JUNK BOAT TRAVELS: Tuesday Treasures

Monday, February 23, 2026

Tuesday Treasures

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

February 2026 - Toronto ON

I'm a huge fan of libraries and especially the Toronto Reference Library. They have a gallery where they display various topics based on items in their archives.

I have gone to many of these. Click on Reference Library in the tags/labels section below this post to see many other posts about that amazing library.

This exhibit has given me the idea to do a personal post about handwritten family memorabilia that I have for Tuesday Treasures!

The following definition is taken from their own post on the latest exhibit.

About the exhibit

How well can you read handwritten items? Come test your decoding skills as we explore several hundred years of handwritten words on items from Toronto Public Library’s Special Collections.

The value of cursive writing has become a matter of debate as rapid technological changes make the need to put pen to paper increasingly rare. A chance to try your hand at cursive script.

Since I learned to write cursive in school, it was funny to watch people sit down and try it!

One area where the prominence of handwriting is undeniable is in archives of historical papers. This exhibition showcases a variety of formats that researchers make use of such as personal letters, diaries, and notebooks as well as public documents, business records and hand-drawn maps.

Highlights include:

TPL's oldest item, a cuneiform tablet from around 2000 BCE

Handwritten pieces by authors Ray Bradbury and Arthur Conan Doyle

Petition for the first public libraries in Toronto

Example of a 19th-century cross-written letter (featuring two sets of overlapping lines of text to save paper)

Display case of materials by Anderson Ruffin Abbott, one of the first Canadian-born doctors of African descent

Travel writing desk and writing tools belonging to Robert Baldwin, co-leader of Canada’s first responsible government

Early handwriting learning materials for children

Chinese calligraphy from our Chinese Canadian Archive

Illuminated manuscript from 1400s

Sūratu al Wāqi ʻa, of the Quran, approximately 1650

Poikilographia (from Ancient Greek poikilos, meaning "variegated, varied, spotted, or streaked") refers to a style of ornamental penmanship or writing characterized by a variety of hands, styles, and flourishes on the same page.

George Thomas Taylor (September 6, 1838 – April 5, 1913) was a Canadian photographer and painter whose work depicts the landscapes and everyday life of nineteenth-century New Brunswick. He is regarded as a pioneering nature photographer in Canada.

Taylor was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He developed an interest in photography and in 1856, he began his career, during which he documented and photographed provincial locations, including the Tobique Valley. In the early 20th century, when photography was becoming more accessible, Taylor retired and took up landscape painting, which he continued until his death in 1913. Taylor often used his own photographs as references. As of 2023, hundreds of Taylor's images are preserved and have been exhibited at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.

Joseph Thompson (1765–1844) was an Anglican clergyman born in Yorkshire, England. After ordination in 1795, he served as an assistant curate in Lancashire, England. He married Grace Lamb in 1799 and had five children. He became a stipendiary curate at Tatham Fells with increased responsibilities and benefits over time. After the death of his wife in 1817, he retired from 23 years of ministry in England and immigrated to Canada in 1819 with his children.

In Canada, Thompson settled in Cavan Township where he became a missionary and community leader. He founded St. John’s Anglican Church and was granted significant land for himself and his family. Though he retired in 1833, he continued ministering until the early 1840s.