Trent University Archives
1600 West Bank Drive K9J 7B8 Peterborough, ON, Canada

"It is better to be up and doing." Catharine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada, 1836

Voters be warned (1920s): The Vote Thieves is one of 843 original poster-size cartoons by Arthur G. Racey located in the Archives. Created for the Montreal Star where Racey worked from 1899 to 1941, The Vote Thieves warns voters about obeying the electoral rules. Due to the universal nature of his cartoons, Racey gained international recognition and his works were reproduced in numerous newspapers and magazines around the world. (Arthur G. Racey fonds. Trent University Archives)

Harriet Brock’s caricature drawings of the stages of a Ball are located in a red-covered sketchbook of paintings and drawings labelled Guernsey, February 14th, 1829. Within a few years of creating the booklet, Harriet immigrated to Upper Canada with her husband of one year, Robert Pengelley; the couple settled on the north shore of Rice Lake in 1835. Harriet’s ball caricatures represent a much different experience than that she encountered in the new world. Her time in Cana...da, a land of snow and vermine, was one of misery. Exceedingly unhappy and lonely, Harriet lived only one year after arriving, dying at the age of 27. She was the niece of Sir Isaac Brock. (Pengelley fonds, Accession 70-001, Trent University Archives) An internet search reveals that Harriet would have had access to a source of similar drawings dated 1817, as hers closely resemble those created at the earlier date: l to r: Right & Left. Setting. Hands four round. Paussette. Down the middle. Asking to Dance. Leading out. Tête-à-tête. Hornpipe. Taking home royal. Fainting. An affair of honor. Driving a tandem.

The insulin miracle On this day in 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson lay dying of diabetes at the Toronto General Hospital. He was given the first-ever injecti...on of purified insulin. As a result, he survived. In 1922, children dying from diabetes stayed in a large group ward at the Toronto General Hospital, most of them comatose. Grieving family members would stay at their bedsides, heartbreakingly awaiting their child’s death. Imagine the moment when Canadian scientists Banting, Best, and Collip went from bed to bed, injecting the entire ward of children with purified insulin. Before they had reached the last dying child, many were already awakening from their comas, to the joyous cries of their families. Thanks to Frederick Banting, Charles Best, John Macleod and James Collip at the University of Toronto for saving millions of lives! Profile of Sir Frederick Grant Banting: http://ow.ly/RBGE30qbqXx Learn more about this discovery: http://ow.ly/3ziM30qbr0z

On this Day in History July 15, 1847 The appointment of the Peterborough Board of Health With an influx of sick immigrants coming to Peterborough during one of... the Irish Famines, there were a lot of people sick and dying in the quarantine camps outside of town. It was at this time that a Board of Health was appointed by the provincial government. Its members included Thomas Chambers, Charles Rubidge, Joseph Shaw, Robert Stenson and James Harvey. See more

Trent University Archives will be reopening this week. Access to the holdings is BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Please see the following link for information: https://www.trentu.ca/library/archives/access. We will be watching for your email and look forward to seeing you!

The story of O Canada... or how French Canadians inspired English Canadians. #CanadaDay O Canada, then called the Chant national [National Song], was writ...ten in French and intended to be an anthem for French Canadians. It was composed partly in response to the popularity of God Save the Queen in English Canada. But English Canadians loved the French composition so much that, a few decades later, the first English version was created! The Chant national was first performed in public on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Québec in 1880. Judge Adolphe-Basile Routhier wrote the lyrics (in French) and Calixa Lavallée composed the music. In 1980, O Canada became Canada’s official national anthem. Happy 40th! Learn more: http://ow.ly/dT9J30nKQJp #OhCanada

We're excited to participate in this week's annual conference of the Association of Canadian Archivists. For the first time in its 45-year history, the ACA conference is being held in virtual format. Over the next three days, we will hear from 80 speakers on a variety of topics. This conference is always an invigorating experience!

Growing cabbages in Port Hope: not much to it! I have not noticed the soil so much, only there be a soil, for I considered that the Almighty made the clime [climate] and he had made the soil to suit it and he could make the cabbages to grow. (from a letter by John Thompson, Port Hope, 23 June 1819, to his friend in England, Medd family fonds)

Happy Birthday Will! To celebrate, the Bodleian Libraries have our own story of outrageous fortune to tell, concerning our copy of Shakespeare’s incredibly impo...rtant First Folio which you can view online at Digital Bodleian. https://bit.ly/3at0B5v We first got our copy in 1623 seven years after the world became bereft of the be-ruffed bard. Published by Shakespeare’s pals and peers, the First Folio preserved treasures such as Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Macbeth and Julius Caesar. The Bodleian Libraries eventually sold this copy perhaps when it was replaced by a smarter Third Folio and the precious book was eventually believed to be gone for good. Until 1905 when graduate Gladwyn Turbutt visited the Bodleian to show an item of interest to the ‘sub-librarian’ Falconer Madan. Find out what happened next here. https://bit.ly/3byfWDb

Celebrating Archives Awareness Week while looking out at the snow everywhere and watching the birds bombard our feeder. But we're working, too! :) Another 1819 Port Hope transcription is now available. As posted a few posts ago, this letter is also part of the Medd family fonds. William Thompson was very appreciative of a gift of books he received from England: "... we are verry thankfull indeed for the Books. For Books here of any kind are verry valuable particularly of a spiritual kind. As we are intirely deprived of the means of grace but we are in hopes that it will not be the case long as here is a church minister com,d [comed] from the west Riding of Yorkshire." The full transcription is available at the following link: https://www.trentu.ca/library/archives/81-001; scroll to Box 12 Folder 2.

A newly transcribed letter, written from Port Hope in 1819: I through the help and mercy of God sit down to write a few lines to you as I have had a verry bad fever which lasted for six weeks the Docter he bled me twize and laid on a blister betwixt my shoulders (William Thompson, Port Hope, to his uncle in England, 23 January 1819)... We're doing all we can, as is everyone, to make the best of an unimaginable situation. Our new working-from-home reality means that we do have an opportunity to concentrate on areas of our work that we sometimes struggle to get to. Archives Associate Tori Cartwright has set her sights on a collection of early 19C letters located in our holdings. Kudos to Tori for tackling this handwriting! We will upload the letter transcripts to our website as they become available: https://www.trentu.ca/library/archives/81-001 (scroll to Box 12 Folder 3 for a link to the new transcription).

We are working from home now and will be monitoring email messages ([email protected]). Please note that we do not have access to our holdings at this time. It was odd setting up at home this morning and it took a while to get oriented. I've had one eye on my screen all day and the other on the red squirrel chattering outside my window. He is quite annoyed by the newcomer (me!). Wishing everyone good health.

Peterborough and Durham campuses closing all but essential services by end of day Monday, March 16. Full update and FAQs available at https://www.trentu.ca/covid19