Hours: Monday to Friday 9:00am-5:00pm; Closed Saturday and Sunday
Location: 120 St George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A5
Contact: Telephone: (416) 978-5285 Email: fisher.library@utoronto.ca
Fax: (416) 978-1667
Access: Open to all researchers; must register with photo ID containing current address. To obtain a University of Toronto reciprocal library card, McMaster students must visit the Registration desk at Robarts Library.
Website address: http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto features several large collections: the Hannah Collection is one of three major collections in the history of Medicine in Canada, with the Osler Library and the Woodward Collection at the University of British Columbia. The collection covers all aspects of medicine, and is particularly strong in the areas of obstetrics and gynecology, anatomy, dentistry, psychoanalysis, and Canadian medical history. Other strengths of the collection are popular medicine, pharmacoepias, eighteenth-century British medical works, treatises on the plague, vaccination, and ephemeral publications, such as patent medicine literature.
The library also includes the Toronto Academy of Medicine rare book collection, which includes theT.G.H. Drake Collection of pediatric books (1200 items), the Kilgour Collection of Chinese medicine, and several manuscripts, notably the casebooks and personal papers of Ontario doctors. There is a collection in the history of the discovery of insulin in Canada, the Frederick Banting Papers, to which were added the Charles Best Papers and James B. Collip Papers. The Florence Nightingale Papers have twenty autographed letters written between 1873 and 1879 by Miss Nightingale to her friend and disciple Annie Machin, who had gone to Montreal to establish a nurses’ training school at the Montreal General Hospital. The library also contains the Charles M. Godfrey collection of medical caricatures, featuring cartoons by Alken, Bunbury, the Cruickshanks, Gillray and Rowlandson.
The Fisher Library also offers digital collections available to the public online.
+Anatomia 1522-1867: Anatomical Plates from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
This site comprises approximately 4500 full page plates and illustrations of human anatomy. Each illustration has been fully indexed with medical subject headings (MeSH), and techniques of illustration, artists, and engravers have been identified when possible.
+The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin
This site documents the initial period of the discovery and development of insulin, 1920-1925 at the University of Toronto. Over seven thousand pages of scanned documents, drawing mainly on the Banting, Best and related collections, it also includes holdings from the Aventis Pasteur (formerly Connaught) Archives.
+Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides
This site provides access to the pre-1930 Canadian pamphlet and broadside holdings, supplying both page images in full colour, and full searchability of the contents of each item. To date the site consists of 597 broadsides (single sheets, printed on one or both sides) and 2062 pamphlet titles.
+ Agnes Chamberlain Digital Collection of Canadian Flora and Botany
The Agnes Chamberlin Collection consists of original paintings of Canadian flora and mushrooms by Agnes Chamberlin (1833–1913), 1863 to the 1900s. The Chamberlin digital collection also includes early editions of Canadian Wild Flowers and two editions of Studies of Plant Life.
University of Toronto Archives & Records Management Services
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 9:00am-4:45pm; Closed Saturday to Monday
Location: 120 St George Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON M5S 1A5 (Located within Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library)
Contact: Telephone: (416) 978-5344
Fax: (416) 946-5343
Email: utarms@utoronto.ca
Access: Open to all researchers; must register with photo ID containing current address.
Website address: http://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/
The University of Toronto Archives & Records Management Services (UTARMS), located within the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, contains archival material related to the history of the University of Toronto. UTARMS holdings include: architectural drawings & maps; film & videos; oral histories & sound recordings; photographs; private records; and, university publications & theses. It also contains university records including the faculties of Arts & Science, Medicine, Applied Science & Engineering, Dentistry, Music, and Forestry.
UTARMS website includes fond listings, divided by university records and private records. Some of these listings have been digitized and can be viewed online. The records of the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine are included under the private records.