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Exhibitions & Events

View exhibitions in the Archives & Special Collections reading room and hallway exhibit cases. Learn what’s happening in the Library now, or find out more about using our materials in the classroom.

Events

Library 4th Floor

Toronto Area Archivists’ Group (TAAG) Tour of the Archives & Special Collections

On Friday, July 14th, 2023, the Archives & Special Collections held a special tour for the Toronto Area Archivists’ Group (TAAG). The tour, spread out in two rooms over the fourth floor, including the Archives & Special Collections reading room, was a sold-out event of over 40 attendees who came to browse our materials on display as well as learn more about the campus and history from Archives & Special Collections staff. Contact us if you would like to do something similar! 

About the group: 

The Toronto Area Archivists’ Group (TAAG) is the Toronto Chapter of the Archives Association of Ontario. Known as TAAG, this group organizes professional development and social events for Toronto-area archives professionals, including workshops, tours, and social events.

For more information: https://aao-archivists.ca/taag

Currently on Display

Archives and Special Collections Display Cases

1890s Little Magazines:  Arts for Art’s Sake in Print (March 1, 2024 until April 30, 2024)

Illustration of a woman smelling a pile of grapes

After the great success of the Kelmscott Press under the direction of William Morris (1834-1896), artists and bookmakers recognized that there was a niche audience willing to buy expensive books with daring or progressive subject matter as long as they were beautiful. This change in the notion of the reading public, its taste and, particularly, its morality, liberated artists to make increasingly exotic books and periodicals. The ‘little magazines’ of the 1890s sprang up in this context. Beautifully designed and illustrated, they embody a different set of values from those we associate with Victorian orthodoxy: celebrating gendered, sexual, regional, or social alternatives.

The exhibition features several of the “Little Magazines,” including The Dial, The Yellow Book, The Evergreen, The Savoy, The Pageant and The Venture. Learn more about these publications in the Arts for Art’s Sake in Print blog written by the exhibition’s curator Holly Forsythe Paul.