artifact found: 1920s overdue library

it's a small wine coloured hard cover book, title: Great Musical Composers, from the Queen and Lisgar branch. the pocket at the back tracking lending has Feb 16 stamped as the due date. next to it, the page declares the lending rules:

THIS BOOK MAY BE KEPT 14 DAYS
and may be renewed once.

A fine of 3 cents a day is charged if the book is kept after the last stamped date below. No books issued while a fine remains unpaid. Two books may be taken at a time, only one of which may be fiction. Books can not be exchanged on the day on which they are drawn.


the inside front cover has may 7, 1925 stamped in. that may be the date the library acquired the book.

dN researched the house when we bought it and he found out that the McBurney family owned the house from 1920-1944. the size of the family ranged from 5-11 over that time. when they bought the house, the man of the house was david mcburney, a 45 year old engineer for the GT railway who later became a fitter for the CNR. he was married to josephine. we know they had at least one son, stanley, because we found teenage letters from stanley to his mother telling her not to worry about him. there were a few drafts as though he was trying to phrase things just so. the letters are dated june 11, 1926.

at the time, the lot was worth $1253, and the house $1700. they were Anglican, and supported public schools.

so it seems that one of the mcburneys owes the city of toronto library dept. roughly $853.20. shhh...