{"id":240,"date":"2023-03-24T09:25:39","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T13:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/?post_type=back-matter&p=240"},"modified":"2023-03-24T11:10:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T15:10:58","slug":"bibliographic-essay","status":"publish","type":"back-matter","link":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/back-matter\/bibliographic-essay\/","title":{"raw":"Bibliographic Essay","rendered":"Bibliographic Essay"},"content":{"raw":"This essay is an introduction to the sources for Dalhousie\u2019s history. Many of these are cited in detail in the notes. Primary sources, of course, comprehend Dalhousie\u2019s official records, the\u00a0minutes of the Board of Governors<\/a>\u00a0from 1818 onward, and the minutes of Senate from 1863. These are by no means as complete as one might wish; university bodies are adept at concealing, or even omitting, real difficulties. They usually offer bland versions instead. Other than those, the university kept no official records until 1911, deeming board and Senate minutes sufficient. Hence the\u00a0Dalhousie Gazette<\/em><\/a>, started by students in 1869, is of fundamental importance, especially so prior to the establishment of the President\u2019s Office Correspondence in 1911. That was begun by President A.S. MacKenzie and is now described online and housed in the\u00a0President's Office Fonds<\/a>\u00a0in the Dalhousie University Archives. It is the single most important source for Dalhousie\u2019s history from 1911 to 1963.\r\n\r\nLord Dalhousie\u2019s papers, at the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh, are considerable. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia from 1816 to 1820, and Governor General of Canada from 1820 to 1828; his papers are valuable not only for Dalhousie\u2019s and Nova Scotia\u2019s history but Canada\u2019s as well. Especially interesting are the three volumes of\u00a0Dalhousie Journals<\/em>, edited by Marjory Whitelaw. The first one is devoted to Nova Scotia (Toronto: Oberon Press 1978). The whole of Lord Dalhousie\u2019s Canadian correspondence has been microfilmed in fifteen reels by\u00a0Library and Archives Canada (LAC)<\/a>. The personal papers of\u00a0Thomas McCulloch<\/a>\u00a0(formerly at the Archives of Nova Scotia, now at Dalhousie University Archives), Joseph Howe (LAC), and Charles Tupper (LAC) are referred to in the notes.\r\n\r\nOf Dalhousie presidents before A.S. MacKenzie, only Thomas McCulloch left papers; MacKenzie\u2019s are by no means ample. The most comprehensive set of private papers are those of Professor Archibald MacMechan, in the\u00a0Archibald MacMechan Fonds<\/a>\u00a0at the Dalhousie University Archives. MacMechan\u2019s own essays about Nova Scotian and Dalhousie history are labours of love, wrought with care by a consummate stylist:\u00a0The Life of a Little College and Other Papers<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1914);\u00a0Old Province Tales<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1924);\u00a0The Book of Ultima Thule<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1927);\u00a0There Go the Ships<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1928). They may now seem a little old-fashioned; Victorian is what they were and what MacMechan was too.\r\n\r\nDalhousie is frequently mentioned in Halifax newspapers. The newspapers are very extensive, and no historian, or two historians, could search them through from 1818 to 1925. The best that can be done, at least in this book, is give an irregular and uneven sampling, when men and issues appeared to warrant it.\r\n\r\nSecondary sources have served Dalhousie and its history well, though not sufficiently comprehensively. Two good ones, George Patterson\u2019s\u00a0A History of Dalhousie College and University<\/em>\u00a0(Halifax: Herald Printing 1887), and D.C. Harvey\u2019s\u00a0An Introduction to the History of Dalhousie University<\/em>\u00a0(Halifax: McCurdy Printing 1938), are both by Dalhousie graduates, 1882 and 1910 respectively. Both do not go beyond the 1880s. Harvey\u2019s is done with diligence and scholarship, written in an elegant, succinct style. Not for nothing was he Dalhousie\u2019s Rhodes scholar in 1910. Patterson\u2019s was written at an earlier stage in life, but has details found nowhere else. John Willis wrote\u00a0A History of Dalhousie Law School<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1979), a delicious mixture of shrewdness and sentiment, showing at every stage Willis\u2019s Oxford first. Patricia Monk has recently published a fine biography of Dalhousie\u2019s first professor of history, James De Mille,\u00a0The Gilded Beaver: an Introduction to the Life and Work of James De Mille<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: ECW Press 1991). Articles about Dalhousie\u2019s history are mentioned in the notes, but one deserves notice here - Judith Fingard\u2019s \u201cCollege, Career, and Community: Dalhousie Coeds, 1881-1921\u201d in Paul Axelrod and John Reid, eds.,\u00a0Youth, University and Canadian Society: Essays in the Social History of Higher Education<\/em>\u00a0(Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press 1989), pp. 26-50.\r\n\r\nDalhousie\u2019s history is also subsumed within the political, social, and educational history of Nova Scotia, especially for Dalhousie\u2019s first half-century. Here Murray Beck is essential: first, his two-volume biography of Joseph Howe,\u00a0Joseph Howe: Volume I: Conservative Reformer, 1804-1848<\/em>, and Volume II,\u00a0The Briton Becomes Canadian, 1848-1873<\/em>\u00a0(Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press 1982 and 1983). Not less important is Beck\u2019s\u00a0The Politics of Nova Scotia, Volume I: 1710-1896<\/em>, and\u00a0Volume II: 1896-1988<\/em>\u00a0(Tantallon: Four East Publications 1985 and 1988).\r\n\r\nFrom the beginning, Dalhousie\u2019s history is tied to that of Halifax. One history of Halifax must be mentioned, Thomas H. Raddall,\u00a0Halifax, Warden of the North<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1948). It is a survey covering the two hundred years since 1749. It has the once-over-lightly feel of such books, but try to write one like it! With its faults, it is a great achievement, and there is no other to match it. Raddall was a boy of fourteen at the time of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and describes it vividly in\u00a0In My Time: A Memoir<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1976), pp. 30-41.\r\n\r\nPerhaps the most useful secondary sources are the short essays, some of them masterpieces of compression and research, in the\u00a0Dictionary of Canadian Biography<\/a>, especially volumes VII (1836-1850) to XII (1891-1900). Volume XIII (1901-1910) is expected to be published in 1994. One could mention here Peter Burroughs\u2019s \u201cGeorge Ramsay, ninth Earl of Dalhousie\u201d and Susan Buggey and Gwendolyn Davies\u2019s \u201cThomas McCulloch\u201d in volume VII, Allan Dunlop\u2019s \u201cJames Ross\u201d in volume X, Murray Beck\u2019s \u201cWilliam Young\u201d in volume XI, and Judith Fingard\u2019s \u201cGeorge Munro\u201d in volume XII. All content from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is now available online.\r\n\r\nNumerous alumnae and alumni, and Dalhousie professors, have taken the trouble to write or talk about aspects of Dalhousie history. Many of their contributions are mentioned in the notes; my records of these conversations, and the correspondence, are now in the Dalhousie University Archives, housed in the\u00a0Peter B. Waite Fonds<\/a>.","rendered":"

