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Tour of Osler's Montreal 1870-1885

This web site is designed so that you can open either of the two maps using the links below. The numbers on the maps correspond to the numbered images below; clicking on a number below the map will link you to the corresponding image in the list below. Of course, you are also free to simply browse through the list of entries and consult the map only when you wish to find the location of the site. Clicking on the small image beside each entry on the list will open a larger copy of the image. It is preferable to use the links provided rather than the buttons of your browser, since the former will return you to the exact position on the list from which you came. Enjoy the tour.

Map of Montreal 1998

La carte de Montréal 1998

 

 


Map of Montreal 1872

La carte de Montréal 1872

 

 



 Links to images  Liens aux illustrations

 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16


In Osler's day, Montreal was a harbour city and a terminal for trains. It was the nerve centre of the Canadian economy and a city of contrasts, with extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Near the harbour were the overcrowded residential quarters where typhoid, diphtheria, and smallpox were common. There was a high rate of infant mortality, and for many years Montreal's death-rate was higher than any other city on the American continent. In contrast with the plight of the poor, the rich lived in the Square Mile, situated on the side of Mount-Royal, in magnificent mansions with large gardens. The city had a population of 90 000, 60% French and 40% English. Society was dominated by an Anglophone elite, mostly Scots.

The city was surrounded by fields and the topography of the area allowed orchards (mostly apple) to flourish. In winter, Montreal's most glaring defects were hidden in snow. The snow piled eight to ten feet high in the streets where the sleighs, with their fur robes and their bells, carried travellers through the icy cold. It was a city known for its gaiety. Commerce slowed down during the winter while snow and ice covered the St. Lawrence River, leaving ample time for leisure

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(1) St. John The Evangelist Church

[ca 1896]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History. Church that Osler attended.

"He was steeped in the wisdom of Plato, Marcus Aurelius and Sir Thomas Browne, and he knew the Bible better than many clergymen."
Francis J. Shepherd in: "Sir William Osler; Memorial Number, Appreciations and Reminiscences" Montreal, 1926, p. 153.


As a student, Osler was a regular attendant of this church, a High-Church of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Francis J. Shepherd in an address remembered that Osler always had ecclesiastical tendencies and was steeped in the wisdom of Plato, Marcus Aurelius and Sir Thomas Browne and had a deep knowledge of the Bible. "While a student he always attended service at a neighboring ritualistic church before breakfast". It is worth recalling that earlier in his life, as a young man in Ontario, Osler went to Trinity College to study Theology and only later changed his field of study to Medicine having been influenced by Professor Bovell. There are no pictures or illustrations of the first chapel. It was a brick chapel built in 1860 on St.Urbain on the south west corner of Dorchester (now René-Lévesque). It could hold 350 people and was furnished with chairs. Some scornfully called it "the church with the kitchen chairs".

The church became overcrowded and a decision was made to erect another church on St.Urbain, corner of Ontario (now Président-Kennedy) which became the new home of the congregation in 1878. We cannot be sure that Osler was still an ardent churchgoer when he returned from Europe in 1875 and that he attended the new church regularly. He wrote from London "I have got very low-church lately and am afraid Fathers Johnson and Wood will be horrified." Father Wood was the founder of the church and Osler was attached to him, "especially in that priest's deep concern about the poor and the sick". One thing is certain, Osler stayed in contact with Father Wood and even helped in the arrangement of a memorial window to Dr. William Wright, the late Professor of Materia Medica at the McGill Medical School. It is the Good Samaritan window that can still be seen in the church.

The first chapel became successively a chapel for the Third Order of the Franciscans, and then the Methodist Church, before being demolished in 1912 to make room for stores. In 1953, the site was expropriated to widen of the street. It was on what is now Boul. René-Lévesque in front of Complexe Guy-Favreau.


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(2.1) Montreal General Hospital

Engraving by T. Haberer, Canadian Illustrated News, November 14, 1874. [ca 1874].

