George Elliott Clarke, and today U of T is home to more than 160 boxes of his material from the 1980s to the present, including drafts and notes for his many poetical, theatrical and prose writings, drawings, sketches, photographs and correspondence.

Fisher began acquiring the material in 1996 when J. Edward Chamberlin, now a University Professor Emeritus of English and comparative literature at U of T, and his wife, West Indian poet and writer Lorna Goodison, helped the university obtain the collection through fundraising work with the international community, including Toronto’s Caribbean community, says Jennifer Toews, modern manuscripts and reference librarian.

Best known for his epic poem Omeros, a Caribbean reimagining of The Odyssey, Walcott wrote and directed more than 80 plays.

Clarke, Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate, not only considers Walcott to be the greatest poet of the 21st and 20th centuries, but says he had immeasurable influence on writers of his generation, especially those exploring decolonization.

“Derek Walcott in my opinion was the first non-British born poet of English to remake the English language in his own tongue in a decolonized fashion,” Clarke says, “in other words to take the former imperialist and oppressive language that was forced upon black, brown, yellow and red folks from all over the planet, through the British empire, and to use that language better than the imperialist and the oppressors themselves were able to. He was a symbol for all decolonizing writers of English and other languages. He blazed the trail for all of us.”

Watercolour painting by Walcott for his musical O Baylon! (courtesy of Fisher library)

Clarke says having Walcott's archives at U of T is “a real feather in our cap.”

“He could’ve gone to Oxford or Yale, but he chose U of T,” Clarke says. “That's partly because of the long-standing historical connections – culturally, economically, politically – between Canada and the Caribbean. There's also the fact that there's a sizeable Canadian Caribbean community in the GTA, many of whom are poets are writers. And the fact that Canada doesn't have as much of an imperialist history as Britain or America, certainly they haven't been as obviously aggressive.”

At a 2011 exhibition featuring his work at Fisher, Walcott (second from left) with his niece (left), his wife Sigrid Nama (standing), and writer Austin Clarke (photo courtesy of Fisher)

But Walcott never expressed any hatred or dislike in his poetry, Clarke says.

“Rather, it was a grand humanitarian embrace of the culture and letters of England, of Britain, of the west in general. He maintained a very powerful, political and aesthetic balance between never forgetting the crimes of imperialism while at the same time, always recognizing the humanity of the victims as well as the humanity of the perpetrators of those crimes.”

Neil ten Kortenaar, professor of comparative literature at U of T Scarborough, says Walcott was the first writer from the Caribbean to win the Nobel Prize.

“But he was also one of the most important poets in English of the second half of the 20th century,” he says. “In his lyric poetry, he made his own experience significant for all readers of poetry. In the process, he made the Caribbean into an imaginative centre for the world. He wrote about Caribbean history as world history: its history of conquest and colonization. Great migrations of people and slavery are subjects that became immensely important as the British Empire broke up in the decades after the Second World War.”

Walcott's original ink drawings for his musical play, Steel (courtesy of Fisher)

As for Walcott's literary style, Clarke notes Walcott’s ability to interchangeably use patois, vernacular English, cockney English and Trinidadian, Jamaican or Saint Lucian English.

“He was very much an Aristotelian poet,” Clarke says. “He wrote lyric poetry, comic plays, tragic plays, and as Aristotle argued that the greatest poets have to write epic poetry, he did that with Omeros.”

Walcott’s twin brother also a playwright lived in Toronto. Walcott visited often, and one of the cantos of Omeros is set in Toronto, ten Kortenaar says.

“Many West Indian poets have made Toronto their home: Louise Bennett, Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior, Dionne Brand, NourbeSe Philip, Lillian Allen. It is fitting therefore that anyone who wants to study Walcott has to come here, to one of the centres where West Indian poetry is produced,” he says.

