The Children’s Literature Archive began with an initial donation of several hundred books to the Centre for Digital Humanities in the summer of 2009. The collection now contains about 2500 texts for children written primarily between the late-nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century, and continues to grow. The collection has particular strengths in adventure stories, fairy tales, and Canadiana, but also includes strong holdings in poetry, picture books, and pedagogical works such as science texts and primers, along with biographies of notable authors and other scholarly studies. An online, searchable catalogue is available, together with some featured exhibits of some of the collection’s more unique and interesting holdings:
The CLA was transferred to Toronto Metropolitan University Archives & Special Collections in 2017 and is now accessible in our Reading Room from Monday to Friday from 9-5. The books are currently being cataloged in the library, check our website to see what is available. For more information, please e-mail us or drop by during our opening hours, we are located on the 4th floor of the TMU Library LIB404.
Sample entries for items in the Children’s Literature Archive