"When I began clinical work in 1870, the Montreal General Hospital was an old coccus -and rat-ridden building, but with two valuable assets for the students-much acute disease and a group of keen teachers."
William Osler, "The Medical Clinic", British Medical Journal, January 3, 1914.

The Montreal General Hospital stood on this site from 1821 to 1955. Osler was the first pathologist to the MGH and he obtained much of the material for the first edition of his famous Principles and Practice of Medicine in the wards and the Pathological Department of the hospital. He did autopsies in a separate building containing only a wooden table and a stove. He also performed many autopsies in front of students. In 1875, he was appointed physician to the smallpox hospital which was a separate ward in the building (later the city had a special hospital for smallpox cases and other contagious diseases). Osler himself contracted smallpox but, as he was vaccinated, it was a mild case. Osler was appointed physician at the Hospital in 1879 where he and Dr. George Ross taught clinical medicine. Their method of teaching actively involved the students who observed and reported cases. Marian Osborne (sister of W. W. Francis) in her recollections of Osler said that he used to say to his students "Never forget the rights of the patients".

Not much is left of the old Montreal General Hospital. Only the two wings originally at the back of the hospital remain today. The decision to move the hospital was made to allow for expansion and to be closer to the McGill campus and to their clientele, the English population of the city which had moved west. The present MGH is on the corner of des Pins Avenue and Côte-des-Neiges. The original doors of the old MGH can be seen at the entrance to the hospital library. In 1955, when the hospital was moved, the main building was destroyed to widen the boulevard, and the rest of the buildings were then occupied by the the Hôpital Saint-Charles-Borromée, now the Centre d'hébergement et de soins de longue durée Saint-Charles-Borromée.

Buildings still standing on the west side of St. Dominique street are characterisc of Osler's time.



(2.2) Montreal General Hospital

Drawing by Gordon Trehts, 1895. Osler Library Archives

 

 


(2.3) Montreal General Hospital

[ca 1890]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.

 

 


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(3) University Lying-In Hospital

University Lying-In Hospital (Montreal Maternity) [ca 1900] in:"The Royal Victoria Montreal Maternity Hospital 1843-1943" by Caroline V. Barrett/John. R. Fraser, Montreal, 1943, p.9. Medical students attended classes here.


The University Lying-In Hospital was located on the east side of St. Urbain, below Dorchester (now René-Lévesque). It was founded in 1843 and occupied several locations before moving to 93 St. Urbain Street in 1852. The hospital was conveniently located, for the medical students, between the Medical School and the Montreal General Hospital. The hospital shown in the picture displayed no sign, which is understandable given that the clientele was unwed girls, prostitutes, and poor married women. In Osler's time, Dr. Duncan MacCallum, who was the Professor of Midwifery, was in charge of the hospital until 1883 when he was succeeded by Dr. Arthur A. Browne, another friend of Osler. The hospital "had been established to afford the means of furthering the obstetrical science" in connection with the McGill Medical School and to render charitable service. Later, in 1905, a new hospital (the Maternity Hospital) was built on the corner of St. Urbain Street and Prince Arthur. The building is now occupied by the Institut Thoracique de Montréal (Chest Diseases Institute).


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(4) 48 St. Urbain Street

St. Urbain Street, taken from LaGauchetière [1860]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History. As a student, Osler lived at 48, the house on the right with the sign, corner of Vitré, in the middle of the photo.


As a student, Osler lived at 48 St. Urbain Street with Harry P. Wright of Ottawa and Arthur A. Browne. As well, there were five more of Osler's good friends from Ontario studying medicine with him. Osler lived near his church, the MGH, and the Medical School. The lower part of St. Urbain Street was typical of working class quarters of the nineteenth century in Montreal. The street was gravel with wooden sidewalks. It is only in 1875-76 that flagstone sidewalks were laid on some of the principal streets including Ste. Catherine, Dorchester, Sherbrooke, and Union.


