Established originally as King’s College in 1827, the University of Toronto was founded through an endowment of Crown lands originally appropriated by the British government from Indigenous Peoples. The sale and lease of these endowment lands – located in York as well as other townships across Upper Canada – funded the creation of King’s College.

The following articles and blog posts critically examine the University of Toronto’s settler origins and profits from Indigenous land. Research on this subject is nascent and ongoing, and further publications are expected.

Chua, Alyanna Denise. “How Dispossessed Indigenous Lands Financed U of T’s Development.” The Varsity, January 30, 2023. https://thevarsity.ca/2023/01/30/how-dispossessed-indigenous-lands-financed-u-of-ts-development/.

Harvey, Caitlin. “Gold Rushes, Universities, and Globalization, 1840-1910.” Past & Present, December 4, 2023. https://academic.oup.com/past/article/261/1/118/7115872. 

Harvey, Caitlin. “How Commonwealth Universities Profited from Indigenous Dispossession through Land Grants.” The Conversation, July 5, 2022. http://theconversation.com/how-commonwealth-universities-profited-from-indigenous-dispossession-through-land-grants-185010.

Harvey, Caitlin. “University Land Grabs: Indigenous Dispossession and the Universities of Toronto and Manitoba.” Canadian Historical Review, December 1, 2023. https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/chr-2023-0004. 

Harvey, Caitlin P. A. “The Wealth of Knowledge: Land-Grab Universities in a British Imperial and Global Context.” Native American and Indigenous Studies 8, no. 1 (2021): 97–105. https://doi.org/10.1353/nai.2021.a784821.

Valverde, Mariana. “‘1827’? The Quiet Persistence of the British Empire in University of Toronto (UofT) Swag.” Everyday Orientalism (blog), September 1, 2022. https://everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2022/09/01/1827-the-quiet-persistence-of-the-british-empire-in-university-of-toronto-uoft-swag/.

The following sources provide broader histories of the University’s founding and include details and primary sources on early land acquisitions:

Hodgins, J. George. Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada, from the Passing of the Constitutional Act of 1791 to the Close of the Reverend Doctor Ryerson’s Administration of the Education Department in 1876: Forming an Appendix to the Annual Report of the Minister of Education. Vol. 1, 1790-1830. Ontario: L.K. Cameron, 1895. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.49795.

Pearce, Elizabeth Helen. “King’s College Purpose and Accountability in Higher Education : the Dilemma of King’s College, 1827-1853.” Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Toronto, 1999. https://hdl.handle.net/1807/12603.

Related UTARMS accessions

Below is a non-exhaustive list of UTARMS accessions containing materials related to the founding of King’s College, including documentation of the acquisition, sale, and lease of endowment lands.

• Gerald M Craig fonds, B1989-0003
• King’s College, B1982-1063
• University of Toronto, A1998-0012
• University of Toronto. Board of Governors, A1973-0015
• University of Toronto. Office of the Bursar, A1972-0050
• University of Toronto. Office of the Chief Accountant, A1968-0010
• University of Toronto. Physical Plant Department, A1965-0001 

The following resources on land-grant universities in the United States provide insight into university land acquisition within the wider North American context:

Lee, Robert, and Tristan Ahtone. “Land-Grab Universities.” High Country News, March 30, 2020. https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities.

Lee, Robert, Tristan Ahtone, Margaret Pearce, Kalen Goodluck, Geoff McGhee, Cody Leff, Katherine Lanpher, and Taryn Salinas. “Land-Grab Universities: A High Country News Investigation.” Land-Grab Universities. Accessed October 27, 2023. https://www.landgrabu.org/.