This essay is an introduction to the sources for Dalhousie\u2019s history. Many of these are cited in detail in the notes. Primary sources, of course, comprehend Dalhousie\u2019s official records, the\u00a0minutes of the Board of Governors<\/a>\u00a0from 1818 onward, and the minutes of Senate from 1863. These are by no means as complete as one might wish; university bodies are adept at concealing, or even omitting, real difficulties. They usually offer bland versions instead. Other than those, the university kept no official records until 1911, deeming board and Senate minutes sufficient. Hence the\u00a0Dalhousie Gazette<\/em><\/a>, started by students in 1869, is of fundamental importance, especially so prior to the establishment of the President\u2019s Office Correspondence in 1911. That was begun by President A.S. MacKenzie and is now described online and housed in the\u00a0President’s Office Fonds<\/a>\u00a0in the Dalhousie University Archives. It is the single most important source for Dalhousie\u2019s history from 1911 to 1963.<\/p>\n

Lord Dalhousie\u2019s papers, at the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh, are considerable. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia from 1816 to 1820, and Governor General of Canada from 1820 to 1828; his papers are valuable not only for Dalhousie\u2019s and Nova Scotia\u2019s history but Canada\u2019s as well. Especially interesting are the three volumes of\u00a0Dalhousie Journals<\/em>, edited by Marjory Whitelaw. The first one is devoted to Nova Scotia (Toronto: Oberon Press 1978). The whole of Lord Dalhousie\u2019s Canadian correspondence has been microfilmed in fifteen reels by\u00a0Library and Archives Canada (LAC)<\/a>. The personal papers of\u00a0Thomas McCulloch<\/a>\u00a0(formerly at the Archives of Nova Scotia, now at Dalhousie University Archives), Joseph Howe (LAC), and Charles Tupper (LAC) are referred to in the notes.<\/p>\n

Of Dalhousie presidents before A.S. MacKenzie, only Thomas McCulloch left papers; MacKenzie\u2019s are by no means ample. The most comprehensive set of private papers are those of Professor Archibald MacMechan, in the\u00a0Archibald MacMechan Fonds<\/a>\u00a0at the Dalhousie University Archives. MacMechan\u2019s own essays about Nova Scotian and Dalhousie history are labours of love, wrought with care by a consummate stylist:\u00a0The Life of a Little College and Other Papers<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1914);\u00a0Old Province Tales<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1924);\u00a0The Book of Ultima Thule<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1927);\u00a0There Go the Ships<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1928). They may now seem a little old-fashioned; Victorian is what they were and what MacMechan was too.<\/p>\n

