The contents and catalogues of Historical Libraries constitute one of the most valuable cultural deposits of any community. In recent years, there has been considerable attention to the role of technology, but technology is simply the outward and visible sign of the ideas and intentions of individual human beings. It is those signs - those historical tracks - of ideas and intentions which shed light on the work and struggles of our ancestors and earlier peoples, the dreams and visions they had, and the very ordinary ways that they tried to realize those in everyday life.
We have started work on the catalogues of two historical libraries in Halifax:
Halifax Mechanics' Library
Halifax Archbishop's Library
Anna Leonowens is known in Nova Scotia as one of the organizers of the Victoria School of Art (now NSCAD University) in 1887. She subsequently became involved in organizing the Women's Suffrage Association, where she became the first President. Although Anna was not to live to see it, the political coalition behind women's suffrage was eventually successful with the passing of the Nova Scotia Franchise Act of 26 April, 1918.
