Digital Special Collections

This page contains only a featured selection of collections, and we invite you to explore our holdings further using our federated search or by reviewing other digital projects. You can also learn more about how we develop digital collections, including how we partner on special digital research collections. Additional digital collections are made available from the Central libraries as well as the U of T Mississauga Library. There is also a guide maintained about finding primary sources at the University of Toronto.

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Search all Digital Collections

The library is proud to work with institutional and community partners on the digitization, description, and preservation of unique digitized and born digital collections. 

Black and white photo of a person in front of a bookshelf

Memories of Scarborough Campus

The memory project invites you to explore the University of Toronto Scarborough's past. Browse the collection, share your memories, and help tell our story.  
 

Abstract network against stonework carved in Tamil

Digital Tamil Studies

The Digital Tamil Studies project at the UTSC library partners with an international network of collaborators engaged in the digital publication and stewardship of high-quality Tamil-language materials. The project currently hosts eleven collections of diverse multimedia.

excerpt from a Chinese menu

Harley Spiller Menus

Explore digitized Chinese restaurant menus from around the world and various ephemera collected by Harley Spiller. 

Excerpt of a manuscript from the diary of Doris McCarthy

Papers of Doris McCarthy

These digitized papers and correspondence of Doris McCarthy are provided in partnership with the Doris McCarthy Gallery, stewards of both a permanent collection of over 200 works by alumna Doris McCarthy (BA 1989) and her accumulated papers. 

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Gunda Gunde Manuscript Collection

The Gunda Gunde Manuscript Collection contains a collection of 219 complete Ethiopian manuscripts that were photographed in 2006 during a field trip to the Gunda Gunde Former Stephanite Monastery. These manuscripts range in date from the 12/13th to the 20th centuries.

movie poster for a Frank Buck film

Animal Empire Collection

The Animal Empire collection contains digitized movie posters, ads, trading cards, postcards, books, magazines and journals related to Frank Buck (Frank Howard Buck (1884-1950), an American hunter, animal collector, film director, actor author and producer. 
 

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Scarborough Oral Histories Project

The Scarborough Oral Histories Project (SOHP) initiative began in the fall of 2013 with the first offering of a successful interdisciplinary course in community-based research and Oral History and in 2019 a further project to capture the history of UTSC through oral histories and archival research was launched under the leadership of Dr. Christine Berkowitz.