Ink drawings by Walcott for his musical play, Steel (courtesy of Fisher library)

A legend dies: U of T's Fisher Library is home to nearly 100 boxes of Leonard Cohen's letters, manuscripts

ullahnor — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 16:26:19 +0000

A legend dies: U of T's Fisher Library is home to nearly 100 boxes of Leonard Cohen's letters, manuscripts

ullahnor Fri, 11/11/2016 - 11:26

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Portrait of a younger Leonard Cohen in Germany (photo by Ullstein Bild via Getty)

Veronica Zaretski

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Veronica Zaretski

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The boxes include correspondence, drafts of literary works and biographic material

Legendary singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen has died at the age of 82.

With songs like Hallelujah and So Long, Marianne, he charmed the world for decades with his unique blend of poetry and lyrics on love, darkness, faith and politics. His career in the arts also spanned work as a poet and novelist.

Today, U of T's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is the repository for the influential Canadian artist's papers. The singer donated boxes of his correspondence and papers to the library in 2003, almost 100 boxes in total.

“U of T’s been very kind to me over the years – and when I really needed it. They bought manuscripts when I was about 25 years old – and they did that twice – so I feel very grateful to the university and to the library,” said Cohen, then 71, in an interview to U of T Magazine.

Fisher Rare Books librarian Jennifer Toews holds up some of the archived material in the Leonard Cohen collection (photo by Romi Levine)

The boxes trace his life from the beginning as a struggling writer to his iconic status as a singer-songwriter. There's drafts of his poetry and other writing, correspondence, fan mail, gifts and tributes from fans, photographs and personal material.

When Cohen was asked if there is anyone who he particularly envisioned looking through the materials, he told U of T Magazine, “Oh, any kind person. Anyone with the capacity to forgive."

Over the years, Cohen corresponded regularly with the likes of poets Allen Ginsberg and Irving Layton.

“It was just amazing to work with Cohen,” says Jennifer Toews, modern manuscripts and reference librarian at Fisher. “It’s the way he was – that generosity, sharing himself – it was part of his music and his literary legacy as well. I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Correspondence that Leonard Cohen donated to Fisher Rare Books Library (photo by Romi Levine)

Fisher's relationship with Cohen began in the early part of his career when the library purchased his manuscripts in the 1960s, including drafts of Beautiful Losers and Let Us Compare.

Much of the material is available online for the public. Other content will remain sealed until Cohen's estate gives permission for it to be opened.

“Leonard Cohen has a long relationship with the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library beginning when he was 25 years old,” says Loryl MacDonald, interim associate chief librarian for special collections and director at Fisher. “It is really due to the vision and perseverance of the former director of rare books, Richard Landon, that Leonard Cohen gave his archives to the University of Toronto Libraries. We are grateful for Leonard and Richard’s special connection which led to our stewardship of this most remarkable archival collection.”

Notebooks from Leonard Cohen's archives at Fisher Rare Books Library (photo by Romi Levine)

Cohen was born in 1934 in Montreal. He attended McGill University, where at the age of 17 he formed a country-western trio called the Buckskin Boys.

He also began writing poetry and was part of the local literary scene. His books of poetry have sold more than 800,000 copies worldwide. In 1965, he moved to the U.S. to pursue a career in music.

Read Cohen's interview with U of T Magazine

Boxes of material in the archived Leonard Cohen collection (photo by Romi Levine)

November 11: U of T Remembers

lavende4 — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 20:41:57 +0000

November 11: U of T Remembers

lavende4 Wed, 11/09/2016 - 15:41

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The University’s Remembrance Day service outside of Hart House in 1947 (Photo: U of T Archives)

Terry Lavender

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Terry Lavender and Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

On Friday, the Soldiers’ Tower memorial at U of T will be the site of one of the city’s most widely attended Remembrance Day services with its carillon of 51 bells ringing out for fallen soldiers.

It is one of several Remembrance Day ceremonies that will take place across U of T’s three campuses, honouring the service and sacrifice of thousands of members of the U of T community, including more than 1,000 students, alumni and faculty who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars.

The tower and its museum came out of volunteer efforts from U of T’s Alumni Association. U of T archivist Harold Averill says the idea for a tower with bells, honouring fallen soldiers came from a young woman who suggested it during a meeting in 1918, although the 143-foot tall Gothic tower would take another six years to be built.

