Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, library at the University of Toronto housing a collection of rare books and manuscripts
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is a rare book library at the University of Toronto, holding manuscripts, early printed books, and archival materials spanning many centuries. The building sits on the main campus and is built in a brutalist style, with heavy concrete walls and a solid, blocky exterior.
The library was built in 1973 as part of the University of Toronto to bring together rare and fragile collections that had been scattered across different parts of the campus. Its construction came at a time when brutalist architecture was widely used for institutional buildings across North America.
The library takes its name from Sydney Fisher, a Canadian industrialist whose son Thomas Sydney Fisher donated a large private book collection to the University of Toronto. This gift gave the institution its founding collection and shaped the way it functions today as a place for hands-on research with original materials.
Visitors who are not students or registered researchers should check in advance which areas are open to the general public and whether any form of registration is required. Some materials may need to be requested ahead of time, so planning a visit a few days early is a good idea.
The library holds a collection of papyrus fragments from ancient Egypt, which is an unusual holding for a university library in Canada. These documents can be accessed by researchers and offer a direct connection to writing practices thousands of years old.
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