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(5) McGill Medical School

McGill Medical School on Côté Street [1871]. Osler Library Archives, McGill University. From 1851 to 1872, the McGill Medical Faculty was housed on Côté Street, the street west of St. Urbain. The Palais des Congrès now stands in its location.

 


In 1852, the McGill University campus was on the outskirts of town. In order to be closer to the Montreal General Hospital, it was decided to move the McGill Medical School to a small brick building surrounded by a lawn on Côté Street. But when Osler arrived in Montreal in 1870, the city had grown, the streets were developed and the Medical School was in the process of moving back to the McGill campus. The final move occurred in 1872, after Osler's graduation. The part of Côté Street on which the Medical School stood disappeared with the construction of the Ville-Marie Expressway.

When Osler was attending the school, it was located next door to a famous theatre of the time, the Théâtre Royal. The authorities at McGill were nervous because of the proximity of their school to this theatre. In his Reminiscences, Shepherd wrote "How often we used to chuck our dissecting , which was then done in the evening from 8 till 10, and adjourn to the pit of the Theatre Royal at half price when anything good was on."

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(6) Ottawa Hotel

Ottawa Hotel [1874]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History. Osler attended events at this hotel on various occasions.

 


St. James Street was, in the nineteenth century, the Wall Street of Canada. All the financial institutions were there. On Saturday afternoons in winter, the street hosted crowds dressed in fur, walking along the street to see and to be seen. Near the corner of McGill Street there were restaurants and hotels like the Ottawa Hotel and the Terrapin where Osler usually dined - "In 1874-76, I dined (usually with Arthur Browne) at the Terrapin, St. James Street or at the Ottawa Hotel" (Cushing, p. 160). The building that was once the Ottawa Hotel is still there but is now occupied by stores and businesses. There was another restaurant, the Queens, which was located nearby. It was the location of "footing suppers" held by medical students. Every freshman had to pay his footing (a fixed sum) and the money collected was used to pay for the liquor and the flowers. The house surgeons of the hospital were invited and there were many speeches. Shepherd recollects that "These suppers however, became so disreputable and bibulous that it was determined to initiate temperance dinners."

When Osler's brother, financier Edmund Boyd Osler, visited Montreal, Osler often dined with him and his influential friends and business associates Donald A. Smith (later Lord Strathcona), R. B. Angus, Duncan McIntyre and George Stephen (later Lord Mount Stephen).

 

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(7) 20 Ste. Radegonde, Victoria Square

20 Ste. Radegonde, second house to the right of the YMCA on the corner, Victoria Square [1875]. A. Henderson, Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History. Osler's Office from 1874 to 1875.


Victoria Square was on the west side of the street, north of St. Antoine Street, which today is a green space just south of the Ville-Marie Expressway. The place had been a haymarket but by 1880 it had become a commercial centre. It was known by several names including Haymarket and Commissioners Square, before it became Victoria Square to commemorate the opening of the bridge in 1860. At the end of the nineteenth century, the square was considered "public breathing space". Osler's office was on the west side, the fourth address north of the YMCA. Osler took a room when he came back from Europe to work at McGill as Professor of the Institutes of Medicine. He did not however receive many patients there as he did not want to have a private practice.

 


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(8) 26 Beaver Hall Terrace

26 Beaver Hall Terrace, between Dorchester and Belmont [ca 1860]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History. Osler rented a room in a house on the right of the photo from 1875-1877.



Osler's room was in the fifth house above Belmont Street. At that time, the street was known as "the Harley Street of Canada". Osler wrote that in October 1875, he moved from Ste. Radegonde to 26 Beaver Hall Hill where he roomed with Mr. Thomas King, an Englishman. Many other doctors and colleagues had their offices on this street. Among them were William E. Scott, Professor of Anatomy; G. E. Fenwick, Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery; G. P. Girdwood, Professor of Practical Chemistry; Joseph Morley Drake, an emeritus professor; and Francis John Shepherd when he was a demonstrator of anatomy. T. G. Roddick also had an office there from 1878-81 (44 Beaver Hall) and Alexander D. Blackader, instructor in children's diseases, rented the same office in 1882.

