University of Toronto History Society

University of Toronto History Society University of Toronto History Society

The University of Toronto Historical Society aims to share a student-curated history of the University with anyone interested in an accessible manner. The resources that currently exist to archive the University's history are designed for an intellectual audience and often are not readily accessible to those without an educational background in history. We are working on designing a website that w

ill archive the history of the University, including a student-curated photo gallery, a Hall of Fame, Hall of Remembrance for student-soldiers, and more. Additionally, we are pursuing the creation of a variety of multimedia presentations of the University's history, including oral histories, podcasts, and videos. The goal is to share the University's extensive history with current students, alumni, staff, and anyone interested in a method that is entertaining and easily accessible.

In honour of Black History Month, the UTSHC will be sharing the stories of some of U of T’s many influential black alumn...
02/16/2023

In honour of Black History Month, the UTSHC will be sharing the stories of some of U of T’s many influential black alumni over the coming weeks.

Austin Clarke was a Barbadian-Canadian novelist who graduated from University College at U of T in 1959. After graduating, he worked in teaching and journalism, but eventually began to make his living as a novelist. His work encompassed numerous themes and drew on his experiences as a child in Barbados, in addition to his complex experiences as a Black West Indian immigrant to Canada. During his career, he published eleven novels, six short story collections and five nonfiction works.

Clarke received numerous accolades for his work, including the Roger’s Writers Trust Fiction prize for The Origin of Waves (1997) and the W.O. Mitchell prize for The Question (1999). He also served as a manager of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, as a member of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and most notably served as the Cultural Attaché of Barbados.

Overall, Austin Clarke’s depictions of black immigrant life in Canada, as well as experiences in colonial and post-colonial Barbados, are invaluable contributions to the worlds of both Canadian and Barbadian literature.

Sources:

“University College U of T.” Accessed February 8, 2023. https://www.uc.utoronto.ca/alumni-influence/austin-clarke.

“Austin Clarke | The Canadian Encyclopedia.” Accessed February 8, 2023. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/austin-clarke.

“Austin Clarke - Literature.” Accessed February 8, 2023. https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/austin-clarke.

2022 UTSU Clubs Fair✅
09/07/2022

2022 UTSU Clubs Fair✅

In 2019, 65% of undergraduate students and 60% of graduate students in the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, & Design ...
04/25/2022

In 2019, 65% of undergraduate students and 60% of graduate students in the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, & Design identified as female. However, things were very different when Margaret Russocki attended in the 1970s.

Margaret, a Polish immigrant who grew up in communist Warsaw, enrolled at Innis College in 1969 when she was 22. She and her husband Stan had recently moved to Toronto from Paris, where they had moved to from Poland. She initially studied urban studies, but chose to complete her degree at the Faculty of Architecture. When she began, she was pregnant with her second child. Despite being one of two women in her class, Margaret graduated at the top of her class of 22 in 1973.

At the time, there were only 60 female registered architects in Ontario (approx. 2%). Margaret had difficulty finding a permanent job at an established practice, and in the mid-80s, she co-founded Russocki + Zawadzki Architects with Marek Zawadzki, who graduated from UofT in 1974. Margaret designed many buildings over the years, but was best known for designing 21 schools in the GTA, three of which won municipal awards.

Margaret died suddenly in 1991 at age 44 when a leaky heart valve burst. At that point, she had completed projects valued at over $200 million, more than any other Canadian woman at that point. Her firm, renamed ZAS Architects + Interiors, is still run by Zawadzki in Toronto and now has offices in Vancouver and Dubai as well.

Photos: Russocki at convocation in 1973, in the 1970s, with Zawadzki

Source:

Happy Easter! Many of you will be attending church, but did you know that UofT's oldest church, which holds a secret wit...
04/17/2022

Happy Easter! Many of you will be attending church, but did you know that UofT's oldest church, which holds a secret within its walls, was involved in one of Toronto's greatest religious scandals?

In the late 18th and early 19th c., the Elmsleys were one of Toronto's leading families in society, politics, and religion. They owned lots of land downtown, were devoted Protestants, and were close friends with John Strachan, Toronto's first Anglican bishop. However, after marrying a Catholic woman and reading a pamphlet on transubstantiation, Captain John Elmsley converted to Catholicism.

