Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
An open atrium in the library
43°39′51″N79°23′56″W / 43.66417°N 79.39889°W /43.66417; -79.39889
Location	Toronto,Ontario, Canada
Established	1973 (52 years ago) (1973)
Architects	Mathers & Haldenby
Branch of	University of Toronto Libraries
Collection
Items collected	Rare books and manuscripts
Size	740,000 volume (2022), 4,000 linear metre (2022)
Other information
Public transit access	Spadina St. George
Website	fisher.library.utoronto.ca

TheThomas Fisher Rare Book Library is alibrary on theUniversity of Toronto'sSt. George campus constituting the largest repository of publicly accessiblerare books andmanuscripts in Canada. The library is also home to the university archives which, in addition to institutional records, also contains the papers of many important Canadian literary figures includingMargaret Atwood andLeonard Cohen.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections was founded in November 1955 by the Chief Librarian, Robert H. Blackburn. Blackburn hired Marion E. Brown who was working in the special collections department at Brown University. Brown's first responsibility was to deal with the items that had been accumulating since 1890. Some of these items in the collection included medieval manuscripts, early printed books, and special volumes of later periods that had been presented by Queen Victoria to the university. Between the accumulated items and items found in the stacks of the main library, there was enough to open up the Rare Book Room in 1957.^[1]

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and the University Archives didn't have a permanent home until 1973 when the Thomas Fisher Rare Book library was opened. The library is named in honour ofThomas Fisher (1792–1874), who immigrated fromYorkshire, settled along theHumber River in 1822, and became a successful merchant–miller. In 1973 his great-grandsons, Sidney and Charles Fisher, donated to the library their own collections of Shakespeare, various twentieth-century authors, and etchings ofWenceslaus Hollar. Since the opening of the library, it has grown to approximately 740,000 volumes and 4,000 metres of manuscript holdings.^[2]

The Fisher building was designed by Mathers and Haldenby, Toronto with design consultant Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde, New York. It forms part of a complex with theJohn P. Robarts Research Library for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Claude Bissel Building which houses the Faculty of Information.^[3]

Richard Landon, the director until his death in 2011,^[4] organized two or three exhibitions of rare books and other materials annually.

Among the collection's items are theNuremberg Chronicle (1493),Shakespeare'sFirst Folio (1623), andNewton'sPrincipia (1687). Contrary to widespread internet claims,^[5][6] the library does not haveDarwin's proof copy with annotations ofOn the Origin of Species (1859); the library does however have annotated proof sheets of:The Power of Movement in Plants,^[7]The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,^[8] andThe Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom.^[9] Other collections includeBabyloniancuneiform tablet fromUr (1789 BC), 36 Egyptianpapyrus manuscript fragments (245 BC), andCatholicon (1460).^[10]

TheRobert S. Kenny Collection resides in the library. This immense collection of books, documents, and other materials pertaining to the radical and labour movements, particularly inCanada, contains approximately 25,000 items collected byRobert S. Kenny, who was a member of theCommunist Party of Canada. The Canadian section, which has 382 books and 768 pamphlets, was acquired by the library from Kenny in 1977. The international section of the collection was donated by Kenny in 1993.

In addition, there is a collection of etchings byWenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677) from the collection of Sidney Thomson Fisher. The collection consists of etching plates, original prints and published works byWenceslaus Hollar.^[11]

The library has a collection of 500Valentines.^[12]

In April 2018, it was announced that the library had acquired the oldest English-language book in Canada, and the University of Toronto Libraries' 15 millionth item, known as theCaxton Cicero, which was printed in 1481 by the EnglishmanWilliam Caxton.^[13]

• 
  Illustration ofAesop's FableThe ant and the grasshopper byWenzel Hollar
• 
  Panning for gold on theIndian River, 1904; photo byJoseph Tyrrell
• 
  Etching byWenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677) of theSalvator Mundi byLeonardo da Vinci
• 
  Bride On Her Way To Wedding, Fuzhou Fujian China (c. 1911-1913); Ralph G. Gold

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