The street was named after Beaver Hall, the residence of wealthy fur trader Joseph Frobisher. A plaque at 1089 Beaver Hall marks the spot.


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(9) 37 Beaver Hall Hill, Metropolitan Club

37 Beaver Hall Hill, Metropolitan Club [1891] in: Dominion Illustrated (Special Issue), Montreal, 1891, p.152. Osler became a member and attended regularly between 1875-1881.


The Metropoliton Club was just up and across the street from Osler's residence. Osler became a member during the fall of 1875 and was a frequent visitor for five or six years. He also belonged to a dining club composed of Roddick, Buller, Wilkins, A. A. Browne, Alloway, Blackader, Pettigrew, as well as William A. Molson, Shepherd, Ross, Macdonnell and Gardner, young practitioners whose lives centered on college and hospital life (Life and Times of F.J. Shepherd, p. 100). They gathered once a month and Osler's tendency for practical jokes enlivened their dinners.


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(10) The Montreal Veterinary College

[ca 1895]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.

"At the Veterinary School he was a great power and, aided by Duncan McEachern, F.R.V.C.S., he did much to introduce scientific methods of teaching at the same time improving his knowledge of comparative pathology."
Francis J. Shepherd in: "Sir William Osler; Memorial Number, Appreciations and Reminiscences" Montreal, 1926, p. 154.

Duncan McEachran, a graduate of Edinburgh Veterinary College,opened the Montreal Veterinary College in 1866. It was there that Veterinary Pathology was taught for the first time in North America. There was a close association with the Medical Faculty of McGill University. Eventually, the Montreal Veterinary College became formally affiliated with McGill University, as the Faculty of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Science. "Osler taught at the Veterinary College from 1876 to 1884. He applied Virchow's methods of autopsy technique and of scientific inquiry to the teaching of human and veterinary pathology. Osler also undertook investigations into various diseases of domestic animals, at the request of McEachran, who doubled as Chief Veterinary Inspector for the Dominion Department of Agriculture". Examples of these diseases include hog cholera, Pictou cattle disease, and the contagious character of Bovine Tuberculosis. James Bovell, Osler's mentor, had encouraged Osler to study internal parasites in the dissecting room of the Ontario Veterinary College. It was his first contact with veterinarians. Bovell "no doubt played a large part in forming Osler's ideas with regard to the ubiquity of disease in both man and animal" (Leon Z. Saunders). It was Osler and Wesley Mill's suggestion that the Veterinary College, on becoming a Faculty of McGill, be named "The Faculty of Comparative Medicine". Osler was deeply interested in comparative pathology and was Vice-President of the Montreal Veterinary Medical Association. The building at 1181 Union Street dates from about 1870.

 


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(11) Natural History Museum

[ca 1910]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.

"He also took a keen interest in the Natural History Society and in the Microscopical Club of Montreal. At the meeting of both he was a regular attendant and a frequent contributor."
A. D. Blackader in: "Sir William Osler; Memorial Number, Appreciations and Reminiscences" Montreal, 1926, p. 161-162.

Osler was a regular attendant of the Natural History Society of which he became a member in October 1874. He made frequent contributions to it, notably his long deferred paper on the "Canadian Fresh-water Polyzoa". Many of his colleagues were members; Principal Dawson of McGill was the President of the Society. It seems that at the time Osler joined the Natural History Society, "he looked upon his medical work more or less from the standpoint of a naturalist". He made much use of his microscope. With some younger members of the Society, he formed a "junior body of a combined scientific and social character", The Microscopical Club. He was made the first President and the meetings were held at the residences of the members. Duncan McEachran claimed that it was Osler's first introduction as a young man to Montreal social life.

