The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library has extensive holdings of Canadian pamphlets and broadsides in a great diversity of subject areas from agriculture and land settlement to politics and government to education, temperance, transportation, natural resources, and the arts. The collection encompasses examples from the earliest period of printing in Canada, such as the 1763 prospectus for the Quebec Gazette, to a 1930 price list of officer's uniforms issued by the Montreal firm of W. Scully. Within the broad class of pamphlets and broadsides a variety of genres is represented, including programs, campaign literature, catalogues, reports, and many forms of advertising. The collection includes items in English, French, German and several aboriginal languages.

Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides complements existing online resources in Canadiana, such as Early Canadiana Online and the Champlain Society digital collection which provide access to certain categories of Canadian monographs. Pamphlets and broadsides have traditionally been overlooked formats. They are much more difficult to house properly, and are generally more subject to loss and damage than books and bound periodicals. Our aim is to make these lesser known but essential resources more widely available, by digitizing the contents and making them freely available on the web to all interested researchers.

Copyright / Request
In keeping with its mission the University of Toronto Library provides access to the digital materials included in the Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides online collection. The images in the online collection are derived from works in the public domain.

Copyright and other rights in the digital images, underlying encoded text, indexing and display of the materials in the Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides online collection are held by the University of Toronto Library. The images may be used for the purposes of research, private study, or general interest. For these purposes the images may be viewed and printed without prior permission.

For reproduction requests please fill out the Digital Photography Order Form and send/fax your request to the address listed on the form.

Contact Information

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