PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS
A chronological list of the exhibitions held at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library from its inception in 1973.
Please click on a title for information about the exhibition and its catalogue and poster (if available).
2009
Calvin by the Book: A Literary Commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Birth of John Calvin (22 May-4 September 2009)
Werner Pfeiffer (censor, villain, provocateur, experimenter): Book-Objects & Artist Books (29 January-1 May 2009)
2008
Where Duty Leads: Canada in the First World War (22 September-16 January 2009) - Online Exhibit
Queer CanLit: Canadian, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Literature in English (9 June-29 August 2008)
A Hundred Years of Philosophy from the Slater and Walsh Collections (28 January-28 April 2008)
2007
Humane Letters: Bruce Rogers – Designer of Books and Artist (24 September-21 December)
‘The age of guessing is passed away’: An Exhibition to Mark the David Thompson Bicentennial (22 May-31 August) - Online Exhibit
Hopeful Travellers - Italian Explorers, Missionaries, Merchants, and Adventurers from the Middle Ages to Modern Times (30 January-27 April)
2006
Extra muros/Intra muros: A Collaborative Exhibition of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Toronto (25 September-21 December)
Pungent Personalities: Arts & Letters Club Drawings by Arthur Lismer, 1922-1943 (23 May -1 September)
Ars medica: : medical illustration through the ages (25 January-29 April)
2005
Bibliophilia scholastica floreat: Fifty Years of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Toronto (26 September-21 December)
Canlit without Covers : Recent Acquisitions of Canadian Literary Manuscripts (16 May-2 September)
Nihil obstat: an exhibition of banned, censored & challenged books in the west, 1491-2000 (24 January-29 April)
2004
NOW and the '80s : A Photographic Exhibition (4 October-21 December)
Commentary: an exhibition of work by Sylvia Ptak (25 May-3 September)
Philosophy & Bibliophily (26 January-30 April)
2003
From Aquinas to Atwood (29 September-19 December 2003)
Literary Forgeries & Mystifications (18 June-29 August)
Vizetelly & Compan(ies): A Complex Tale of Victorian Printing and Publishing (3 February-2 May)
2002
The University of Toronto: Snapshots of its History (7 October-20 December)
Expectations and Experience: The World of the Medieval and Renaissance Traveller (21 May-30 August 2002)
Mirabilia Urbis Romae: Five centuries of Guidebooks and Views (28 January-26 April 2002)
2001
Printed Ephemera : Memories from a Vanished Past (9 July -17 August; 12 November-21 December)
Designer Bookbinders in North America (11 September-26 October)
Book History and Print Culture: an Exhibition Celebrating the Collaborative Program at the University of Toronto(1 March-25 May)
2000
The Culture of the Book in the Scottish Enlightenment (28 September-22 December)
Plotting the Oceans: Dutch Sea Atlases of the Seventeenth Century (26 June-1 September)
As the Centuries Turn: Manuscripts and Books from 1000 to 2000 (24 February-2 June)
1999
All in the Golden Afternoon: the Inventions of Lewis Carroll (20 September-28 January 2000)
In Honour of our Friends (13 May-3 September)
Art on the Wing: British, American and Canadian Illustrated Bird Books from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century (25 January-9 April)
1998
In Retrospect: Designer Bookbindings by Michael Wilcox (19 October-22 December)
Toronto in Print: A Celebration of 200 Years of the Printing Press in Toronto 1798-1998 (3 August -2 October)
Radicals and Revolutionaries: The History of Canadian Communism from the Robert S. Kenny Collection (27 April-10 July)
Experiencing India: European Descriptions and Impressions, 1498-1898 (19 January-21 March)
1997
'so precious a foundation' the Library of Leander Van Ess at the Burke Library of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (10 September-19 December)
Tending the Young: From the T.G.H. Drake Collection on the History of Pædiatrics April-15 August)
The Stuff dreams are made of: the Art and Design of Frederick and Louise Coates (16 January-27 March)
1996
The Discovery of Insulin at the University of Toronto: an exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary (23 September-20 December)
