January / February 2001 Vol. 33, no. 1

The Library Lends Rare Items to Mackenzie Heritage Printery Museum

Michel Brisebois, Rare Book Curator
Research and Information Services

Alison Judd, Curator of the Mackenzie Heritage Printery Museum, with the case containing the Gutenberg leaf.

The Mackenzie Heritage Printery Museum, located in the restored home of William Lyon Mackenzie in historic Queenston (Ontario), is Canada’s largest operating printing museum. The National Library of Canada was very pleased to contribute to the museum’s summer exhibition celebrating Johann Gutenberg by lending from its Rare Book Collection an original leaf from the Gutenberg Bible (printed in Mainz ca.1450-1455) as well as two examples of early printing from Niagara-on-the-Lake. The two documents are an Upper Canada Land Board certificate printed in 1793 or 1794 by Louis Roy, the first printer in Ontario, and a proclamation on land settlement by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe printed by G. Tiffany in 1795. The Louis Roy press is on display in the museum and was thus reunited with one of the documents it printed more than 200 years ago.

As curator of rare books at the National Library, I delivered the documents in early May and, at the end of September, attended the museum’s annual colloquium. This year’s colloquium celebrated not only Gutenberg but also the 200th anniversary of the Niagara Public Library.

The Gutenberg leaf and the two early Niagara imprints were very popular with the many summer visitors to the museum and with the numerous autumn school tours. On behalf of the National Library, I would like to thank the directors of the museum, especially Lou Cahill, Secretary, and Alison Judd, Museum Curator, for their cooperation and their warm hospitality.