Peel's hours and services (2026-27)
HOURS & SERVICES AT BRUCE PEEL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
EXHIBITION HOURS (September through March)
Mondays 1-4pm: Reserved for prearranged group visitsTuesdays: Closed
Wednesdays-Fridays 1-4pm: Open for drop-in visits
RESEARCH HOURS (September through March)
Mondays: No research appointments
Tuesdays 1-4pm: Reserved for quiet research, by appointment
Wednesdays-Fridays 1-4pm: By appointment
Mondays: No research appointments
Tuesdays 1-4pm: Reserved for quiet research, by appointment
Wednesdays-Fridays 1-4pm: By appointment
Questions? Please write to us at bpsc@ualberta.ca
Note: Peel is closed on statutory holidays and on October 1st and 2nd for special events.
To view the current exhibition (The Science and Engineering of Machines: An Exhibition of Machine Books, 1472 to 1800), drop by during regular drop-in hours (Wednesday through Friday afternoons) or write to us at bpsc@ualberta.ca to schedule a Monday-afternoon group visit. For further information, learn about Peel's past exhibitions and many award-winning publications or check out Peel's digital exhibitions.
To sign up for a Peel Workshop, see Peel Workshops on the Peel library's website.
To view rare materials held in Bruce Peel Special Collections, please write to us at bpsc@ualberta.ca to request a research appointment well in advance, listing the requested materials including author, title, and call number for each item, and offering some date options. We book research appointments during the regular academic year, September-March, on a first-come, first-served basis, so there may be a delay, but we will do our best to be accommodating. Standard reading room policies and protocols, designed to protect rare materials, are in force.
Remote Research Services: The Peel team serves researchers' needs remotely by answering questions about rare materials, providing researchers with images of materials not otherwise available (whenever possible), and providing links to digital resources that may help to meet current research and teaching needs (see Peel's Digital Collections). If you have questions that relate to materials housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections, you can send us an email at bpsc@ualberta.ca.
Visiting Researchers: If you are planning to travel to the Edmonton area to carry out research at Bruce Peel Special Collections, we strongly recommend that you do so during the regular academic year to avoid our limited summer service period. Regardless of when you plan to visit, it is important to contact us at bpsc@ualberta.ca well in advance so that we have every opportunity to accommodate your needs.
Like other locations of the University of Alberta Library, Bruce Peel Special Collections is open to all researchers, including faculty, staff, students, and members of the general public.
Peel team wins UCDA award!
Congratulations to author/curator Linda Quirk, to designer Lara Minja, to photographer Jeff Papineau, to editor Cheryl Cundell, and to everyone on the Peel team!
With this win—a 2026 Silver Award (in the book category) for Forgers, Fakers, and Publisher-Pirates (2025)—Robert Desmarais has lead the team at Bruce Peel Special Collections to a remarkable record of twelve UCDA awards in the past decade, a record of wins that is unique among Canadian libraries.
The new exhibition at Bruce Peel Special Collections for 2026-27 is The Science and Engineering of Machines: An Exhibition of Machine Books, 1472 to 1800. You won't want to miss it!
Peel Workshops (Sept-Oct 2026)
Peel Workshops, September-October 2026
Peel Workshop participants have found it deeply rewarding to work with primary materials, to learn about the history of books and ideas in many different disciplines, to hold special rare items in their hands, and to discover what kinds of knowledge can be gleaned from the material objects themselves.
We are pleased to offer smaller in-person and larger online workshops to members of the U of A community. The in-person workshops are held in a reading room at Bruce Peel Special Collections. Advance online registration is required, and opens at 8am on 1 September 2026.
Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret World of Fore-edge Paintings
10-11am on Wednesday, September 9th (in person) and 10-11am on Tuesday, September 15th (in person)
Forgery and Fakery in Science, Art, and Literature
5-6:30pm on Tuesday, September 15th (online/ZOOM)
Caring for Your Collections
10-11:30am on Tuesday, September 22nd (in person)
Small Print, Big Picture: Exploring the Prairie Ephemera Collection
10-11:30am on Wednesday, September 23rd (in person)
Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen & Her Contemporaries
12-1pm on Thursday, September 24th (in person)
Secrets to Success in Archival Research
12noon-1:30pm on Tuesday, September 29th (online/ZOOM)
The Book and the Machine: Printing and the Appeal of Technology
in the Early Modern World through the Collection of Mark Andrews
1:30-2:30pm on Friday, October 2nd (in person)
The Science and Engineering of Machines: Curator’s Exhibition Tour
12-1pm on Friday, October 2nd (in person) and 3-4pm on Friday, October 2nd (in person)
Good Immigrants and Model Hosts: How to Be(come) a Canadian according to
19th- and 20th-Century Children's Books
2-3pm on Tuesday, October 6th (in person)
2-3pm on Tuesday, October 6th (in person)
Making Marbled Paper, A Hands-On Learning Opportunity
1-2:30pm on Thursday, October 8th (in person) and 10-11:30am on Wednesday, October 14th (in person)
Where Do Our Ideas About Witchcraft Come From?
6-7:30pm on Thursday, October 29th (online/ZOOM)
More information about Peel Workshops
is available on the website for Bruce Peel
Special Collections, along with information
about Peel's research collections,
exhibitions, services, and hours.
2026–2027 Keenlyside Research Fellowship recipients
We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026–2027 John Keenlyside Special Collections Research Fellowship.