The author Samuel Butler, when visiting Montreal, went to the Museum and wandered into the attic and found a statue of the naked Discus Thrower. It was stowed prudishly in a corner. It inspired one verse of his famous "Psalm of Montreal". When he asked why it was there, a taxidermist answered that it was vulgar because it had no clothes. And the taxidermist talked a lot and mentioned that his brother did all of Mr. Spurgeon's printing. (Mr. Spurgeon was one of London's most popular preachers). It inspired Butler to write a poem on what he thought was Montreal's cultural backwardness:

Stowed away in a Montreal lumber room
The discobolus standeth and turneth his face to the wall;
Dusty, cobweb-covered, maimed and set at naught,
Beauty crieth in an attic and no man regardeth;
0 God! 0 Montreal!

The discobolus is put here because he is vulgar
He has neither vest nor pants with which to cover his limbs;
I, Sir, am a person of most respectable connections
My brother-in-law is haberdasher to Mr. Spurgeon;
0 God! 0 Montreal!

In fact, many plaster casts of Greek statues were exhibited in the Natural History Museum in the beginning, but as the Society's collections grew, priority was given to specimens of natural history. The Natural History Society presented the statues to the Montreal Art Association when they built a museum in 1881, where the statues were displayed.


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(12) Union Avenue

Union Avenue [ca 1875], Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal. At 47 Union lived Robert Palmer Howard, Osler's mentor, teacher and colleague. George Ross, Osler's friend and colleague, also lived on Union at #49 .


47 Union Avenue - Robert Palmer Howard's House. Robert Palmer Howard was Osler's mentor in Montreal. Osler dedicated his textbook The Principles and Practice of Medicine to Palmer Howard, W. A. Johnson, and James Bovell. Palmer Howard taught the Theory and Practice of Medicine, becoming Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1882 and Chairman of the Medical Board. He was an attending physician to the MGH and an inspiring teacher whose lectures were always up to date. Osler considered him "an ideal teacher…I have never known one in whom was more happily combined a stern sense of duty with the mental freshness of youth" (The Student Life, 1905). Osler said "When in September, 1870, he (Bovell) wrote to me that he did not intend to return from the West Indies I felt I had lost a father and a friend; but in Robert Palmer Howard, of Montreal, I found a noble step-father, and to these two men, and to my first teacher, the Rev. W. A. Johnson, of Weston, I owe my success in life - if success means getting what you want and being satisfied with it." (Aequanimitas). Howard's library was always at Osler's disposal. They shared an interest in pathology. Osler was also very fond of Howard's children and took them under his wing after Mrs. Howard's death: Muriel married Dr. Eberts, surgeon at the MGH; Campbell, who was also Osler's godson and was the godfather of Revere, became a doctor and married Ottilie, daughter of Dr. Harry Wright of Ottawa (a match set up by Lady Osler); and Marjorie married Dr. T. B. Futcher (from the Johns Hopkins Hospital). Osler also maintained links with Jared, the son of R.P. Howard from his first marriage, who married the only child of Lord Strathcona. The Oslers entertained lifelong ties with them, and considered them as their own children, especially after Revere's death. Campbell Palmer Howard finished his career in Montreal as Professor of Medicine at McGill University and Physician-in-Chief at the Montreal General Hospital, positions which his father had once occupied.

49 Union Avenue - George Ross's House. George Ross, along with Francis J. Shepherd, was Osler's closest friend. Osler used to say that "as a young man in Montreal there were two doors I never passed - 47 and 49 Union Avenue - going up [Union Avenue] I called on Dr. Palmer Howard, and if he was not in or was engaged, I called on Dr. George Ross; going down, the reverse. Any growth in virtue as a practical clinician I owe to an intimate association with these two men, in whom were combined in rare measure enthusiasm and clear vision". Ross was house surgeon at the Montreal General Hospital and taught medical jurisprudence at McGill. He is said to have greatly influenced Osler. Shepherd wrote that "Osler, his great friend, owed much to Ross for his clinical methods". Ross was part of the Social Club. He travelled to London with Osler in 1878 to study clinical medicine. He died in 1892, aged only 47.