Remembering the veterans of Sunnybrook

An interview with physical therapy student Danny Slack, who spent five weeks interning at Sunnybrook Veterans Centre.

In Memoriam: remembering the First World War at U of T

Archivist Harold Averill discusses the war that changed the world.

In Flanders Fields: why the iconic poem by U of T alumnus endures, 100 years later

As Canadians commemorate Remembrance Day this year, many will reflect on the solemn beauty and eloquent simplicity of the iconic war poem, In Flanders Fields. This is the 100th anniversary of the poem written by University of Toronto alumnus John McCrae, a Canadian doctor who was in the trenches during World War I.

We will do our share

U of T archivist Loryl MacDonald takes us through the Fisher Library's exhibition, We Will Do Our Share: The University of Toronto and the Great War.

Dr. Homer Tien: from the battlefield to the ER

Dr. Homer Tien, recipient of the Order of Military Merit and assistant professor at U of T and director, trauma services, at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, recalls his exceptional advancements.

Canadian Forces: alumna retires after serving as surgeon general

Few people have served nearly four decades in the Canadian Forces. Fewer of these are doctors. Fewer still are women. And only one of these – University of Toronto medicine graduate Dr. Hilary F. Jaeger— has retired with the rank of brigadier general after serving as surgeon general of the Canadian Forces.

What can civilian hospitals learn from the military? Just ask this high school dropout turned trauma surgeon

Dr. Andrew Beckett is a highly credentialed trauma surgeon who has spent nearly two decades in the Canadian Forces – and whose work in war zones has led him to ask questions that never occur to most of his research colleagues back home.

Harvesting the government web space

sgupta — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 14:15:59 +0000

Harvesting the government web space sgupta Tue, 03/01/2016 - 09:15

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Librarian Sam-chin Li says U of T helped prevent a digital dark age of government information (photo by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Features

Libraries

Archives

Subheadline

U of T librarians step in to preserve electronic information

At a time when more and more government publications are online, U of T librarians have stepped in to start archiving government websites.

U of T’s collection is considered among the most extensive and accessible collection of online captures of government websites in the country, and the university’s efforts are critical because they’re preserving information – and in turn keeping governments accountable – in an era when the documents are no longer available in print and always changing on the Internet.

Until recently, federal agencies would send Robarts Library print copies of government publications to preserve them and make them available to the public, thereby encouraging active citizenship. But that program ended in 2014, and no new initiatives have followed for the archiving of government websites.

“Government documents, government information, things like annual reports, statistics, are material we help researchers find on websites,” said Nicholas Worby, who is in charge of web archiving at University of Toronto Libraries. “The control for their preservation and curation is out of our hands, but we have a huge stake in making sure we have access to this stuff. This is an effort to rescue those documents and increasingly it’s becoming more of a means of extending our job into a born digital world.”

Those and other issues will be part of a discussion this week when Robarts Library hosts an Archives Unleashed: Web Archive Hackathon, bringing together researchers, archivists and librarians from around the world to begin charting unchartered waters. They’ll be developing open source tools and methodologies for working with web archives.

Currently, U of T Libraries is archiving material from the federal government’s website, and has begun collecting content from provincial websites. They are also working with the City of Toronto Archives to capture parts of the Toronto municipal portal.

U of T’s collection includes captures of about 200 Canadian federal government websites from the end of Library and Archives Canada’s web archiving program in 2007 as well as archives of 60 sites from the Ontario government web domain and 7 sites for the city of Toronto.

The effort began three years ago when U of T Government Publications and Reference Librarian Sam-chin Li and librarians from other universities discovered that the Harper government was shutting down the Aboriginal Canada Portal site within a week. U of T librarians rushed to figure out how they’d capture the online information. They consulted fellow university librarians. They learned how to use web-harvesting software and then worked into the night to crawl part of the site.

That was followed by another shock a few months later – a leaked document showing that more federal government websites could be terminated or at least 60 percent of their content reduced.

It was a wake-up call to U of T librarians. They needed to begin archiving the website content themselves.

