An Ever-Growing Goldmine
Published in the Hamilton Spectator, March 12, 1953
The following 50 years saw the Hamilton Public Library’s special reference collections expand astronomically. Local papers highlighted the unique and valuable historical materials available to the public and encouraged Hamiltonians to consider bringing in their own items. Over time, the library amassed hundreds of donations of old directories, heirloom manuscripts, church reports, biographical clippings, and scrapbooks from the city's oldest families, community organizations, newspaper editors, and armchair historians. The library itself also began clipping the newspapers on a daily basis to augment their permanent record of Hamilton events. The concentration of materials concerning local history led to the formation of a Local History Collection separate from the Canadiana Collection.
By 1972, the reference department, including Special Collections, occupied practically all of the second floor of the Main Library. Meanwhile, just one block down Main St, the Bank of Montreal was relocating its headquarters to Jackson Square. The library board jumped at the opportunity to rent the vacated bank building at the southwest corner of Main and James, and in January 1973, the entire reference department moved to this new location. At the newly established Reference Library, the Local History Collection and the Canadiana Collection were amalgamated under the Special Collections department.
Special Collections in the Papers
In the decades following the creation of the Canadiana Collection, the Hamilton Spectator published several articles to spread the word about the library’s special collections. These articles each list a handful of newly acquired or particularly interesting items in the collections to entice readers, including the official report outlining the by-laws of the Municipal Council of the district of Gore passed during the years 1842–1846, a copy of the out-of-print and much sought-after The Birds of Ontario by Thomas McIlwraith, and a city directory dated 1853 with an inscription on the back of the title page to Sir Allan N. Macnab, Knt., M.P.P. Most of the articles conclude by expressing the library’s interest in receiving donations.
Moving Out
The reference department on the second floor of the Main Library closed on January 15, 1973 to begin transferring all of the material into the former Bank of Montreal. In the span of five days, eleven female library employees moved over 120,000 books and 27 tons of papers into the new Reference Library. The Reference Library officially opened for business on January 23, 1973. The relocation solved the issue of the Main Library becoming overcrowded due to continuously growing collections—both regular and special. The larger space gave members of the public "the opportunity to consult the library's rich archival collections in circumstances more conducive to research" and saved rare documents from wasting away in the dark corners of the main branch's jam-packed basement.