61 Union Avenue - William A. Molson's House. William A. Molson was Osler's colleague at the Montreal General Hospital and also a member of their social club which included Ross, Roddick, Buller, Rodger, Gardner, Alloway, Browne, Blackader, Pettigrew, and Shepherd. In 1879, Molson and Ross took on the editorship of the Canada Medical and Surgical Journal. Molson was the target of many of Osler's pranks. A famous hoax involved Osler submitting a fake article to the journal, signed Egerton Y. Davis, on native tribes of Great Slave Lake. It was not published. Molson (of the well-known brewing family) married Dr. Francis Shepherd's sister. Osler often visited them in their summer villa to Memphremagog.

Dr. Duncan MacCallum, Professor of Midwifery, was also Howard's neighbour. Many other doctors lived on Union Avenue, including Dr. Hingston, from the Hotel-Dieu and Dr. Gardner. There is a plaque for Jefferson Davis, the leader of the Confederate states on the Bay store which stands on the site of the house of Davis' friend John Lovell with whom he stayed while in Montreal.


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(13) 80 Union Avenue

80, Union Avenue, western corner of Burnside (now de Maisonneuve), House of Thomas Roddick in: H.E. MacDermot "Sir Thomas Roddick: his Work in Medicine and Public Life" Toronto, 1938, p. 80.Osler and Dr. James Stewart lived in Roddick's house while he was in Europe in 1883.


Roddick, who introduced Lister's antiseptic system to Montreal in 1877, bought this house in 1880 at the time of his marriage. In 1883, Osler and Dr. James Stewart lived together in Roddick's house while he was in Europe. Roddick continued to live there until 1906, when he moved to Sherbrooke Street on the occasion of his second marriage. But even then, he kept the house as his office and as a home for his sisters. Union Avenue from Ste. Catherine to Sherbrooke was one of the few streets to have flagstone sidewalks.


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(14) House on Ste. Catherine Street

[190]. Archives de la Banque Laurentienne. Osler lived immediately to the right of this house which was identical.

"He was then living with Dr. Buller on St.Catherine Street in the ordinarily built-in city house with a front and back room on each three floors, the back parlour on the first floor being Buller's consulting room, the front room a waiting room, used in the morning as a breakfast room. The second floor room was Osler's consulting room, library and office; the other rooms were used as bedrooms. Osler said that I was to become the third member of the family"
Edmund J.A. Rogers in: "Sir William Osler; Memorial Number, Appreciations and Reminiscences" Montreal, 1926, p. 167.

As it is today, Ste. Catherine St. was a commercial street, and many medical colleagues lived on it. Dr. Frank Buller, the ophthalmologist, was the landlord of the building. E.A.J. Rogers lived on the third floor and later George Cantlie and Henry Vine Ogden. The wife of the famous "King" Cook was their housekeeper. "King" Cook became the janitor of the McGill Medical School, and was well-known to staff and students for his conversations which were frequently interspersed with "me and the Dean". When Dr. Buller married and moved to Dorchester St., the ménage broke up.


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(15) 66 McGill College Avenue

66 McGill College Avenue [ca 1869], Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History. The house of Marian Osler Francis (W. W. Francis' mother) and Jennette Osler, his cousins.


