A Bridge Built Halfway: A History of Memorial University College, 1925-1950

Alexander D. Gregor is Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and a
professor of higher education at the University of Manitoba.

This book traces the first quarter-century of the institution that in
1949—the year Newfoundland entered Confederation—received
degree-granting status as Memorial University. Written by a trained
historian and faculty member of the institution, the book provides a
comprehensive social, political, economic, and religious backdrop to the
university’s development. With the broader setting in place,
consideration is given to student and staff demographics, to college
life and governance, to curriculum, and to relationships between the
college, Newfoundland itself, and Canada, the United States, and Great
Britain. In addition to the normal archival documents available to a
historian, the author also effectively uses the techniques of oral
history to add a subtlety, detail, and interest that would not otherwise
be possible. A useful selection of appendices and bibliography
complements the documentary evidence cited in the text.

The book is a welcome addition to the slowly growing pool of “case
studies,” which examine local history and refine our understanding of
Canadian higher education. At the same time, the reader is provided with
a fascinating account of the emergence of the first university
institution in pre-Confederation Newfoundland, and of its role and place
in the final stages of that colony’s history.

Institutional histories are of a genre that faces special difficulties
interesting those who are not themselves alma mater children. By making
this study a social history in the best sense, MacLeod has succeeded in
keeping our interest, and in offering a valuable addition to the
historiography of Canadian higher education.