Posed winter image of participants of the Rama, Saskatchewan, agricultural short course; group standing in front of building.

Bio/Historical Note: Walter C. Murray, University President, saw that the College of Agriculture would keep the university close to the life of the people. Between 1909-1912, before they had teaching space, the agriculture faculty developed the agriculture farm and traveled doing extension work, most significantly, with the Better Farming Train. The Saskatchewan Minister of Agriculture, W.R. Motherwell, supported extension work with tax revenue funds. In October 1912, the first agriculture class was taught. Both a 3-year associate course and a degree course were available. In 1937 the associate program became the School of Agriculture. The school responded to local farming problems by teaching and research and with new departments directed to these areas.

Head and shoulders image of John H. Fraser, Department of Chemistry, 1929-1943.

Bio/Historical Note: John Haddon Fraser was born in 1893 in Pictou, Nova Scotia and received his early education at Pictou Academy. His family moved to Saskatchewan in 1913 and attended the Normal School in Saskatoon. He taught at Vonda, D'Arcy, Rosthern and Birch Hills schools until received a BSc and Governor General's Gold Medal in 1929. He earned a MSc in 1932 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1932.

Bio/Historical Note: John Haddon Fraser was born in 1893 in Pictou, Nova Scotia and received his early education at Pictou Academy. His family moved to Saskatchewan in 1913 and he attended the Normal School in Saskatoon. Fraser taught at Vonda, D'Arcy, Rosthern and Birch Hills schools in Saskatchewan. He enrolled in the U of S and received a BSc and Governor General's Gold Medal in 1929. Fraser earned an MSc in 1932 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry that same year. Fraser died in Saskatoon in 1943 at age 50.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. Ray Frey, College of Engineering, 1925-1945.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Raymond Philip Frey earned his BE in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan in 1925, and later earned his MSc in Engineering at the University of Iowa. Dr. Frey was professor of Agricultural Engineering at the U of S from 1925-1945. Dr. Frey and Professor Evan Hardy, professor of Engineering, made history in the fields of lubrication of internal combustion engines and in tillage. After leaving the U of S, he then served as manager of farm sales for Imperial Oil at Islington, Ontario. Dr. Frey was president of the Computer Science and Application Engineering organization on two occasions. He was made an honourary life member of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Graduates Association. Dr. Frey died 2 December 1991 at St. Thomas, Ontario, at age 89.

Head and shoulders image of Jean G. Bayer, Department of English, 1915-1945, and assistant professor, 1921-1945.

Bio/Historical Note: Jean Gordon Bayer joined the staff of the university in 1909 as President Walter Murray's secretary. Bayer previously had been his secretary at Dalhousie University. She arrived in Saskatoon in time to witness the registration of the first students. She was the President’s secretary, university librarian, and unofficial adviser to students. Bayer helped choose the university colours and motto, and was one of the founders of the Pente Kai Deka Society. In 1915, due to staff shortages caused by the Great War, Bayer was appointed Instructor in English. She proved so effective she was encouraged to continue, and took a year of study at Bedford College, London, prior to being formally appointed to the faculty. Like Murray, “she possessed a wide vision of the function of a university and, like him, she…dedicated herself to Saskatchewan.” “A most kindly guide” to her students, “many caught their first glimpse of what a literary ‘salon’ of the great days might have been in the genial atmosphere of tea and literature in her book-lined suite. She was a most loyal and cooperative colleague….She made it seem an easy thing to be happy and brave.” When Bayer returned from London in 1921 she was named Assistant Professor of English, a rank rarely held by women in that period. Bayer retained the post until her death in 1945. A scholarship in her name is available to a student who has completed at least two years of university studies.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. John Allan Macdonald, first Professor of French, 1910-1939.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. John Allan Macdonald was born at Rock Barra, Souris, Prince Edward Island. He was educated at Prince of Wales College at Charlottetown, PEI. He earned a BA at Laval (1898) and an MA at Harvard (1907). Dr. Macdonald was the first professor of French at the University of Saskatchewan (1910-1939).
After World War I a plague descended on the University in the form of the Spanish influenza pandemic. In response, when the city took the step of turning Emmanuel College into an emergency hospital, a number of university women immediately volunteered to nurse the sick. They did so under the direction of Mrs. John Allan Macdonald, a nurse.
In April 1926 a group of Saskatoon Catholic laity, including Dr. Macdonald, formed a group called the Newman Society, to work actively for the creation of a Catholic college for the recently established University of Saskatchewan. Through a land transfer in the 1920s, four building lots on campus owned by Dr. Macdonald were resold to the Roman Catholic Church. In due course, these lots became the home of St. Thomas More College. Dr. Macdonald authored the book Introduction to French. ‘Macdonald Crescent’ in Greystone Heights in Saskatoon is named in his honour.