This was the address of the Francis family. Osler's cousins Jennette Osler and Marian Osler Francis were the daughters of Edward Osler, an English surgeon and elder brother of William Osler's father. Marian was married to George G. Francis, an agent for the West Canada Mining Co. Almost everyday, Osler would join them for 5 o'clock tea. Marian had many children, among them Marian Osborn, the poet, and William Willoughby Francis, Osler's godson, who was one of the editors of the Bibliotheca Osleriana and the first librarian at the Osler Library. Marian was considered a very bright and intelligent woman. "Jennette was serious and highly intelligent while Marian was a sparkling beauty with an ebullient personality." Osler attended a lecture by Oscar Wilde with her in 1882. "Osler was indebted to both of them since Jennette trained him in the elements of literary style while Marian taught him the fundamentals of oratory." Osler lived there for a time after leaving 1351 Ste.Catherine.


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(16.1) McGill Campus

McGill Campus [1873-1880], Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.


The memorial gates were erected by Lady Roddick in 1925. (Sir Thomas Roddick died in 1923). In the 19th century, the Montreal Snow Shoe-Club (les Tuques Bleues) started their tour at the gates of McGill University, Members tramped across the campus, up McTavish, across Pine Avenue, then up the mountain path just west of Ravenscrag.

In the 1850's, the campus served as a pasture for cows before it was fenced. The main gates to the campus are visible at the right, front of the picture; the Roddick Gates had not yet been built. The trees on either side of the drive leading from the gates are today much larger and there are many more buildings on the campus. However, the Arts Building (in the centre of the picture) and the open grass on either side of the drive remain today.

 

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(16.2) McGill Harvard Football Game

[1875]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.
Montreal Cricket Club Grounds. 12 Nov., 1875

 


This grass area was the site of many football (i.e. soccer) games in which Osler took part while he was a student. "Football matches between medicine and arts were a yearly occurrence. Osler was always a member of our medical team. The game then was started by placing the ball in the centre of the field, and one from each team at a signal ran for the first kick. Our team always chose Osler and, moreover, he always reached the ball first" (J.B. McConnell). His athletic activities were curtailed by osteomyelitis in a tibia following an injury.


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(16.3) McGill Medical Building (on the campus)

Medical building on campus [1890-1900]. Osler Library Archives, McGill University.

 


In 1872, McGill erected a building just east of the Arts Building for the Faculty of Medicine. The University being no longer out in the country, the Faculty of Medicine decided to return to the campus. The building had a neo-Classical facade and was built of Montreal limestone. This is where Osler began his brilliant career as a teacher. Osler organized the first class of histology at McGill. It was a voluntary class, held on Saturday afternoons in the cloak-room in the basement of the medical building.

1907 was a tragic year for McGill as two fires occurred. On April 5th, the Macdonald Engineering Building burned down and the April 16th fire destroyed the building of the Faculty of Medicine. The only part to survive, still used today as part of the James building, was an addition constructed in 1894. Lord Strathcona, always a friend to the University, offered to erect a new building on a new site - the Strathcona Medical Building. Later, in 1922, a new Biology Building was erected on the site of the original building. In 1965, the Department of Biology moved and the building was renovated and became the James Administration Building.

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(16.4) McGill Medical Building (on the campus)

Medical Building [ca. 1873]. McGill Archives, McGill University.

 

 


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(16.5) The Medical Library

Medical Library [ca 1898]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.

"the Medical Library of McGill University became Osler's first love, his interest in it having begun during his student days."
Jean Cameron, based on an article by Dr. John Ruhrah in: "Sir William Osler; Memorial Number, Appreciations and Reminiscences" Montreal, 1926, p. 200.


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(16.6) Medical Building, exhibits of pathology

Medical Museum [ca 1901]. Osler Library Archives, McGill University.

"The museum had been from the first the repository of cherished specimens obtained by early members of the [McGill Medical] School..., and its contents had been largely augmented by Dr. Osler himself, during his period as Pathologist to the Montreal General Hospital."

Maude E. Abbott in: "Sir William Osler; Memorial Number, Appreciations and Reminiscences", Montreal, 1926, p. 195.



Additional Images and information

 

The Osler Library, originally in the Strathcona Building

McGill Archives. McGill University.