From Cavalcanti to Calvino: 500 years of Italian editions and English translations (12 May-30 August)
Cooper & Beatty: Designers with Type (15 January-26 April)
1995
David Jones, Artist and Writer (1895-1974): A Centennial Exhibition (5 October-2 January 1996)
A Pride of Gifts: Donations from Our Friends 1990-1994 (3 July-15 September)
Fine Printing: The Private Press in Canada (18 April-16 June)
Elegant Editions: Aspects of Victorian Book Design (19 January-31 March)
1994
A Pride of Gifts: Donations from Our Friends 1990-1994 (22 November-22 December; repeated July-September 1995)
Ownership of Books: An Investigation into Provenance (18 July-28 October)
The Telling Line: Image and Text in Twentieth Century Britain (18 April-30 June)
Fiat Lux: An Exhibition of Mediaeval Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (31 January-1 April)
1993
The Atlas as a Book, 1490 to 1900 (18 October-14 January 1994)
Women Artists and Botanical Illustration in the Nineteenth Century (16 August-1 October)
J.B. Tyrrell: Explorer and Adventurer: the Geological Survey years, 1881-1898 (5 April-30 July)
1992
Please, Sir, I want Some More (9 November-12 February 1993)
Evolution of the Heart: The University Library: The First Century, 1827-1923 (24 June-17 October)
Dramatis personae: an exhibition of amateur theatre at the University of Toronto, 1879-1939 (17 February-29 May)
1991
From Boards to Cloth: The Development of Publishers' Bindings in the Nineteenth Century (July-September)
Eric Gill: His Life and Art (19 April-30 June)
An Architect's Library of 1890 (23 January-29 March)
1990
The Juvenile Drama, or, Penny Plain, Twopence Coloured (15 November-4 January 1991)
Sterner Years: An Exhibition on the Life and Works of Sir Winston Churchill from the John G. Edison Collection (20 September-31 October)
Asia in Books. Books in Asia (16 July-31 August)
Fine Bookbinding: The Art of Jacques Blanchet (April-June)
Gifts From Our Friends: An Exhibition to Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of the Friends of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (January)
1989
From Manuscript to Printed Book in the Islamic World (13 November-15 December)
Fifteenth Century Italian Woodcuts From the Biblioteca Classense, Ravenna (18 September-27 October)
1789: année de la liberté: An Exhibition of Books, Pamphlets, Plays and Other Materials Relating to the First Year of the French Revolution (May-August)
Portugal in Chronicle & Epic (January-March)
1988
Padlocked! An Exhibition of Czech and Slovak Independent Writings (24 October-6 January 1989)
Terra Australis Incognita: An Exhibition about Australia to 1900 (15 June-16 September)
The Italian Connection: 25 Years of Canadian Literature in Italian Translation, 1963-1988 (15 April-20 May)
The Aliquando Press: 25 Years of Private Printing (20 January-31 March)
1987
Ex Bibliotheca Vogriana Gilberti Bagnani (October-December)
The Ingenious Hogarth': An Exhibition of Prints by William Hogarth (22 June-18 September 18)
Medieval Manuscripts in Toronto Collections (16 April-29 May)
The Curwen Press 1863-1984 (February-March)
1986
Dramatis Personae: An Exhibition of Amateur Theatre at the University of Toronto, 1879-1939 (6 October-5 January 1987)
De Zee-Atlas ofte Water-Waereld (1666) by Hendrik Doncker (July-August)
Dental Roots: A History of Dentistry from Early Times to the Nineteenth Century (21 April-13 June)
Journey from the East: The Life and Times of Mark Gayn (20 January-31 March)
1985
Cambridge University Press: Four Hundred Years of Printing, 1584-1984 (21 October-3 January 1986)
Botanical Illustration (29 July-4 October)
Che bellissimi!: Italian Illustrated Books (15th-18th Centuries) (6 May-5 July)
Thomas Reid and the Scottish Enlightenment (25 February-24 April 24)
1984
The Pen is Mightier: An Exhibition of Calligraphy (17 December-15 February 1985)
Men Who March Away:An Exhibition Marking the Seventieth Anniversary of the First World War (15 October-30 November 30)
Cambridge University Press: Four Centuries of Printing and Publishing, 1524-1984 (October)
An Honest Trade: An Exhibition of Canadian Small Press Books Printed and Bound at The Porcupine's Quill in Erin, Ontario (1974-1983) (???)
