McMaster acquires a gilded Rupert Brooke edition and Vera Brittain’s pressed‑flower remembrance book
McMaster University Libraries holds a newly acquired vellum, hand‑illuminated edition of Rupert Brooke’s poems and Vera Brittain’s small remembrance book with pressed flowers and diary notes. Together they provide contrasting primary sources on the First World War — ceremonial patriotism and intimate bereavement — now available for research, teaching and archival study.
McMaster’s archives highlight two complementary items: an extravagant vellum edition of Rupert Brooke’s Poems, hand‑decorated and unusually numbered (copy 13 of 12), alongside Vera Brittain’s modest remembrance book where pressed flowers sit beside terse entries recording family losses. Preserved for scholars and students, these artifacts serve as tangible primary sources for courses and research in history, literary studies and conservation, illustrating how material culture carries personal and public memories of war.
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