Dalhousie is frequently mentioned in Halifax newspapers. The newspapers are very extensive, and no historian, or two historians, could search them through from 1818 to 1925. The best that can be done, at least in this book, is give an irregular and uneven sampling, when men and issues appeared to warrant it.<\/p>\n

Secondary sources have served Dalhousie and its history well, though not sufficiently comprehensively. Two good ones, George Patterson\u2019s\u00a0A History of Dalhousie College and University<\/em>\u00a0(Halifax: Herald Printing 1887), and D.C. Harvey\u2019s\u00a0An Introduction to the History of Dalhousie University<\/em>\u00a0(Halifax: McCurdy Printing 1938), are both by Dalhousie graduates, 1882 and 1910 respectively. Both do not go beyond the 1880s. Harvey\u2019s is done with diligence and scholarship, written in an elegant, succinct style. Not for nothing was he Dalhousie\u2019s Rhodes scholar in 1910. Patterson\u2019s was written at an earlier stage in life, but has details found nowhere else. John Willis wrote\u00a0A History of Dalhousie Law School<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1979), a delicious mixture of shrewdness and sentiment, showing at every stage Willis\u2019s Oxford first. Patricia Monk has recently published a fine biography of Dalhousie\u2019s first professor of history, James De Mille,\u00a0The Gilded Beaver: an Introduction to the Life and Work of James De Mille<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: ECW Press 1991). Articles about Dalhousie\u2019s history are mentioned in the notes, but one deserves notice here – Judith Fingard\u2019s \u201cCollege, Career, and Community: Dalhousie Coeds, 1881-1921\u201d in Paul Axelrod and John Reid, eds.,\u00a0Youth, University and Canadian Society: Essays in the Social History of Higher Education<\/em>\u00a0(Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press 1989), pp. 26-50.<\/p>\n

Dalhousie\u2019s history is also subsumed within the political, social, and educational history of Nova Scotia, especially for Dalhousie\u2019s first half-century. Here Murray Beck is essential: first, his two-volume biography of Joseph Howe,\u00a0Joseph Howe: Volume I: Conservative Reformer, 1804-1848<\/em>, and Volume II,\u00a0The Briton Becomes Canadian, 1848-1873<\/em>\u00a0(Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press 1982 and 1983). Not less important is Beck\u2019s\u00a0The Politics of Nova Scotia, Volume I: 1710-1896<\/em>, and\u00a0Volume II: 1896-1988<\/em>\u00a0(Tantallon: Four East Publications 1985 and 1988).<\/p>\n

From the beginning, Dalhousie\u2019s history is tied to that of Halifax. One history of Halifax must be mentioned, Thomas H. Raddall,\u00a0Halifax, Warden of the North<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1948). It is a survey covering the two hundred years since 1749. It has the once-over-lightly feel of such books, but try to write one like it! With its faults, it is a great achievement, and there is no other to match it. Raddall was a boy of fourteen at the time of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and describes it vividly in\u00a0In My Time: A Memoir<\/em>\u00a0(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1976), pp. 30-41.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most useful secondary sources are the short essays, some of them masterpieces of compression and research, in the\u00a0Dictionary of Canadian Biography<\/a>, especially volumes VII (1836-1850) to XII (1891-1900). Volume XIII (1901-1910) is expected to be published in 1994. One could mention here Peter Burroughs\u2019s \u201cGeorge Ramsay, ninth Earl of Dalhousie\u201d and Susan Buggey and Gwendolyn Davies\u2019s \u201cThomas McCulloch\u201d in volume VII, Allan Dunlop\u2019s \u201cJames Ross\u201d in volume X, Murray Beck\u2019s \u201cWilliam Young\u201d in volume XI, and Judith Fingard\u2019s \u201cGeorge Munro\u201d in volume XII. All content from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is now available online.<\/p>\n

Numerous alumnae and alumni, and Dalhousie professors, have taken the trouble to write or talk about aspects of Dalhousie history. Many of their contributions are mentioned in the notes; my records of these conversations, and the correspondence, are now in the Dalhousie University Archives, housed in the\u00a0Peter B. Waite Fonds<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"back-matter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/back-matter\/240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/back-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/back-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/back-matter\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/back-matter\/240\/revisions\/245"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/back-matter\/240\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"back-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/back-matter-type?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaleditions.library.dal.ca\/livesofdalv1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}