“Gems at Mac”
McMaster has a wide variety of resources, some of them unique, that will allow students to enrich their research and expand their horizons. In addition to all the different collections at the Mills Library and H.G. Thode Library, including the literary treasures donated to the Department of French, you are also invited to discover and nourish your passion for the visual arts at our rich Museum of Art. If editing and digital media is your calling, The Lewis and Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship and The Lyons New Media Center will help you to achieve your goals.
Libraries
The beginnings of the McMaster book collection go back to 1887 and to its predecessor, the Toronto Baptist College, located at that time on Bloor Street West in Toronto. Today, the McMaster Library in Hamilton holds over two million items, including a robust collection of books published in French and on French and francophone subjects. Purchases or subscriptions to e-books represent a rapidly growing part of library acquisitions. The main collection relevant to French studies is located in the Mills Memorial Library dedicated to the Humanities and Social Sciences. Whereas interdisciplinary research, touching on psychoanalysis, medicine and the philosophy of science, may lead your steps across the campus to the H. G. Thode Library for Science and Engineering. If the walk may seem long, a quick coffee in the Reactor Café at Thode will certainly refuel your energy!
Archives and rare books collections
McMaster University is fortunate to possess a unique and magnificent collection of printed material from the early modern period. Among these treasures are the first edition of Diderot’s Encyclopédie and a collection of over 3,000 plays of the French 18th century! Recently the library received an exceptional donation from former member of the Department of French, Dr. Pierre Conlon. This includes a large number of 18th-century editions of Voltaire.
The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections
Francophonie writers collections
The Hédi Bouraoui Collection
Hédi Bouraoui is a Tunisian Canadian writer, poet and university professor, recipient of several awards and honorary doctorates, and member of the Order of Canada. He donated his personal library consisting of his books, manuscripts, paintings and research material to Mills Library and the Department of French at McMaster. The Hédi Bouraoui Essay Prize was funded by his generous gift and is awarded to a graduate student who is deemed to have written an essay of academic excellence which contributes to francophone studies in a meaningful way.
For more information about Hédi Bouraoui’s personal archives, please check the library catalogue.
The Antonio D’Alfonso collection
The fonds consists of material related to the literary and editing career of Antonio D’Alfonso, writer, scriptwriter, independent filmmaker and the founder of Guernica Editions in Montreal (a journal that publishes Canadian poetry, fiction and nonfiction in French, English and Italian).