Rare Book Collection
The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Rare Book Collection began to take shape in the 1960s with the transfer of hundreds rare of books from the Library of Parliament to the National Library. Today the collection is stored at the Preservation Centre in Gatineau and holds over 100,000 items.
About the collection
The mandate of LAC's Rare Book Collection is to collect Canadiana printed before Confederation and rare Canadiana printed after Confederation. Alongside this general focus, the collection has several particular areas of strength:
- Pre-1800 Canadian printing: over 500 items
- Extensive holdings on the early settlement of Canada, with particular focus on New France and the North
- Government documents: 17th to 19th century French and British government publications relating to Canada, as well as pre-Confederation Canadian official publications
- Popular and ephemeral publications: Canadian almanacs, broadsides, newspapers, paperbacks, and trade catalogues, as well as the largest library collections of Canadian comic books and pulp magazines
- Fine printing and the book arts: Canadian small and private press editions, fine and artistic bindings, and artists' books and livre-objects
- Indigenous language imprints: about 750 pre-1950 publications printed in the languages of North America's Indigenous populations
Special collections
The Rare Book Collection holds several special collections, each consisting of material that came to LAC as a pre-existing unit. These unique collections are maintained as distinct groupings within the Rare Book Collection. Examples of LAC's special collections include:
- Alexander E. MacDonald Collection of Books on Canadian Geography, Exploration, and Travel
- John Bell Collection of Canadian Comic Books
- Collection of Books from the Library of William Lyon Mackenzie King
- Ronald I. Cohen Collection of Works by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Highlights from the collection
- Oldest item: a single leaf from a Gutenberg Bible, printed in Germany around 1454
- Oldest Canadian item: the March 23, 1752 issue of the Halifax Gazette printed by Canada's first printer, John Bushell. This is the only known copy of one of the oldest surviving items printed in Canada
- Oldest full-length Canadian book: the Catechisme du diocese de Sens, printedby the firm of Brown and Gilmore in 1765 in Quebec
- Oldest full-length First Nation language book printed in Canada: Nehiro-iriniui aiamihe massinahigan…, a Roman Catholic prayer book in the Innu-Aimun language, printed by Brown and Gilmore in 1767 in Quebec.
Search tips
Search Aurora with sub-collection codes
- Go to Aurora
- Select Advanced Search
- Enter your preferred search terms in the main search field and in the second search field, enter “b8:Reserve”
For example:
Example 1 - Text version
This image is a visual representation of the LAC's Library Catalogue search Aurora. This is the Advanced Search screen. There are three rows of options.
The first row contains:
-
a Search Index drop-down menu. The menu has the following available options:
- Accession number
- Author
- Author phrase
- Corporate conference name
- Corporate conference name phrase
- ISSN
- Keyword (currently selected)
- Language
- Language phrase
- Music/publisher number
- Musical composition
- Personal name
- Personal name phrase
- Place of publication
- Publisher
- Series
- Series phrase
- Standard number
- Subject
- Subject phrase
- Title
- Title phrase
- a Search Term text field. It currently has the text "race" entered.
The second row contains:
-
a boolean Operator drop-down menu. The menu has the following available options:
- and (currently selected)
- or
- not
-
a Search Index drop-down menu. The menu has the following available options:
- Accession number
- Author
- Author phrase
- Corporate conference name
- Corporate conference name phrase
- ISSN
- Keyword (currently selected)
- Language
- Language phrase
- Music/publisher number
- Musical composition
- Personal name
- Personal name phrase
- Place of publication
- Publisher
- Series
- Series phrase
- Standard number
- Subject
- Subject phrase
- Title
- Title phrase
- a Search Term text field. It currently has the text "b8:reserve" entered.
The third row contains:
-
a boolean Operator drop-down menu. The menu has the following available options:
- and (currently selected)
- or
- not
-
a Search Index drop-down menu. The menu has the following available options:
- Accession number
- Author (currently selected)
- Author phrase
- Corporate conference name
- Corporate conference name phrase
- ISSN
- Keyword
- Language
- Language phrase
- Music/publisher number
- Musical composition
- Personal name
- Personal name phrase
- Place of publication
- Publisher
- Series
- Series phrase
- Standard number
- Subject
- Subject phrase
- Title
- Title phrase
- a Search Term text field. This field is currently empty.
Search the Rare Book Illustrations, Before 1800 Database
The Rare Book Illustrations database contains 550 images (mostly engravings) from Library and Archives Canada's Rare Book Collection.
Access the collection
Many of the items in our collection do not circulate, and must be consulted on site at the Preservation Centre. White gloves should not be worn when handling rare books. Use clean hands and caution.
For those items that do circulate, our loan period is general three days, but it can be extended as needed.
Related resources
Contact us
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