Introduction

This digital exhibit is designed to complement The Lives of Dalhousie University Volume One, 1818-1925: Lord Dalhousie's College by Peter B. Waite. You can find the complete book online at https://digitaleditions.library.dal.ca/livesofdalv1/ or in DalSpace.

To explore Dalhousie's history after 1925, visit the second part of this exhibit: The Lives of Dalhousie University Volume Two, 1925-1980: The Old College Transformed.

The idea to create a digital exhibit based on the The Lives of Dalhousie University originated with plans to celebrate Dalhousie's 200th anniversary in 2018. The timing of this exhibit is intended to coincide with those celebrations. The purpose of the exhibit is to provide greater access to content from the original print volumes. In some cases, we highlight individuals and events that are covered in the book, while in other cases we focus on topics that are either alluded to in the original or simply related in a tangential way. Our intention is to take advantage of an exhibiting format to provide greater visual access to Dalhousie’s rich and colourful past. Ultimately, our goal is to provide insight into the lives of Dalhousians over the last 200 years.

The Lives of Dalhousie University was written by Peter B. Waite, Dalhousie’s historian, from 1986-1992. The two-volume book chronicles Dalhousie’s history from Lord Dalhousie’s arrival in Nova Scotia in 1816 to the end of Henry Hicks’ presidency in 1980. Waite relied heavily on collections at the Dalhousie University Archives, the Nova Scotia Archives, and other institutions for his research. It is hoped that this exhibit will showcase some of the archival material that informed Waite’s research, as well as other material held at the Dalhousie University Archives that will supplement the book.

Every chapter from the original text is represented as a menu item in the exhibit. In each case we offer an excerpt from that chapter, with a link to the full text. The secondary menu items under each chapter are the core of the exhibit. They provide additional background material on topics that are important to Dalhousie’s history. Each topic has been illustrated with material from the Dalhousie University Archives, which has all been digitized and is available via the Archives finding aid or Dalspace.