 

 


The new Strathcona Medical Building, designed by David Brown and Hugh Vallance, opened in 1909. "The Faculty of Medicine was, and still is, one of the most revered at McGill and to reflect this Lord Strathcona insisted on a design in which no detail was ignored. Because Medicine had close connections with the Royal Victoria Hospital, the layout of the building mirrored the main entrance and wings of the Hospital across the street." Osler visited the building in June 1909. The building later housed the first Osler library. Osler having wished that his bequest to McGill should be catalogued before it left Oxford, "McGill had ample time to prepare for its accomodation by the construction of an elegant room. ...One of Canada's best-known architects, Percy Nobbs, undertook the design. Lady Osler was consulted at virtually every turn." On May 29th, 1929, the Osler Library was officially opened. After the McIntyre Medical Building was erected in 1965, the Osler Library was moved, piece by piece, and installed in its south wing.

 


Royal Victoria Hospital

[ca 1894]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.


The Royal Victoria Hospital owes its existence to Sir George Stephen (Lord Mount Stephen) and Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona). These two men were among the Scottish immigrants who became prosperous in Montreal. Smith made his fortune in the fur trade, railways and finance and Stephen in dry goods, flour mills, and railways. Later the two men, who were cousins, became involved in railway construction. The two wealthy citizens of Montreal, in commemoration of the golden jubilee of the Queen, jointly made a donation of one million dollars for a new hospital in Montreal, the Royal Victoria Hospital which opened in 1893. Robert Palmer Howard, Osler's mentor, was George Stephen's family physician and also a close friend of Donald Smith. (Howard's son Jared married in 1888 Smith's only child.) Robert Palmer Howard was Dean of Medicine and advised on the project until his death in 1889. The hospital was designed in the Scottish Baronial Style.

 


Buildings on McGill Campus

[ca 1895]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.


Clockwise from the bottom, left: Redpath Museum, Redpath Hall (once the main library, now used for concerts), Macdonald Engineering Building (destroyed in 1907 by fire), Arts Building, Macdonald Experimental Physics Building (where Rutherford carried out his research into radioactivity; today the building is used by the Faculty of Engineering); Physical Sciences and Engineering Library; Medical Building (destroyed in 1907 by fire).


Osler at McGill, 1905

[December 18, 1906]. McGill Archives. McGill University
Clinic at the Royal Victoria Hospital

 

 

 


The Square Mile

Cushing notes that Osler admired the Scots and was fond of them : "They are the backbone of Canada" (Cushing, p.283). The residents of the Square Mile "were English, Irish, a sprinkling of Americans and a few French Canadian and Jewish families, but the majority were Scots, who formed a commercial clique as strong as any in Glasgow or Edinburgh. A typical early millionaire living in what came to be known as the 'Square Mile' was a Scottish Presbyterian who had left school at the legal age of fourteen, apprenticed himself to a business house, risen to the top largely through Calvinistic determination, invested in new railways and shipping, and served on the board of the Bank of Montreal, which became something of a finishing school for commercial talent" (Donald Mackay, The Square Mile, p.7). "Ravenscrag, built by shipping magnate Hugh Allan in 1863, was a center for Square Mile Society for more than six decades and home to successive governors-general when they came to Montreal" (The Square Mile, p. 149). Mount Royal Park was designed (around 1876) by the best landscape architect in North America at that time, Frederick Law Olmsted of Boston. He previously had laid out Central Park in New York and the White House grounds in Washington. The perimeter of Montreal's Square Mile extends from Sherbrooke Street to the south slope of Mount Royal and from McTavish to Cote-des-Neiges.


View from Mont Royal

[1866]. Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum of Canadian History.

 


The field below Pine avenue near the Royal Victoria Hospital hides the water of the reservoir beneath. The picture shows Montreal before the reservoir was covered. The St. Lawrence River and South Shore are visible in the centre of the picture.

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