TORONTO, ON – In the Globe Focus section of today’s edition of The Globe & Mail, author and regular Globe contributor Ian Brown profiles brewerianist Larry Sherk, who recently donated his collection of more than 3,000 historic beer labels to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto.
The article discusses Sherk’s four decade history of collecting beer memorabilia, starting with beer trays and leading to “beer labels, beer mats, beer-bottle caps (collectors call them crowns), beer matchbook covers, beer-related sports schedules, coasters, openers, catalogues, tap handles and cans.” He now holds one of the largest privately owned collections of breweriana in Canada, if not the world.
As for the labels, the Library has started scanning them for their electronic archive, and roughly 600 of them have been posted online at Flickr in three sets – here, here and here.
[Photo of Larry Sherk from the Globe & Mail]