Skip to Main Content

Research Guides

University of Toronto History: A Bibliography

Introduction

Critical research on religious influence on the founding of U of T is currently lacking. Researchers looking at this topic can begin by consulting the sources below:

General overview of University’s founders’ religious connections, influence, and beliefs.

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.

Friedland, Martin L. The University of Toronto: A History. 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.

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., 1999. https://hdl.handle.net/1807/12603.

Aspects of the religious environment of federated colleges and their connections to residential schools.

Dyer, Monica. “The University of Toronto and Aboriginal Residential Schools: A Silent Partner.” [International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation?], 2009. https://icdr.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Heidi-Bohaker-The-University-of-Toronto-and-Aboriginal-Residential-Schools-A-Silent-Partner-4MB.pdf.

Influence of Christianity and Protestantism at the University throughout the 20th century, including in sports, research, and governance.

Gauvreau, Michael. “Presbyterianism, Liberal Education and the Research Ideal: Sir Robert Falconer and the University of Toronto, 1907-1932.” In In the Burning Bush and a Few Acres of Snow: The Presbyterian Contribution to Canadian Life and Culture, edited by William Klempa, 39–60. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1994.

Gidney, Catherine. “The Athletics-Physical Education Dichotomy Revisited: The Case of the University of Toronto, 1900-1940.” Sport History Review 37, no. 2 (November 2006): 130–49. https://doi.org/10.1123/shr.37.2.130.

Gidney, Catherine. A Long Eclipse: The Liberal Protestant Establishment and the Canadian University, 1920-1970. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004.

Gidney, Catherine. “Poisoning the Student Mind?: The Student Christian Movement at the University of Toronto, 1920-1965.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 8, no. 1 (1997): 147–63. https://doi.org/10.7202/031120ar.