Winnie died in 1934 at age 20.Īccording to a note in the display, “Two of Winnie’s greatest admirers were the writer A.A. Upon returning to England, Colebourn donated the bear to the zoo. When he went to France, Colebourn left the bear with the London Zoo. The library display case contains a photo of Harry and Winnie taken in 1914 when the veterinary corps – and its ursine mascot – were stationed at England’s Salisbury Plain. He named the bear Winnie for his hometown Winnipeg.
Part of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, he was on his way to Europe during the First World War. The cub was purchased by Harry Colebourn, an OVC-trained veterinary surgeon. The original Winnie was a female black bear orphaned in 1911 in White River, Ont. She had read the Winnie tales as a youngster in the United States and read them in turn to her own children there.īut it was only after arriving in Guelph this year and investigating OVC history in her new job that she learned of the Canadian connection. Those roots might be unknown even by many longtime fans of the children’s classic and its 1928 successor, The House at Pooh Corner. Until McAfee tracked down the volume this fall, the library lacked any first edition of Pooh – “bizarre,” says Harvey, given Winnie’s Canadian and OVC provenance. That was the same year that British and American editions introduced readers in those countries to the bear of very little brain. Shepard, the book was published by McClelland and Stewart in 1926.
Complete with original illustrations by E.H. “This” is a first Canadian edition of British writer A.A. I think I can probably safely say that this is the first.” Kathryn Harvey, head of archival and special collections, says, “Definitely not since I’ve been here, which is four years now. When was the last time a cat gave anything, let alone a very important book, to the library? Not only did Melissa McAfee end up hunting down a first Canadian edition of a children’s classic about a very important bear, but she also retraced connections between Winnie-the-Pooh and a graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), which is marking its 150th anniversary in 2012.Īfter all that, it made perfect sense that McAfee should donate the volume to U of G’s Library archives last month through Sandy Eliza McDaniel, her 15-year-old Bengal cat still living stateside. It was the perfect get-acquainted project for a self-described peripatetic rare book librarian new to Canada this year.
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