Dance (An Ephemeral Art) in Print (1 June-20 July)
David G. Esplin, 1925-1983: A Commemorative Exhibition (28 March-11 May)
Treasures and Trash: Art and its Literature Through the Ages (23 January-23 March)
1983
John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946 (November-December)
The Black Art: An Exhibition of British Private Press Books (September-October)
Canada in Maps: From Early Times to the Present (11 July-2 September)
The Revival of Wood Engraving: English Illustrated Books 1915-1950 (6 May-20 June)
1883: Echoes of the Year. An Exhibition on the Occasion of the Conference of 1883, University College (14 March-30 April)
Blake and the Ancients (25 January-28 February)
1982
Bertrand Russell, Polymath: an Exhibition of Books, Pamphlets, and Ephemera from the Collection of Professor John G. Slater (November-22 January 1983)
Grand Man: Norman Douglas, 1868-1952 (27 September-30 October)
William Arthur Deacon, 1890-1977 (26 July-17 September)
Charles Darwin: A Centenary Exhibition in Commemoration of the Life and Work of Charles Robert Darwin, 1809-1882 (May-June )
Victorian Periodicals (March 19-May 7)
Re Joyce: An Exhibition Celebrating the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of James Joyce (January-February 1982)
1981
Galileo and Scientific Controversy (November-December)
Highlights from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (September-October)
Reader, Lover of Books: The Book Arts in Ontario (6 July-28 August)
The Byrth of Mankynd. An Exhibition of Books Illustrating the History of Obstetrics Selected from the Jason A. Hannah Collection in the History of Medical and Related Sciences (May-June)
Some Canadian Ornithologists (March-April)
Conservation in the Fisher Library (January-February)
1980
Twenty-Five Years. An Exhibition in Celebration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Founding of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (November)
Biblical Texts and Studies (25 August-10 October)
"Saved from the Dustbin": An Exhibition of Canadian Ephemeral Material (11 June-15 August)
Engravers & Lithographers in 19th Century Canada (April-May)
Fabulous Beasts (February-March)
1979
The Art of Illustration: A Selection of Books from 1490-1850 (October-November)
El Mundo hispánico: desarrollo e influencia. The Hispanic World: Growth and Influence (August)
The New Play Society (20 June-3 August 3; September-9 October)
The Binder's Art (March-April)
In Pursuit of Natural Knowledge": Natural History Exploration in the 18th and 19th Centuries (January-February)
1978
Letters as Literature: An Exhibition on the Occasion of the Fourteenth Annual Conference on Editorial Problems (November-December)
The Fur Trade in Canada (12 September-17 October)
The Horrid Popish Plot, 1678-1681: An Exhibition Held 300 Years After its Advent (July-August)
William Morris: Aspects of His Life and Work (June-July)
Hollar's England: An Exhibition of the Etchings of Wenceslaus Hollar ( April-May)
An Exhibition of Poetry and Fine Printing (January-March)
1977
To Be Continued Monthly": Publishing Fiction in the Nineteenth Century (November-December)
The Legacy of Jacob Bronowski (October)
The Hispanic World: Growth and Influence (August-September)
The Nineteenth Century: a Miscellany (June-July)
The Art of W. Heath Robinson (1 April-14 May)
An Exhibition of Illustrated Books (February-March)
1976
"A Penny Plain, Twopence Coloured" or, The Drama in Pasteboard (December-January 1977)
Mediaeval English Texts (October-November)
Canada and American Independence (August-October)
Agnes Chamberlin: An Exhibition of Water Colours (July-August)
Published in Paris (May-June)
The Scotland of Adam Smith (March-April)
1975
Renaissance Dramatic Texts (October-November)
Victorian Periodicals (September-October)
"A Sort of Bravery of the Mind and Soul" (August-September)
James Mavor and His World (June-July)
The Word in Many Languages: An Exhibition of Bibles (April-May)
Scotland, 1750-1810: The Enlightenment (February-March)
1974
"A Penny Plain, Twopence Coloured" or, The Drama in Pasteboard (16 December-January 1975)
D.H. Lawrence and Some Friends (November-December)
Text in Manuscript and Print (October)
Contemporary Canadian Printmakers (12 August-13 September)
Sir Edmund Walker: A Notable Canadian (2 July-9 August)
Francesco Petrarca: An Exhibition of his Work and Influence (April-May)
The Early History of Medicine
Book Illustration in the Natural Sciences (February)
1973
Fables & Fairytales Illustrated for Children (December-January 1974)
The Unknown Land: Early Exploration in Canada (October-November)
Botany and Early Medicine (3 September-13 October)
Thoreau MacDonald: Artist and Illustrator (July-August)
William Shakespeare: The Man and his Works (April)