Elmsley stopped attending St. James Church with the rest of the city's elite in 1833, instead attending St. Paul's with impoverished Irish immigrants. That same year, he printed 5,000 copies of the transubstantiation pamphlet. After boldly sending one of these pamphlets to his friend Strachan, the bishop responded with a 54-page argument. Their friendship never recovered.

In 1852, one year after Strachan founded Trinity College, Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel and the Basilian Fathers founded St. Michael's College. Elmsley donated part of his Clover Hill estate, which stretched from Queen's Park to Yonge, to the institution on the condition that it include a parish church. St. Basil's Church opened in 1856 and is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Elmsley was a frequent visitor, spending several hours a day there.

Elmsley died in 1863, and in his will requested that his heart be preserved in a jar of alcohol and placed in the walls of St. Basil's. Despite several expansions and renovations, it remains there today behind a plaque and is the only known heart burial in Toronto.

Photos: St. Basil's Church in 1870, John Elmsley, resting place of Elmsley's heart

📷Source:

Meet one of Canada's most famous criminal lawyers, Charles Dubin!Charles Dubin was born April 4, 1921 in Hamilton, ON. D...
04/11/2022

Meet one of Canada's most famous criminal lawyers, Charles Dubin!

Charles Dubin was born April 4, 1921 in Hamilton, ON. During his time at University College, Dubin became involved in various extracurricular activities. He pursued sports, participating in University College’s volleyball, baseball, and hockey teams in his third and fourth years. He was also interested in literary clubs, acting as a member of the Hart House Committee in his third year and undertaking the role of Literary Director at University College’s Literary and Athletic Society in his fourth year. Most notably, in his final year he was the Vice-President of the Law Club. According to U of T’s yearbook, Torontonensis, Dubin wanted to attend Osgoode Hall after he graduated from UofT in 1941, and he did. He graduated with the highest GPA in his class in 1944 and received the Gold Medal.

Soon after, Dubin rose to prominence in the criminal law world. In 1987, he was appointed as an Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, and in 1990, he became the Chief Justice of Ontario. Dubin worked on many significant cases, one of his most famous cases being the Dubin Inquiry. This inquiry was prompted by the 1988 Olympic Games scandal, where athlete Ben Johnson tested positive for drugs and subsequently lost his gold medal. Dubin worked on a comprehensive report released in 1990, which detailed his recommendations on tighter drug-testing policies for Canada. Due to his report, in 1991, Canada created an organization called Canadian Anti-Doping Organization.

To honour his achievements, UofT offered Dubin an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1993. He became an officer of the Order of Canada in 1997, and in 2009, UofT’s Faculty of Law created a scholarship fund in his name. Since Dubin’s legal interest centred around criminal law, this scholarship, Charles L. Dubin Memorial Fund, would be offered to a law student whose main area of interest is in criminal law as well. On October 27, 2008, Dubin died at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

📷Source:

Today is the first day of the lack week of classes of the 2022 Winter Term. To celebrate, we're celebrating every studen...
04/04/2022

Today is the first day of the lack week of classes of the 2022 Winter Term. To celebrate, we're celebrating every student's favourite part of UofT - the coat of arms! We previously posted about the meaning of the coat of arms on June 14, 2017, so please refer to that post for more information.

UofT was founded in 1827 without any insignia or coat of arms. It wasn't until 1857 when the university approved a coat of arms, which was vaguely similar to the current coat of arms, but was supported by the ancient Roman goddesses Minerva and Victoria.

In 1917, the board of governors became concerned when they noticed various coats of arms across campus and petitioned the College of Arms, a royal corporation in London, England, to create official coats of arms for both University College and the University of Toronto. This was when the maple tree was changed to an oak tree. These documents are now held in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

Over the years, the beaver depicted in the coat of arms has been altered to appear less aggressive by hunching its back, retracting its teeth, and making its paws smaller and daintier. Both a previous and current coat of arms are shown above.

📷Source:

A big warm welcome to our 2022-23 exec team!🎉
04/02/2022

A big warm welcome to our 2022-23 exec team!🎉

Check out the Lillian Massey Building!Lillian Massey Treble, the daughter and joint heir of Hart Massey, founder of the ...
03/25/2022

Check out the Lillian Massey Building!

