Exhibitions

Victoria University Library regularly mounts exhibitions that showcase materials found in the library’s collections. Exhibitions are generally mounted in the display cases in the front lobby and reading room of the E.J. Pratt Library, or are displayed in various parts of the main floor.

Current Exhibition

Curses in Clay, Letters in Lead   
Library Foyer | June 9-August 15  
This exhibition explores the intersections between cursing rituals and political ostracism in ancient Athens. While ostracism was an official political mechanism used for exiling a potential threat to democracy, cursing was viewed with suspicion. Yet, lead curse tablets used for cursing and broken pottery (ostraka) used as ostracism ballots overlap in many interesting ways: curse tablets were often employed in the Athenian law courts and ostraka sometimes targeted personal rivals. Might the curses have been deployed as illicit extensions of state-sanctioned political procedures?
The exhibition is part of a Jackman Scholars-in-Residence project that includes experimental archaeology in ceramics and metal, hands-on study of artifacts, and the development of an artifact database.  

Faculty Supervisor: Prof. Joanna Papayiannis 
Student Research Assistants: Sarah Beke, Miranda Crabtree, Emily Phillips, Phoebe Sozou, and Clare Wilson. 

Exhibition Website: https://cursesinclay.wordpress.com/ 

Past Exhibitions

Nancy Drew & the Eight Limited Print Copies
Library Foyer | March 17–April 11
Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2024 Winner, Tamara Doiny

Reliving the Trenches: Materiality, Memory and the Military 
Library Foyer, Nov 11th - Dec 13th, 2024

See the companion online exhibition (a story map featuring materials from the Victoria University Archives).

This exhibition restages a modernist play written and performed by the Varsity Veterans Association at Hart House Theatre in the 1920 inaugural season. No photos exist of the performance, but the never-before displayed script, stage directions and posters found in UTARMS are included in the exhibition. It displays WWI diaries, photographs, ephemera, and items held by Victoria University Library's Special Collections and the Vic Archives. A loan of artifacts, like those used in the original play, will also be exhibited.

Curated by Material Culture and Semiotic students at Vic (Eunice Der, Emily Fan, Charlotte DeLeskie and Aanya Khaitan) with Professor Cathie Sutton and supported by the E.J. Pratt Library. 

Image featured above: Tank shaped Christmas Greeting Card, Harold Bull Fonds, Victoria University Library (Toronto), 2014.06, Box 1, File 3

Belarusian History 
Library Foyer | October 5 to October 31, 2023

Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2023 Winner, Viktar Yakauleu

Celebrating the VWA at 125,
April 19 2023 to July 21 2023.
[located in the library foyer and in main reading room]

A celebration of the Victoria Women's Association (VWA)
125th anniversary. The VWA has actively helped build community, students, and the Vic campus since their founding in 1897. This exhibition uses photographs, artifacts, and documents from the Victoria University Archives, Victoria University Library - Special Collections, and the Victoria University Art Collection to illustrate the VWA's long history of supporting Victoria University and its students.

Fireside Tales, Selections from the Robins Folklore Collection 
E.J. Pratt Library | December 14 2022 - February 17, 2023 (selections from the Robins Folklore Collection curated by Librarians Diane Michaud and Beth Shoemaker)

An exhibition of late 19th and early 20th century books from the E.J. Pratt Library’s Robins Folklore Collection.
It features beautiful illustrations and the books represent a wide gamut ranging from stories of Inuit culture, to folktales from Georgia, Iceland and China.

A Visionary Symmetry: Northrop Frye & William Blake
October 20 to December 9, 2022

• Beat Literature Collection
  Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2022 Winner, Rion Levy
• Stories of the 442^nd and the Battle of Discrimination Against Japanese Americans
  Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2021 Winner, Reva Mai
• The Magic and Beauty of Endpapers: A Collection
  Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2021 Winner, Iona Whatford
• Mario Pratesi (1842-1921): A Centenary Commemoration
  Presented as part of the University of Toronto 2021 Graduate Students Association of Italian Studies Annual Conference, the exhibit takes a retrospective look at the life of the respected Italian teacher and writer.
  
• Folk legend, Paul Bunyan
  E.J. Pratt Library | February 3 to April 1, 2020 (selections from the Robins Folklore Collection curated by Librarian Diane Michaud)

The larger-than-life lumberjack Paul Bunyan became popular in the first half of the 20th century, as evidenced by the many beautiful illustrations and woodcuts showcased in the books in this exhibition. Viewers will also learn about the "fakelore versus folklore" debate relating to the character of Paul Bunyan. The Bunyan books and a small sampling of other folklore-themed works are drawn from the Robins Folklore Collection, a special collection established by J.D. Robins, former Librarian and English Professor at Victoria University (in the University of Toronto) from 1910 to 1952. 