“It was going to be a digital dark age of Canadian government information, of what we were going to know about our government,” Li said. “U of T filled that gap.”

Today, Library and Archives Canada says it is capturing content on federal government websites, but for the past two and a half years the sites have not been made publicly available.

“We keep asking them to send information about what they have captured so we can fill the gaps, but it’s still a big unknown to us,” Li said. “We can’t stop doing our job because we don’t know what they have done. We have students coming and asking for information. We can’t say you have to wait for Library and Archives to share the information.”

Worby, who is now the Government Information and Statistician Librarian, was a grad student in the Faculty of Information when U of T began the rush to harvest the sites. He says the government records are crucial for researchers. However, not every page on a government website is getting captured on a daily basis. Most of the time, the university does broad crawls semi-annually and captures media release pages every evening.

“It terrifies me, but I know we’re never going to archive everything,” Worby said. “It’s impossible to capture everything with web archiving. Having at least some fragmentary pieces of historical memory is still better than not having it.”

The U of T collection also includes campaign and party websites for the recent federal and the Toronto mayoral elections. U of T Scarborough Principal Bruce Kidd offered advice to the librarians about archiving Toronto 2015 Pan Am/ Parapan Am Games sites, so as to collect documents from host cities detailing the planning and experience of the games throughout the GTA.

“It is really important that documentary records of major games be kept,” Kidd says. “In the growing field of international scholarship of major games, mega events and international sport, the Olympics is fairly well covered and documented. The Commonwealth Games less so. But the Pan American Games is really a big dark hole. I thought that one of the legacy contributions of Toronto 2015 would be to leave a good documentary archive on the games. This will benefit researchers in a variety of fields for years to come.”

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In Memoriam: remembering the First World War at U of T

sgupta — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:18:55 +0000

In Memoriam: remembering the First World War at U of T sgupta Mon, 07/21/2014 - 10:18

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When Hart House was used as shooting range, this painting of a Belgian village by Lawren Harris was used for target practice (all photos courtesy University of Toronto archives)

Jelena Damjanovic

Author legacy

Jelena Damjanovic

Archives

Subheadline

Archivist Harold Averill on the war that changed the world

They called it The Great War. The War to End All Wars. A conflict that killed, wounded and maimed millions of soldiers and civilians, destroying empires, transforming the world’s political and economic structures and spreading heartbreak and loss from the tiniest of Canadian villages to the most powerful cities on earth.

On July 31, 2014, members of the public and the University of Toronto community will gather at Varsity Stadium to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War. In Memoriam, a remembrance of the sacrifices of 1914-1918, will bring together renowned historian and U of T professor Margaret MacMillan, the Massed Band of the Canadian Armed Forces and General Thomas J. Lawson, chief of the defense staff. (Register for free tickets.)

When Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Canada was caught off guard and ill-prepared – and so was the University of Toronto. (See the video of a recent exhibition at U of T’s Thomas Fisher Library.)

Writer Jelena Damjanovic spoke with U of T archivist Harold Averill recently about the war, the University’s role and the rich trove of material found in such places as the records of then-president Robert Falconer who was knighted for his war effort.

What kind of information about the First World War is available in the U of T Archives?
The annual president’s reports talk about the changes on campus, the number of students who are signing up to go overseas, the impact this has on the facilities, the demands on the space on campus by the military, which started out fairly modestly in the fall of 1914, but by the spring and summer of 1918 the military had probably taken over about 75 or 80 per cent of the campus. There was hardly any space for students.

We also have collections of letters students sent home to their parents from the front or the University while training with the Canadian Officer Training Corps (COTC), which was set up at the beginning of the war to facilitate the basic training of students and prepare them to be sent overseas to Europe. Those letters allowed us to get a human perspective into what role the students were expected to play, how they viewed the war and to a certain extent what happened to them.

There is also a very good collection of photographs and our press clipping files provide information about students, faculty and staff that fought in the War. The Memorial Room in the Soldier's Tower beside Hart House also houses a collection of photographs, medals and mementoes of wartime service.

