Digital Collections
The scanning/photographing of sometimes-fragile rare print materials involves considerable risk and expense, so we should not be surprised to find that less than two percent of rare print materials worldwide have been digitized. This explains why it can be challenging or impossible to find precise early editions online and why we offer this page as a starting place for anyone seeking digital surrogates of rare print materials housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections. Some Peel library collections–including the Gregory Javitch Collection of books about Indigenous peoples and the Dr Ronald B. Madge Entomology Collection–are represented in major databases accessible through subscribing libraries (including U of A Library). Other Peel collections can be explored through an award-winning series of expertly curated digital exhibitions that are filled with images of rare materials. A selection of frequently-requested Peel materials have been digitized and can be viewed through the Internet Archive, including Treaty parchments (for Treaties 4, 6, 7, & 8), the Tinctor manuscipt, a Medieval Book of Hours, a collection of English Playbills (1779-1949), the Indigenous Photograph Collection, the Prairie Postcard Collection, and the Ariel Bension Sephardic Manuscript Collection, as well as selections from the Gregory Javitch Collection of books about Indigenous peoples and the Dr Ronald B. Madge Entomology Collection.
Collection Formats: 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century, Books, Correspondence, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Photographs, Postcards -- click to see other collections with this format