The Harry Sutherland Philatelic Library (HSPL) at the Toronto-based Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation is hosting its monthly “Open Saturday” today from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Among the library’s many claims to fame is its collection of British North American reference material, which is considered the world’s best. There’s also a “significant” collection of early Canadian philatelic journals in optical character recognition (OCR) searchable format as well as a “comprehensive” collection of Canadian auction catalogues and historical runs of selected auction catalogues. What’s more, the library preserves research collections from important Canadian philatelists in addition to its historical collection of exhibition prospectuses.
The famed library is open one Saturday a month. It’s also open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (excluding the fourth Wednesday of the month, when it’s open until 7 p.m.). Located at 10 Summerhill Ave., in downtown Toronto, the HSPL is also available for use by appointment. For more information, click here.
A PHILATELIC DESTINATION
The HSPL is arguably Canada’s top philatelic destination, and for a number of reasons, the foremost of which is its distinct nature: nowhere else in the world can a philatelist find such a comprehensive collection of items relating to Canadian and British North American philately.
“People are generally very pleased with what we have here,” said Librarian Sheila Moll. “It’s important because until we became intentional about collecting everything to do with Canadian philately, it wasn’t being done in Canada or anywhere else.”
“We’re really trying to preserve what will someday be unique, because nobody else is going to have as much as we do or make any effort to save these early Canadian materials,” added Moll.