Was the military training on campus made up of U of T students?
There were several levels of military involvement on campus. The COTC consisted of students who were still registered on campus and taking courses here, but doing military training during term. At the end of the academic year they would often head off to Europe.

Some of the people in the Overseas Training Company had no official connection with the University, but needed to take courses on campus to gain certain skills, particularly in engineering, for instance, to gain information about ballistics.

And then in the spring and summer of 1917, the Royal Flying Corps established itself on campus. The U.S. was just beginning to get into the War, so a lot of Americans were sent up here to get basic training. The result was that the University was flooded with young Americans, not just soldiers.

Gene Lockhart had a fair bit of training at U of T. He would later become a quite well known movie star in the U.S., but in 1917 he was all of about 20 or so. Amelia Earhart trained on campus for several months, between 1917 and 1918. And then there was William Faulkner, who signed up with the Flying Corps.

Incidentally, the Hart House Theatre, which was added during the War, was used as a shooting range at the time. Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven painted a Belgian village on paper, which people used for rifle practice. The drawing is long gone although there is a photograph of it. (See above.)

What do people search for when going through the U of T Archives on WWI?
People look at various aspects of the War. Sometimes it’s just photographs, sometimes maps. We have a selection of trench maps from First World War, brought back by faculty who went overseas, like James Roy Cockburn who was a faculty of Applied Science and Engineering and his sister, Harriet Macmillan, who was a medical doctor with a degree from old Trinity Medical College. She joined the Serbian Relief Fund and in 1915 was with the Stobart Unit, a 65-tent mobile field hospital run by Mrs. Mabel St. Clair Stobart and staffed entirely by women.

There’s a certain number of current-day students searching their grandfathers or great grandfathers, because you have four or five generations of the same family attending the University of Toronto. Some families go back to the 1860s.

People are also interested in Harold Innis, (pictured at left in a photo courtesy U of T Archives) who was a McMaster student, but trained on the U of T campus within the COTC.

Innis suffered a hip injury during the War and probably would have died if he hadn’t had a big notebook in his pocket that stopped some of the shrapnel.

We have that notebook and you can see (photo at left by John Guatto) where the shrapnel has ripped through from one side to the other.

What were some immediate and lasting effects of the War on the University?
The work that was done at the University of Toronto during the War hastened the move from a purely teaching university into a combination of research and teaching, evolving more into research over the years.

Of course, any academic program that was being taught on campus was dramatically influenced by the War, either because suddenly there was no one to teach it or the nature of the program changed. And new programs were introduced, like massage therapy. One of the people who taught it was a young man [Donald McDougall] who had been blinded in France and had learned massage therapy in Britain. His family was from Canada, so he came back to Toronto, taught massage therapy here, became a student in the history department after the War, got a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford and came back to Toronto as a full-fledged member of the history department.

The country as a whole learned a lot from the First World War and didn’t repeat some of the mistakes. In the First World War everybody was encouraged to sign up immediately. In the Second World War the government intervened and said if you’re going to university we need you for research, so the death rate in terms of the student population was much lower.

Also, after the Second World War, the Canadian government paid the university education of any returned soldier who wanted to go to university. This was not done during the First World War and created enormous hardship for many. The U of T in the Second World War started planning in 1943 for the eventual aftermath of the war and how it was going to manage things.

What was the Varsity War Supplement?
The Varsity War Supplement was published by the Students Administrative Council and it was designed to raise money as an annual publication for the Canadian No. 4 General Hospital which the U of T equipped and sent to Salonika in the summer of 1915. It gives a very broad perspective of what’s going on at the University and Toronto with good photographs. It also talks about what’s going on in other Canadian universities for the war effort and gives an international perspective by looking at what is being done in universities in England and in parts of Europe, with a fair emphasis on the Balkans.

U of T's Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and the Munk School of Global Affairs with support from the Canadian Armed Forces present: 1914-1918: In Memoriam, an event that will commemorate the sacrifice of Canadian men and women in World War I with distinctive military band performances, military formations, and commentaries.

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