TD Gallery at Toronto Reference Library

How well can you read handwritten items? Come test your decoding skills as we explore several hundred years of handwritten words on items from Toronto Public Library’s Special Collections.

The value of cursive writing has become a matter of debate as rapid technological changes make the need to put pen to paper increasingly rare.

One area where the prominence of handwriting is undeniable is in archives of historical papers. This exhibition showcases a variety of formats that researchers make use of such as personal letters, diaries, and notebooks as well as public documents, business records and hand-drawn maps.

Highlights include:

• TPL's oldest item, a cuneiform tablet from around 2000 BCE
• Handwritten pieces by authors Ray Bradbury and Arthur Conan Doyle
• Petition for the first public libraries in Toronto
• Example of a 19th-century cross-written letter (featuring two sets of overlapping lines of text to save paper)
• Display case of materials by Anderson Ruffin Abbott, one of the first Canadian-born doctors of African descent
• Travel writing desk and writing tools belonging to Robert Baldwin, co-leader of Canada’s first responsible government
• Early handwritting learning materials for children
• Chinese calligraphy from our Chinese Canadian Archive
• Illuminated manuscript from 1400s
• Sūratu al Wāqi ʻa, of the Quran, approximately 1650
• A chance to try your hand at cursive script