This fellowship provides an opportunity for researchers to undertake projects that require substantial on-site engagement with the unique holdings of the Bruce Peel Special Collections. Designed to foster innovative scholarship and creative approaches to archival research, the award supports scholars who may not otherwise be able to travel to Edmonton to access these materials.
Following a competitive adjudication process, we are delighted to announce this year’s inaugural recipients:
Dr. Karis Shearer, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Shearer's project, “Daphne Marlatt: A Biography,” examines the life and cultural work of the acclaimed Canadian poet, novelist, and editor Daphne Marlatt. During her research residency, Shearer will be working with the Black Sparrow Archive held in Bruce Peel Special Collections, which holds the manuscript (original typescript), page proofs, galley proofs, and 1st edition copy of Daphne Marlatt's first book of poetry, entitled leaf leaf/s and a set of letters from Marlatt to her publisher, John Martin. By situating these items alongside material in the University of Alberta Archive, Shearer aims to recover the author-publisher relationships and archival history that brought Marlatt’s early experimental work into the world. A historical recovery project and the first formal biography of Daphne Marlatt, this project will contribute to the fields of sound studies, feminist theory, and archival studies.
Dr. Shearer's project, “Daphne Marlatt: A Biography,” examines the life and cultural work of the acclaimed Canadian poet, novelist, and editor Daphne Marlatt. During her research residency, Shearer will be working with the Black Sparrow Archive held in Bruce Peel Special Collections, which holds the manuscript (original typescript), page proofs, galley proofs, and 1st edition copy of Daphne Marlatt's first book of poetry, entitled leaf leaf/s and a set of letters from Marlatt to her publisher, John Martin. By situating these items alongside material in the University of Alberta Archive, Shearer aims to recover the author-publisher relationships and archival history that brought Marlatt’s early experimental work into the world. A historical recovery project and the first formal biography of Daphne Marlatt, this project will contribute to the fields of sound studies, feminist theory, and archival studies.
Casarina Hocevar, PhD Candidate at Carleton University.
Casarina Hocevar's project, “The Shaping of Canadian Culinary Communities in Edmonton and Beyond, 1930-1980,” examines the intersections among gardening, foodways, and identity within settler communities in the mid-20th-century Edmonton area. During her research residency, she will draw extensively on three distinct collections held at Bruce Peel Special Collections: the Linda Miron Distad Culinaria Collection, the Chinese Experience in Canada Collection, and Prairie Ephemera, which hold items such as cookbooks, photographs, restaurant menus, and business cards to explore the roles of community grocers and official settlement perspectives. Hocevar plans to connect these archival materials with oral histories that highlight how settlers adapted their culinary cultures in Canada rather than being strictly shaped by state expectations.
Casarina Hocevar's project, “The Shaping of Canadian Culinary Communities in Edmonton and Beyond, 1930-1980,” examines the intersections among gardening, foodways, and identity within settler communities in the mid-20th-century Edmonton area. During her research residency, she will draw extensively on three distinct collections held at Bruce Peel Special Collections: the Linda Miron Distad Culinaria Collection, the Chinese Experience in Canada Collection, and Prairie Ephemera, which hold items such as cookbooks, photographs, restaurant menus, and business cards to explore the roles of community grocers and official settlement perspectives. Hocevar plans to connect these archival materials with oral histories that highlight how settlers adapted their culinary cultures in Canada rather than being strictly shaped by state expectations.
At the conclusion of their residency, fellows will share their findings through a written report posted to our website and may participate in public programming, including lectures or workshops.
Where do ideas about witchcraft come from?
Explore early ideas about witchcraft by learning about a very rare (and sinister) fifteenth-century manuscript housed in University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections.
Tinctor's Foul Treatise is an award-winning digital exhibition that unlocks the secrets of this special manuscript. The exhibition was mounted in October 2016 by University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections, and it is the winner of the prestigious 2018 Leab Award (Electronic Exhibitions) from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the American Library Association.
The Arras Witch Treatises is a full English-language translation of two important fifteenth-century source texts (Tinctor's Invectives and the anonymous Recollectio) prepared by the curators of Tinctor's Foul Treatise and published by Pennsylvania State University Press (2016) as part of their Magic in History series. This edition is available through University of Alberta Library (BF 1582 A155 2016) and is widely available for sale.
Get a close digital look—through Internet Archive—at the copy of Tinctor's Invectives housed in University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections.
You can still check out Tinctor's Foul Manual online, a one-hour documentary produced by Paul Kennedy for the CBC's Ideas that has been aired numerous times, most recently on 2 August 2016.
Read "The Travels of a Fifteenth-Century Demonological Manuscript: The University of Alberta's Copy of Jean Taincture's Invectives contre la secte de vaudrie," by Robert Desjardins, Francois Pageau, and Andrew Gow. Florilgelium 33 (26 Aug 2019).
Check out Paula Simons' fascinating exploration of the ways that old ideas about witchcraft continue to haunt us today: "Politics, Powerful Women and Hunting Witches in a New Age of Superstition," Edmonton Journal (29 Oct 2016). This story helpfully links to a relevant story by Simons: "Witch History takes flight in Rare Manuscript at U of A," Edmonton Journal (27 Oct 2012), and a related blog post "The Witch-Burner's Mein Kampf: Excerpts of Evil" (Oct 2012).
Or read this recent article, one of many, that asks if justice is now possible for those wrongly tortured and executed: "300 Years On, Will Thousands of Women Burned as Witches Finally Get Justice?" The Guardian (13 Sept 2020).
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