Thursday, September 28, 2006

Rare Books

Wow, have I not posted since July? To put it mildy, friends have been pestering me to death to add more postings about my summer in South Africa. To this, I make a promise to add some more photos soon, but not until after the 12th of October. For on this date, Jill and I will be making a presentation to faculty, fellow students and perhaps even a few friends about our summer's adventures in southern Africa. Mark it on your calendars folks:

When: Thursday, 12th October 2006
Where: FIS, 7th Floor Lounge

Time: 4:10pm - 5ish

I want to have some "never seen before" footage/photos for this presentation, thus no more postings until after that date.

Today I began my practicum at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. I spent the majority of my day leafing through old dusty ledgers and papers and was completely in my element. At the end of the day, the director of the library gave us a little tour...which turned out to be more than just a little tour. It left fellow archives student Lindsay and myself, well, nerding out over almost everything we saw. This included a five-page letter written by Galileo, a clay tablet written in 1798 BC, and Banting's Nobel Peace Prize. Oh yes, we also got to hold Banting's medal. I will surely never hold that much gold consecutively in my hand ever again.

Stay tuned....