Although the  Division was formally established as the Rare Books and Special Collections Department only in 1965, the University began acquiring antiquarian books and other special collection materials as early as the 1860s. Gifts and purchases over the ensuing 140 years have formed the Division's present holdings of over 250,000 printed books, 11,000 prints, 6000 maps, 1000 manuscripts and 300 linear metres of papers. The collection focuses on the humanities, particularly history, literature, the history of ideas (philosophy and religion), travel and exploration, and the history of the book. The oldest items in the collection are Babylonian and Assyrian tablets dated between 2275 B.C. and 548 B.C. Medieval and Islamic manuscripts, incunabula and printed books of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and maps and prints form the core of the collection. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century books and papers bring the holdings into the modern period and include the papers of a number of Canadian authors, modern Canadian prints and extensive holdings of selected nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors, both Canadian and non-Canadian.  In 1997, the Blackader-Lauterman Collection on Architecture and Art was transferred to the Rare Books Division.   The holdings are divided into a general collection and a number of special collections, only some of which are housed separately. The most significant holdings and collections are described in The Collections.