How to find what was on p29 of a 1954 issue of Canadian Bride magazine
March 23, 2022 9:33 AM   Subscribe

A friend is clearing out the house her parents lived in for decades. She has found the cover of a copy of Canadian Bride: The Bridal Book magazine for Spring / Summer 1954. Someone, probably one of her parents, has written "page 29" on the cover. How could she find out what was on page 29? I have looked on Worldcat and cannot see any holdings of the magazine, and there are no copies for sale on eBay. Pinterest shows a copy on Etsy, but it is not now for sale.
posted by paduasoy to Grab Bag (24 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I wonder if a large public library in your area would have it? My library has a huge number of periodicals going back to the 1800's professionally bound and stored. People would call frequently to ask us to make copies/scans of pages for them (usually long-forgotten recipes). If they don't have it in print, they might be able to find it elsewhere in print or scanned.

Give your library a call! We librarians love mysteries like this.
posted by Gray Duck at 9:43 AM on March 23, 2022 [7 favorites]


This is the sort of question librarians love for help with. I would contact a larger public library and ask them to help. Many have online chat. They are wonderful.
posted by shockpoppet at 9:52 AM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Just to add - we are in the UK, not Canada, so although we could contact a Canadian library by email, we wouldn't know quite where to start. That's why I looked at Worldcat, but finding no holdings there got rather discouraged.
posted by paduasoy at 10:07 AM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Here's the Toronto Library's holdings for the magazine, which are filed under Bride's Book, rather than Canadian Bride. It doesn't look like they have that edition, but call the Toronto Reference library and ask a librarian there for help.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:22 AM on March 23, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I am a Canadian librarian, so let's go. I've found the journal at the Toronto Public Library - it's not online and they don't have the issue you want, but the title is just Bride's Book, I think, and the Worldcat entry is here. Library Archives Canada does not hold your volume, but it looks like McGill should. So I would recommend contacting McGill and they could likely scan the page for you.
posted by phlox at 10:25 AM on March 23, 2022 [20 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you! Will contact McGill.
posted by paduasoy at 11:27 AM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Just echoing the above, based on the colophon you can see if you zoom in on completed Etsy listings. (Like this one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1020450763/1955-springsummer-canadian-bride?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details)
Canadian BRIDE: The Bride's Book

Founded in 1887 by John Bayne Maclean

Printed and Published by
MACLEAN-HUNTER PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED

1242 PEEL STREET
MONTREAL 2, CANADA

EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: 481 University Avenue, Toronto 2
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:33 AM on March 23, 2022


Best answer: I live in Montreal and am often at McGill, so if McGill has it but won't scan it for you, I can.
posted by googly at 11:45 AM on March 23, 2022 [12 favorites]


Oh please follow up. Such an attractive mystery.
posted by amtho at 12:07 PM on March 23, 2022 [6 favorites]


That was fast - I hope you can post the resulting page if/when you find it!
posted by Mchelly at 12:52 PM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Very speedy response from McGill, but they don't have that issue. The one I'm after must be v7, number 1, I think, and they just have number 2 from that year (Fall / Winter). Any other ideas welcome!
posted by paduasoy at 3:11 PM on March 23, 2022


St. Joseph Communications might have preserved some institutional memory of any less obvious archival of former Maclean's company titles.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:27 PM on March 23, 2022


This says Rogers is the successor, but that appears to be out of date. Macleans is published by SJC.

There is also the Maclean-Hunter corporate archive available at that site, but presumably it only includes sample materials from issues.

I suppose there's a slim chance there's something in there that might tell you what was on that page, without reproducing it.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:35 PM on March 23, 2022


The Etsy listing has a picture of the table of contents and there's an article starting on page 28 entitled "Fashion Focuses on the Bride". Maybe that will help narrow the search somewhat?
posted by TimHare at 7:55 PM on March 23, 2022 [3 favorites]


Honestly I would contact that Etsy seller, maybe link to this post, and ask them to ask if the buyer would be willing to be in contact with you to tell you the contents of page 29. Why not??

Failing that, post to Reddit to see if anyone else has a copy of this book.
posted by foxjacket at 8:26 AM on March 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: It's possible that Library and Archives Canada might have a copy. You can ask them or order a copy of the page.
posted by derforsher at 12:32 PM on March 24, 2022


Response by poster: Thanks - have emailed Library and Archives Canada. I'll keep the Etsy idea in reserve - not sure I'd feel comfortable with that.
posted by paduasoy at 2:12 PM on March 24, 2022


Idea: The cover lists an advice article by (radio and tv broadcaster/cooking expert) Kate Aitken. She was a really prolific writer (cookbooks, magazine essays, newspaper columns, memoirs), but maybe there's a copy of that bridal magazine in an Aitken archive, or one to be found by searching for "Mrs. A's" work in this genre?
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:43 PM on March 24, 2022


This entry in the catalog for the Library and Archives is the correct issue but it says

Note: Items from this collection cannot be ordered through Aurora at this time. You must make a reservation to consult them. Click "Book your visit" under "Library Links" at the top left of the page to do so. Once you have a reservation, request published materials using the “Material Retrieval” form, also under "Library Links.

Hopefully someone there will consent to make an image of page 29 for you
posted by TimHare at 8:39 PM on March 25, 2022


Response by poster: Library and Archives Canada replied quickly and kindly sent me a scan of p29. Friend is still a bit baffled. Article is about wedding dresses. Text reads: Every bride-to-be believes the world revolves around what she is going to wear on her wedding day. And one world does - the world of bridal fashions in which is concentrated the romantic business of making brides into unforgettable visions of loveliness. Whether yours is to be a sky's-the-limit wedding or whether you must count the pennies as you plan, the designers of wedding fashions have made sure that you will have a wide choice of lovely dresses for you and for your wedding attendants. Then it describes a dress on the opposite page, with the designer's name, and gives details of the dress on the cover, "a sweet and beguiling gown of nylon marquisette finely tucked and embroidered", designed by Sam Sherkin, with a headdress, and a bouquet of "shasta daisies, swainsonia and periwinkle foliage", designed by Helen Simpson. Friend's parents married in 1954 so four years before this, and friend's only guess is that the skirt of the pictured dress looks slightly like her mother's dress. So page tracked down but mystery remains. Thank you for all the suggestions, we'd have been stuck without them.
posted by paduasoy at 11:08 AM on March 30, 2022 [5 favorites]


Response by poster: Sorry, mistake in my post above, they married the same year as the magazine issue, though not in Canada.
posted by paduasoy at 11:16 AM on March 30, 2022


Thank you, Paduasoy, for updating this with your results.

There ought to, by now, be words for "the frustration one feels when one can't find something via the Internet", "the anxiousness with which one keeps checking back to see if someone else 'solved it' ", and "the good feeling when there's finally some sort of resolution" :-)
posted by TimHare at 6:40 PM on March 30, 2022 [2 favorites]


Askmehälfteglück
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:42 PM on March 30, 2022 [3 favorites]


I think the bride probably wanted the dress on the cover or the type of flowers or a dress in a similar enough style that they wanted the same designer or something, so they wrote on the cover that information about that dress was on page 29. That would also explain why they kept the cover (it had the dress) and not the rest of the magazine.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:01 PM on April 11, 2022


« Older Another "Find my Perfect T-shirt" Question   |   Abrupt therapist termination — how to respond? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.