In February 2024, Coherent Digital, in partnership with Ontario-based Trojman Corporation, acquired the rights to more than 1.5 million pages of rare and important Canadian primary source collections from McLaren Micropublications and the microfilm itself. These resources will now form the foundation of a major new digital publication series, Canadian History and Culture.

McLaren Micropublishing

McLaren Micropublishing was founded in 1973 by Duncan McLaren, a librarian at the University of Toronto. Over the following fifty years, the company published more than 200 microform collections of Canadian newspapers, serials, and other publications covering topics including art, architecture, Canadian history, LGBTQ history and culture, and women’s history.  Many of the materials are extremely rare, and more than sixty percent of McLaren’s 1.5 million microfilmed pages have yet to be digitized.

In addition to supporting libraries that offer Canadian studies programmes, this catalogue is relevant for collections in art and architecture, African Canadian history, North American immigration history, history of labour and radical movements, LGBTQ studies, and women's history. Here’s an overview of the McLaren catalogue:

McLaren customers include colleges, art institutes, and public libraries around the world, including:

  • Art Institute of Chicago

  • The British Library

  • Chicago Public Library

  • Columbia University

  • Copenhagen University

  • Harvard University

  • Helsinki University

  • Library of Congress

  • Los Angeles County Public Library

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington

  • National Library of Australia

  • National Library, Moscow

  • New York Public Library

  • San Francisco Public Library

  • Technische Universität Berlin

  • Turku University, Finland

  • University of California Los Angeles

  • University of Chicago

  • University of Michigan

  • Yale University

The Canadian History and Culture Series

The Canadian History and Culture Series will be a series of primary-source collections composed of previously undigitized McLaren micropublications along with newly digitized original content, supplemented with indexing to freely available resources.

The first volume of the series includes seminal works that represent the transition in diverse Canadian social norms, political issues, and cultures while on the World stage. These publications provide a window into the flapper days of the 1920s, through the travails of the world-wide depression, the war and home front changes that accelerated the roles of women in Canadian society, through the Cold War and subsequent and 1960s protests.  Overall, these publications characterize the significant social, economic, and political transformations in Canadian society, laying the groundwork for the modern Canadian identity and welfare state.

Highlights

Over 250,000 pages of rare historical and literary magazines, newspapers, and other primary sources, many of which are digitized for the first time.

Content Highlights: Coverage from 1919-1970 with titles such as:

  • Art & Architecture Magazines such as Maritime Art and Construction

  • Canadian Literary Magazines, such as The Grip-Sack and The Rebel

  • Diverse perspectives, such Nisei Affairs and The Canadian Negro

  • Social and Political History, such as Toronto Daily News and Willison’s Monthly

  • Labor History, such as Ontario Workman and The Worker

  • Cultural Magazines such as Goblin and City LIghts

  • Military Journals such as Khaki and The Ranger

Full-text links and indexing to openly available sources such as:

  • Moccasin Telegraph

  • Atlantic Guardian

  • The Beaver

  • Pedestal

  • The Confederate 

  • The Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection

  • Kinesis: News About Women That Is Not in the Dailies

  • GRASP: Publication of the Black United Front of Nova Scotia

  • The Prairie Immigration Experience Collection

Publish and Suggest: Subscribers to Canadian History and Culture are able to upload content and suggest additional historical and cultural resources for indexing and preservation.

Subject Coverage

  • Activism

  • Architecture

  • Art

  • Culture

  • Diversity

  • Economics

  • Gender Studies

  • Literature

  • Multiculturalism

  • Politics

  • Society

  • Theater

  • Urban/Rural Studies

  • War

More information:

Canadian History and Culture is offered as a subscription or a purchase on the Canada Commons platform. Other collections offered include:

For more information please contact:

Salvy Trojman, The Trojman Corporation
145 Macarthur Drive, Thornhill, Ontario L4J 8J6
salvy@trojmancorp.com, 416-617-2592