The
Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books
In
1934, English librarian Edgar Osborne visited the Toronto Public
Library's Boys & Girls House, the first separate children's library
in the British Commonwealth. He was deeply impressed by the quality
and range of children's services established by and flourishing
under Lillian H. Smith. In 1949, as a tribute to her work and reputation,
Osborne presented his collection to the Toronto Public Library Board. The Osborne Collection encompasses the development of English Children's
literature, including: a fourteenth-century manuscript of Aesop's
fables, fifteenth-century traditional tales, sixteenth-century school
texts and courtesy books, godly Puritan works, eighteenth-century
chapbooks, moral tales and rational recreations, Victorian classics
of fantasy, adventure and school stories, up to 1910 - the end of
the Edwardian era.
Within
the collection are: Florence Nightingale's childhood library; Queen
Mary's children's books; materials pertaining to members of the
Taylor family of Ongar; the Pettingell Collection of periodicals
and penny dreadfuls; extensive holdings of the works of G.A. Henty;
and the John Sullivan Hayes Collection, predominantly nineteenth
and twentieth-century English Children's books and considerable
Canadiana.
Toronto
Public Library: On January 1, 1998, the former library systems
of York, East York, Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke and Toronto,
plus the Metro Reference Library, merged to become one, new Toronto
Public Library. This library is the largest in Canada.
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