John Davis Barnett donated over 40,000 books and thousands of pamphlets, the largest single gift ever received by a Canadian library, to the University of Western Ontario in August 1918 and became Western's first librarian. Barnett's goal was to provide the nucleus of a national library, and so the donation was received with the understanding that his books would be available to everyone.
John Davis Barnett donated over 40,000 books and thousands of pamphlets, the largest single gift ever received by a Canadian library, to the University of Western Ontario in August 1918 and became Western's first librarian. Barnett's goal was to provide the nucleus of a national library, and so the donation was received with the understanding that his books would be available to everyone.
A selection of volumes from our special collections and archives pertaining to medicinal and food recipes, dating from the 1600s to the early 1900s. The selection contains handwritten volumes, scrapbooks, as well as published books, many of which were created or compiled in Canada.
This collection from the John and Amelia Harris Family fonds contains the personal diaries of Amelia Harris (1798-1882) from 1857 to 1882 which detail her day-to-day life primarily in London, Ontario; the travel diary of Lucy Harris (1845-1901) during her 1897 trip to Japan; and the travel diaries of Milly Harris (1868-1959) from 1893 to 1903 which detail her trips around the world and include news clippings, magazine cutouts, photos, and pressed flowers.
The Medical Scrapbooks contain clippings which focus on Western’s Medical School, medicine in London, southwestern Ontario and the world. The scrapbooks were created by Western’s medical school and are a great resource for local medical history.
Photographs taken in and around Muncey, Ontario in the 1940s. These photographs were found with a donation from the Ladies Orange Benevolent Association Lodge No. 89. They were removed as not being relevant to that fonds. The group of photographs were initially named “Peter Family Photographs and Muncey [Munsee] Reserve” and has been renamed “Muncey Photograph Collection."
The Nursing Diaries collection of diaries, certificates, a photograph, and a yearbook about two nurses, from the 1920s and 1950s. This includes material from the Ruby Muriel Carter fonds and the Kathleen McIntyre fonds.
Six Nations of the Grand River is a reserve located on the Grand River that is made up of the six Haudenosaunee Nations: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Tuscarora.
This digitized collection contains a letter book kept by John Brant during his time serving as resident superintendent of the Six Nations of the Grand River (from 1828-1832), and four loose letters that were found in the letter book dating to after the death of Brant.
Western Archives has repatriated the physical documents to the Six Nations Lands and Resources Office.
The digitized items on this site are a selection of personal correspondence from the Gustav Mahler-Alfred Rosé Collection.
The full collection includes personal correspondence, concert documents, scores, manuscripts, recognition, primary publications, secondary publications, university papers, photographs, recordings, memorabilia and artifacts mainly relating to the private and professional lives of Gustav Mahler, Alfred Rosé, Arnold Rosé, Alma Rosé, Bruno Walter, Justine Rosé, and Maria Rosé.
This collection includes the University of Western Ontario Reports of the President to the Board of Governors from 1928 to 2006.
Note: We do not have copies for the academic years 1978-1979, 1979-1980, 1992-1993, 1994-1995, 1995-1996, 1996-1997, 1997-1998, 1999-2000, or 2000-2001.
These are 5 volumes created by J.D. Barnett to track and organize books he acquired. Barnett's collection process was extensive and thorough. Almost every book he collected and donated contains his signature, his bookplate, and a number corresponding to a journal entry.
The accession journals organize books by subject headings, and include the author's name, book title, publisher, date of publication, dimensions of the book, notes about binding and condition, and the number assigned to the book.
Barnett uses abbreviations and codes to note location (e.g., T = Toronto; B = Boston; L = London), date (e.g., /31 = 1831), and binding (e.g., 1/2 b = half bound; fb = full bound; cursive lowercase Ls = limp vellum).
This is a hand written list of titles contained in Bishop Hellmuth's personal library. It was purchased by Barnett in 1895, at the sale of the Bishop's library, as stated in Barnett's inscription in the book.
This is a hand written, two volume set, that is likely a scholar's notes on his readings, lectures, and other thoughts and information on the area of Jewish Antiquities. It has been written in code, which appears to be a combination of Pitman short hand, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and English.
This is a hand written copy of a classic naval text, as well as other content, by a student at Christ's Hospital, one of the oldest boarding schools in England, founded in 1552. According to a scholar researching the history of the school, approximately 1000 of these manuscripts were created, all unique, and only about 60 are still known to be in existence worldwide.
