Heritage U of T

We welcome you to explore these views into the ongoing history of the university, as captured by our communities through photographs, maps and plans, artwork, physical artifacts, books, video and audio. Contributors to this site include the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services, University of Toronto Mississauga Library and the University of Toronto Scarborough Library.
If you have material or stories that you would like to share here, please contact us to find out how.

Heritage Exhibitions

  • U of T Chronology

    Explore U of T's chronology from 1796 February 25 to the present.

  • U of T: Snapshots of its History

    This exhibition, “The University of Toronto: Snapshots of its history”, was mounted in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in 2002 as a part of the University’s 175th anniversary celebrations. It complemented the launch in March of Martin Friedland’s The University of Toronto: a history, the first such history to appear in seventy-five years.

  • The Discovery of Insulin

    The discovery of a life-saving treatment for diabetes at the University of Toronto in 1921 made headlines worldwide and was formally acknowledged just two years later when the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to two of the team members. An illustrated timeline of the most significant events that led to the discovery and initial dissemination of insulin is provided here, and the full story with thousands of the original archival documents is available through the UTL's digital special collection entitled The Discovery and Development of Insulin.

  • Forty Years of "Fort Book": The Story of Robarts LibraryDiscovery of Insulin

    by Harold Averill, 
    University of Toronto Archives

    Timeline compiled by 
    Emily Sommers, 
    University of Toronto Archives