McGill: A Celebration

Alexander D. Gregor is Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the
University of Manitoba.

Books commemorating institutions of high learning, Canadian or
otherwise, are chancy undertakings. Eulogies are dismissed out of hand
as contributing nothing to scholarly or popular literature; serious
histories run the risk of being greeted with indifference by the
children of alma mater, let alone those outside the family. Passage
between these two perils has been masterfully charted in the case of
this tribute, sponsored by the Graduates’ Society of McGill
University, which celebrates, as its subtitle suggests, 150 years of
that institution’s history. The large-format book collates 13
writers’ contributions, which collectively present a collage of the
history, people, and environment of one of Canada’s premier
universities. The reader is left with more than just a sense of what the
institution has done, and of its place in the backdrop of Montreal.
Readers equally gain a sense of what it has been like to be a part of
the complex society of this particular community of scholars, either as
a student or as a member of faculty. These accounts are given in a
lively prose that would interest any general reader. At the same time,
the historical accounts and anecdotes provide a useful addition to the
literature about Canadian higher education.

The quality of illustration in the book puts it into the coffee-table
league. The book contains more than one hundred color photographs, many
of them full-page. Many of the illustrations are commissioned works;
others are archival, offering interesting examples of the university’s
architectural history, its students and staff, its teaching and research
programs, and its important role as a repository of historical and
natural artifacts.

It is a commonplace today that universities as institutions have lost
their sense of purpose and community. As well as providing a splendid
memorial to one institution’s contribution to Canadian society, this
book provides a nice sense of what the nature, purpose, and community of
a university can be. For this reason alone, its appeal should go far
beyond the immediate family.