Noam Chomsky at the British Library, 2013 © Ander McIntyre

Ander McIntyre is a photographer and a Fellow at the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library.  He is an occasional contributor to this blog:

A portrait of Noam Chomsky just before he delivered a lecture at the British Library on 19 March this year, as part of the series of events under the banner of the Library's new exhibition Propaganda: Power and Persuasion.

In 1988, Professor Chomsky wrote, in Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (MIT Press),

Work of true aesthetic value follows canons and principles that are only in part subject to human choice; in part, they reflect our fundamental nature. The result is that we can experience deep emotion - pleasure, pain, excitement, and so on - from certain creative work, though how and why remains largely unknown. But the very capacities of mind that open these possibilities to us exclude other possibilities forever. The limits of artistic creativity should, again, be a matter of joy, not sorrow, because they follow from the fact that there is a rich domain of aesthetic experience to which we have access.

A film of Chomsky's conversation at the Library with Jonathan Freedland is on our YouTube channel.

[A.M.]

 Above: Map of Acadie, c. 1740. Shelfmark Maps K.Top119.56 

These works are free of known copyright restrictions.

Last night's 18th Annual Douglas W. Bryant Lecture saw Lyse Doucet, BBC World News Chief International Correspondent, present, 'From Acadie to the Arab Spring: reflections on America's place in the world'. I won't fill the post with a synopsis of Lyse's talk other than to say it was excellent and wonderfully delivered - for the real detail you will have to wait for the Eccles Centre to post the podcast and pamphlet.

I will dwell on one of the main features though as Acadie and the expulsion of the Acadians by the British loomed large in the talk. In the spirit of honesty, this is not my strongest area of Canadian history but in recent years and as a result of talks like Lyse's my interest to know more has developed. One of the perks of being a British Library curator is the ability to go and find out more the very next day; as Lyse said during the lecture, the Library invariably has something on everything.

Above: Chart from the end of J. B. Chabert's, 'Voyage Fait par ordre du Roi en 1750 et 1751 dans l'Amerique Septentrionale'. Shelfmark: G. 14609

There are some cases where the volume of 'something' is greater than in others and a quick search for 'Acadie' in Explore brings up some fascinating results. First and foremost are the maps, with the King's Topographical Collection (K.Top) holding some beautiful items (although there are noticeably less than for other parts of the French Americas) and a number of printed books also containing striking maps and charts.

I suspect the presence of maps of Acadie in collections such as K.Top speaks to the colonial and imperial geopolitics its population found itself being pulled into and other items in the printed books collection bear this out. None perhaps more so than the 1756 published, 'A Fair Representation of His Majesty's Right to Nova-Scotia or Acadie' (Shelfmark: 1093.e.49) - a forceful title accompanied by the rather drawn-out subtitle, 'briefly stated from the memorials of the English Commissaries; with an answer to the objections contained in the French memorials and in a treatise entitled, Discussion Sommaire sur les anciennes limites de l'Acadie' (a microfiche copy of this treatise can be found at Mic.f.232, number 37790).

Above: Two editions of Evangeline; 'Évangéline; traduit et Imité de l'Anglais' (left, shelfmark: 11687.k.13); second Boston edition, 'Evangeline: a tale of Acadie' (right, shelfmark: 11689.aaa.49)

Above: Internal illustration from, 'Évangéline; traduit et Imité de l'Anglais' (shelfmark: 11687.k.13)

This is just one example of the many eighteenth and nineteenth century Anglophone and Francophone titles in the collection that discuss Acadie. The Library also holds numerous examples of the famous tale of dispossession in Acadie, 'Evangeline'; including translations in a wide range of languages beyond English and French. Above you can see two examples, an illustrated French version from later in the nineteenth century and a second Boston edition that also contains a dedication to 'The Lady Ashburton'.

All of this is a whistle-stop tour of some interesting items from the collections that tie into last night's talk but I hope it illustrates the depth of history invoked in Lyse's lecture and shows that, should you find yourself at a loose end in the Reading Rooms, 'Acadie' is not a bad random search to try out.

[PJH]



Above: 'View of Locks' in 'Hunter's Ottawa Scenery' [Shelfmark: RB.31.c.502]

These works are free of known copyright restrictions.

After ducks took over the blog earlier in the week a change of tone - although our feathered / mechanical friend will be pleased water is still involved. I've been digging through a few of the Library's printed books on 19th-century Canadian scenery and I thought I'd share some of the examples of subtle and striking change I've come across. The above illustration is a view of the Rideau Canal locks that sit below the parliament buildings in Ottawa, taken from 'Hunter's Ottawa Scenery' [Ottawa City, 1855. Shelfmark: RB.31.c.502]. It shows the city around the time of its incorporation but prior to its installation as capital of the Province of Canada.

Above: 'Rideau Canal Locks and the Parliament Buildings', by the Canadian Photographic Company [Shelfmark: HS85/10, Copy. 22830]

The above photograph was copyrighted in 1910 by the Canadian Photographic Company, less than 60 years after the plate in Hunter's 'Scenery' was produced. It illustrates quite nicely the changes brought to the area and its development as a national capital, although the scale of change is not as dramatic as in other examples from the collection. A good example here is an illustration of Toronto taken from Willis', 'Canadian Scenery' (London, 1842. Shelfmark: 789.e.18).

Above: 'Fish Market, Toronto' in, 'Canadian Scenery' [Shelfmark: 789.e.18]

According to the Toronto Public Library the area shown is at the foot of today's Jarvis St., downtown Toronto. By 1903 the view looking across this area was strikingly different, as the below photograph by William Thompson Freeland shows. The photograph is taken across the road from Toronto's government buildings, looking across Younge St. and Jarvis St. out towards the lake and the islands. While it doesn't show the area from 'Canadian Scenery' directly it does illustrate the dramatic change Toronto has undergone.

Above: 'Toronto Panorama, pt 4' by William Thompson Freeland [Shelfmark: HS85/10, Copy. 14481]

These are just a few examples from the collection depicting the changing Canadian environment and relevant items are not just found in printed books and photographs. For example, the topographical views and maps that make up the King's Topographical collection also contain myriad views which help illuminate the developing landscape of Canada.

For more on the scale and scope of the Library's Canadian collections, visit our Help for researchers pages.

[PJH]