Lillian Massey Treble, the daughter and joint heir of Hart Massey, founder of the Massey-Harris company, was an advocate for teaching women “scientific household management," which was about managing home economics and nutrition. Thus in 1905, Lillian persuaded the university to institutionalize a four-year degree program in household science. She donated half a million dollars to erect a building that would house the new department in her name, which was to include facilities for teaching staff, classrooms, and recreational facilities. These facilities were to be the only locations open to female students on campus at the time.

Construction began in 1908. The building took five years to complete, and when it finally opened in 1913, the facility was considered to be one of the finest of its kind in North America. The portico was supported by four pillars of Indiana limestone, and had a pediment above it containing the University of Toronto’s coat of arms. Its porch and west façade faced Queen’s Park, and it still sits across from the Royal Ontario Museum. The building also contained a series of stained-glass windows, most of which still exist today, designed by Henry Holiday (1839-1927). Designed in the Pre-Raphaelite style, the windows depict Egyptian women performing household tasks, while male figures harvest crops and hunt animals. The windows can be found in the staircase in the main foyer, and are dedicated to Lillian’s mother, Eliza Phelps Massey.

Until the 1970s, the Lillian Massey Building continued to host courses of the Department of Household Sciences, before it was replaced by the Department of Nutritional Sciences. In 1975, the building was designated as a heritage structure by the city of Toronto. It currently houses the Centre of Medieval Studies, the offices of the University of Toronto’s Department of Classics, and the Division of University Advancement.

📷Source:

Check out our available executive positions! If you have any further questions about exec roles and responsibilities or ...
03/18/2022

Check out our available executive positions! If you have any further questions about exec roles and responsibilities or about the election, please feel free to reach out!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!🍀To celebrate, we are remembering two notable Greens who died during World War II.Captain Elmes ...
03/17/2022

Happy St. Patrick's Day!🍀To celebrate, we are remembering two notable Greens who died during World War II.

Captain Elmes Patrick Trevelyan Green May 10, 1913 in Toronto, Ontario to Walter H. and Millicent Henderson Green. He studied Arts at Trinity College. He joined the Army and was killed in action in Italy on May 1, 1944. He is buried in the Naples War Cemetery in Naples, Italy.

Flight Sergeant Meyer (Mike) Greenstein was born December 13, 1918 and studied Arts at University College and graduated in 1940 before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was reported missing in action on January 7, 1945 in Munich, Germany and was later presumed dead. He has a tombstone at the Munster Communal Cemetery in Haut-Rhin, France. The Meyer (Mike) Greenstein Memorial Student Award for Writing Excellence at University College was founded in his memory in 2007.

📷Source:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!🍀To celebrate, we are remembering three notable Greens who died during World War I.Private Henry...
03/17/2022

Happy St. Patrick's Day!🍀To celebrate, we are remembering three notable Greens who died during World War I.

Private Henry Greenwood was born July 12, 1893 in Kenora, Manitoba to William and Eleanor Greenwood. He studied Dentistry at UofT before joining the Army. He died of pneumonia on July 18, 1916 in Le Havre, France and is buried in the Ste. Marie Cemetery in Seine-Maritime, France.

Major William Robert Green was born October 12, 1889 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to Frederick William and Margaret Green. He studied philosophy at Victoria College. He joined the Army in 1915 and was promoted to the rank of Major and command of a company after taking part in the heavy fighting on the Vimy-Lens front. He was instantly killed by a bomb on June 3, 1917 and is buried in the Villers Station Cemetery in Pas de Calais, France.

Private Ivan Tremayne Green was born September 14, 1898 in Beeton, Ontario to Alfred George and Alma Ida Green. He studied Education at UofT before joining the Army in April 1918 and going overseas in June. After summer training, he became ill and died of pneumonia on October 21, 1918. He is buried in Wool (Holy Rood) Churchyard & Extension in Dorset, England.

📷Source: .varsity

Happy birthday to our beloved University of Toronto!!🥳🎉🎂195 years old never looked so good.
03/15/2022

Happy birthday to our beloved University of Toronto!!🥳🎉🎂195 years old never looked so good.

Address

1 Spadina Crescent
Toronto, ON
M5S 2J5

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when University of Toronto History Society posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category