Baldwin Room Books, Pamphlets, Periodicals

William Lyon McKenzie. The History of the Battle of Toronto, Rochester, 1839

You'll find more than 24,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals published before 1900 about Canada, or by Canadians.

The Baldwin Room, on the 4th floor of the Toronto Reference Library also has books and periodicals printed in Canada before Confederation.

Strengths of the Collection

• Voyages and travels from the sixteenth century to the advent of mass tourism
• Arctic exploration
• New France
• The War of 1812
• The Rebellions of 1837-38 in Upper and Lower Canada
• Early Canadian literature

Historical and Bibliographical Treasures

Gabriel Sagard. Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons...Paris, 1632

• 1512 edition of Eusebius's Chronicon, with the first known printed reference to Canadian Indians
• Early editions of Champlain, Lescarbot, Charlevoix and other chroniclers of New France
• An extensive set of seventeenth century Jesuit Relations
• Narratives of Cook, Vancouver, Mackenzie and other famous explorers
• Early Canadian books from the 18th century
• First editions of classic literary works by Susannah Moodie, Frances Brooke, Julia Beckwith Hart and other Canadian authors
• Illustrated books of Canadian plants and animals
• Almanacs and cookbooks

Journals and Popular Magazines

• Agriculture, medicine, science
• Temperance, religion
• Literature, education, humour
• Business, the military
• Current affairs

A Bibliography of Canadiana

A catalogue published in 1934, and supplements from 1957, and 1985-89, provide notes and indexes not available in the online catalogue. The Supplements to the Bibliography are available for sale in the Baldwin Room.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions

The Canada Council established CIHM in 1978 to locate, preserve and distribute early printed Canadiana on microfiche. It has reproduced more than 90,000 pre-1920 books, pre-1900 serials and periodicals on microfiche, and also provides full text digital scans of some 2,500,000 pages on Early Canadiana Online. The library has complete holdings of CIHM microfiche, and provides full access to Early Canadiana Online with a valid library card. Some CIHM books are available in library branches. Records for serial and periodical titles may be found on the CHIM website.