Special collections

This page provides practical information about the material held by the Rare Books and Special Collections unit of the McGill Library.

Rare Books and Special Collections houses many thousands of items ranging from published works to puppets, and is especially renowned for its holdings related to Canadiana, the history of printing, natural history, Enlightenment philosophy, and architecture.

On this page, you will find descriptions of the various named collections found at Rare Books and Special Collections, in addition to a number of thematic guides. Please note that this site is a work in progress and we recommend contacting us if you’d like to know more about a particular collection or related material. Our contact details can be found within individual collection descriptions and on this page. Please also note that although we have placed collections into specific categories, we appreciate and encourage the potential diversity of usage that exists across disciplines and in a variety of contexts.

Additional to these named special collections is the Rare Books and Special Collections “main”, or general collection, which houses close to 100,000 published works representing a wide range of subject matters and print formats. Works in the main collection date from the 15^th through to the 21^st century and are printed in a variety of languages including French, German, Latin, Italian, Chinese, and Russian. Many of the works in the main collection are complementary to those housed within named special collections.

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