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Anatomy of a Sponsored GiftMichel Brisebois, Research and Information Services Some months ago, an intriguing broadside was sitting in my office on a pile of files. I had just bought it and was waiting for it to be catalogued. Designed for emigrants, the broadside provided valuable information to those wishing to travel from Toronto to Fort William (now Thunder Bay) and on to Fort Garry, which would become Winnipeg a few years later. This is very early for a piece on emigrating to Manitoba: in 1872, the population of Winnipeg was about 1500 only. Where these immigrants came from and where exactly they were heading, the broadside doesn’t say. One thing we do know is that they came from the "East" and were heading "West." The majority probably ended up in the homesteads in the area surrounding Winnipeg. The broadside also tells us the route that was used before the railway made "going west" much easier. The range of the Northern Railway mentioned was limited to Ontario - it wasn’t until 1881 that the railway reached Winnipeg. This rare, possibly unique, broadside contributes to our significant collection of emigration literature, a subject the National Library has always collected aggressively, as they say in the trade. While musing over the broadside, I received a phone call from Bjarne Tokerud, from Victoria, B.C. Bjarne told me that since his father’s death a few months earlier, he had been looking for a way to commemorate the fact that his parents had been successful immigrants to Canada. He had decided to give some money to the Rare Book Collection of the National Library of Canada. In memory of his parents, the money was to be used towards the purchase of a special immigration-related item. As Bjarne put it: "Although my father was born in Norway, my mother and I in Sweden, all of us had made Canada our preferred choice for home and country. I recalled that my father and mother had answered a tempting ‘Come to Canada’ advertisement in a Swedish newspaper in 1951 placed there by the Canadian Government. That ad, coupled with the need and desire to begin a new and better life, eventually resulted in our entire family becoming Canadian citizens." The Fort Garry broadside was exactly what Bjarne had had in mind, and the fact that it was sitting in my office when he called was quite a coincidence. After I sent him a photocopy of the broadside, he confirmed his enthusiasm and sent a cheque equivalent to the price we had paid for the broadside. In his accompanying note he wrote: "While my parents' passage across the Atlantic and setting up a new home in a strange country were certainly not the challenges that immigrants faced in travelling by rail, steamer and ‘waggon’ to Fort Garry on the Red River in 1872, there were indeed hardships. After my father arrived in Toronto in 1951, he was embarrassed about having to go to the local immigration office after a week of fruitless job searching to ask for help because he was down to his last dollar. Despite his aeronautic engineering education and co-piloting experience, his application at De Havilland was refused because he was a foreigner and could not get security clearance. My mother had to master a new language, adapt to a new culture, and make new friends." Of course, gifts of books to the National Library have been the norm up until now but as the collection increases in strength, it has become increasingly difficult for donors to find items in their own collections that the National Library is lacking. Cash donations are always welcome, but most donors, understandably so, like to know what their money will be used for. This is where private sponsorship of a particular item is often the wisest choice. It allows the donor to reimburse the National Library for a much-needed item in an area or subject that is particularly close to the donor’s heart. When an item, especially a rare item, is offered, the curator has only a few days, or even a few hours, to make the purchase before it is offered to someone else. If the item falls within the interests of the potential sponsor and the curator knows these interests in advance, the purchase can be made directly by the donor or the money can be sent after the fact to reimburse the National Library for the purchase price. Private sponsorship of individual items, such as the one so kindly offered by Bjarne Tokerud in memory of his parents, is becoming an effective way of contributing to the National Library’s collections and, at the same time, connecting with the donor’s particular interests. For Bjarne Tokerud, "the knowledge that the Rare Book Section of the National Library has been able to purchase the broadside in memory of my parents is a source of warm reflection on my parents' lives." __________The Northwest Territories broadside is already on its way to being made available to Canadians across the country and around the world. It will be included in the upcoming National Library children’s Web site about Canadian trains. Due to the wealth of information the broadside imparts, it forms the basis for a series of educational activities designed for use by teachers in the classroom. Attached to this new site, these activities will allow students to examine authentic sources in order to gain a real sense of the challenges and hardships that pioneers faced. For information on the Library’s Rare Book Collection, please contact: Michel Brisebois |