• The Lighter Side of Virginia Woolf
  E.J. Pratt Library | September 9 to October 30, 2019
  • The Good Neighbor: A Celebration of Ken Taylor
    An Exhibition to Mark the Opening of the Kenneth D. Taylor Archive
    E.J. Pratt Library | May 14 to September 9, 2019

    Other Resources

    • Paris Posters: Visual Reminders of the May 1968 Uprising
      E.J. Pratt Library | Jan 29 to June 23, 2019
      • The Jane Austen Book Collection
        Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2018 Winner, Fatma Shahin
        E.J. Pratt Library | October 15 to November 25, 2018
      • Dominion of the North: Literary & Print Culture in Canada
        E.J. Pratt Library | October 5 to December 12, 2017
      • Canada 150: A VIC Celebration
        E.J. Pratt Library | February 21 to March 31, 2017
      • Virginia Woolf Around The World
        An exhibition of translations in honour of the author's 135th birthday
        E.J. Pratt Library | January 12 to February 17, 2017
      • Burning Bright: The Bentley Blake Collection Today
        An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions
        E.J. Pratt Library | November 3 to December 1, 2016
      • Vic in China
        An online exhibit of scanned photographs sent to Victoria University Library by the families of Victoria College missionaries to West China. Victoria University Library gathered and organized the photographs adding supplementary text from period publications and missionaries’ memoirs.
      • Illustrated Classics of Children's Literature
        Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2015 Winner, Andreea Marin
      • History of Science Education at Victoria College, 1836–1892: A 2015 Science Literacy Week Exhibit
        The exhibit, curated by librarians Agatha Barc and Colin Deinhardt, showcases items from the library’s special collections, Canadiana and Victoriana. Education in the natural sciences (including courses in chemistry, physics, mineralogy, astronomy and other subjects) was an essential part of Victoria’s curriculum between 1836 and 1892, when the College federated with the University of Toronto. Items on display include course calendars as well as books, photographs, and brief life sketches of prominent science faculty (Eugene Haanel, A.P. Coleman, and John Beatty) and graduates (Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Nellie Greenwood), among other treasures.
      • Twentieth-Century European History Book Collection
        Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2014 Winner, Matthew Korda
      • Victoria University and the War: Commemorating the 100th  Anniversary of the Great War (1914–1918)
        Includes correspondence, photographs and other material from the Victoria University Archives and Special Collections relating to the war time activities of students, alumni and faculty, as well as the University’s recognition of their sacrifices.The exhibit features the Victoria Cross awarded to Captain Thain W.  MacDowell dated 9
      • Virginia Woolf @ 132: An Exhibition of New Acquisitions to Honour the Author’s Birthday. Jan 17 – Feb 28, 2014. 
        Highlights include hand printed books and an original wooden plaque from the Hogarth Press, as well as a book that was hand bound by Virginia Woolf herself. 
      • Memorabilia and photos from the Victoria University Archives to celebrate Spring Reunion, May 31–June 2, 2013.
      • Ancient Philosophy Book Collection
        Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2012 Winner, Patricia Sacawa
      • Northrop Frye @ 100: A Centenary Exhibition
      • A.P. Coleman: Geologist, Explorer (1852–1939)—Science, Art & Discovery
      • Canadian Poetry’s Coming of Age: 1965–1990
        Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2011 Winner, Andrew McEwan
      • Homosexualities at the Crossroads: A Latin American View on the Homosexual Experience.
        Hoeniger Book Collection Prize 2010 Winner, David Fernández.
      • Blake In Our Time: A Symposium Celebrating the Future of Blake Studies & the Legacy of G.E. Bentley Jr. (Podcasts & Exhibition. August 2010)
      • Nineteenth-Century British Literary Annuals:
        An Online Exhibition of Materials from the University of Toronto by Lindsey Eckert
      • Romantic Diversity: An Exhibit from the 16th Annual NASSR Conference
      • Virginia and Co.: An Exhibition for Virginia Woolf’s 125th Birthday
      • William Blake and His Contemporaries: An Exhibition Selected from the Bentley Collection at Victoria University
      • George Baxter (1804–1867): A Bicentenary Exhibition of Prints and Illustrations
      • Celebrating Memory and Mission: John Wesley at 300
      • A Century of Women in Residence at Vic
      • Northrop Frye: Scholar, critic and humanist
      • Graphic Works of Claire Pratt
      • Canadian Heritage at Victoria University Library
      • Paris 1968: Icônes de la révolution / Icons of Revolution—A Poster Exhibition
      • Ephemera From the Age of Victoria
      • Bloomsbury: Books, Art and Design
      • T.E. Lawrence and the Book: Seven Pillars of Wisdom 1926–1996
      • Colour Prints by George Baxter (1804–1867)
      • Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web: a Project of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries
        A searchable database of online exhibitions that have been created by libraries, archives, historical societies, and museums where the online exhibitions have a significant focus on library and archival materials.