Group photo of club members sitting and standing on grass, with trees in background.

Group photo of club members sitting and standing in front of long building at Lloydminster, Saskatchewan.

Head and shoulders image of Frank E. Riches, Business Manager, 1921-1942. Signature at bottom of image.

Bio/Historical Note: Frank E. Riches was the business manager at the University of Saskatchewan from 1921 to 1942, during those inter-war years when the institution was developing rapidly. To him fell the responsibility of establishing a.business routine that could match and at the same time regulate that growth. He set up the University Bookstore and the post office. He instituted a budgeting system for all university departments. Riches died in Ontario in 1968.

Image of Alexander Campbell, director of Pharmacy from 1914-1923, and first dean from 1923-1928, wearing a suit and tie and standing on a shore.

Bio/Historical Note: Alexander Campbell's association with the University of Saskatchewan began in 1913 as professor of Pharmacy. The Saskatchewan Pharmaceutical Association had been the first in Canada to request the education of its members be under the direction of a university and twenty-one students enrolled when the School of Pharmacy was first established in January 1914. By 1921 the School had become a College and in 1922 Campbell became the first dean of Pharmacy. Enrolment had increased substantially every year; and Campbell, there since the school’s inception, had taught a majority of the classes even as faculty numbers increased. The College of Pharmacy as it existed in 1927 was largely Campbell’s creation. Remarkably, he had joined the University at age 62 – but “no one,” Walter C. Murray wrote, had “ever associated age with the active veteran of the rebellion of 1885.” Indeed, Campbell had been part of the 7th Fusiliers from London, Ontario, called into active service on 1 April 1885. By the time they had made the trip west the Northwest Resistance was over: the 7th Fusiliers left for their return journey to Ontario in mid-July without ever having seen combat. Campbell had done pencil sketches at the time and later turned these into watercolours, with a narrative of his service: An Account of the Advances of the 7th Fusiliers of London to aid in the suppression of the North West Rebellion of 1885. Following his retirement in 1928 Campbell moved to Victoria, where he died in [1943 at the age of 91]. The Saskatchewan Pharmaceutical Association established the Campbell Prize in his honour.

Dr. Evan A. Hardy [standing with measuring stick], head, Agricultural Engineering, testing the depth of water erosion; four men observe testing.

Looking northeast at the Physics Building.

Bio/Historical Note: The Physics Building was constructed by Smith Bros. & Wilson General Contractors from 1919 to 1921 for $437,000, and was designed by D. R. Brown and H. Vallance. It was officially opened in 1922. The building originally housed the Departments of Physics, Botany and Zoology, the Plant-pathology section of the Dominion Department of Agriculture, as well as the soils branch of the Canadian Department of the Interior. The Physics Building possessed non-vibratory walls, laboratories for Electricity and Magnetism, Light, Electron Physics, wireless work, a number of smaller research rooms, a dark room and a large lecture theatre, which was quickly put to use by many different colleges. The attic of the building was used as a temporary museum, with meteorological recording equipment situated on the roof. The basement was fitted with offices and classrooms, as well as with two fireproofed rooms containing the Shortt Library of Canadiana. During the 1946-1947 academic term a Physics Annex was "constructed" on campus at a cost of $46,000. Built initially to accommodate the Betatron, the Annex was a World War II air force hut that was reassembled on campus. After the completion of the Betatron Building in 1951 the annex was used to provide “temporary” classroom space for the department. Though scheduled to be demolished after the completion of the Physics Addition in 1967, the annex would remain on campus until it was destroyed in fire on 28 April 1979. A proper addition to the Physics Building was finally completed in 1967 by W.C. Wells Construction for $2,029,876.

Display of agricultural items and educational posters. Including plants, model Silo, equipment, and posters on butter, cows, and other dairy products.

Head and shoulders image of Dr. George H. Ling, first dean of Arts and Science, 1909-1939.

Bio/Historical Note: George Herbert Ling (1874-1942) was born in Wallacetown, Ontario and obtained BA, (Toronto), PhD (Columbia), and ad eundem (Saskatchewan) degrees. He was the lone professor of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Saskatchewan from 1910-1915. During this time he also took on secretarial duties. Ling was Dean of the College of Arts & Science from 1912-1939, director of summer school from 1919-1937, and remained with the mathematics department until 1939. Ling also served as Acting President of the University in 1919-1920. He helped make the summer school one of the best in Canada. Ling taught in summer sessions at Columbia, Cincinnati, New York, and California. He served as a Chairman of the Saskatchewan Educational Council, and was a member of many academic societies American Mathematical Society, Mathematical Association of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ling co-wrote a book on projective geometry, and contributed to scholastic journals. Well respected and much loved by students and associates, Ling believed that the Faculty of Arts & Science was the root of any university, and strived to strengthen these roots. Ling retired in 1938 was awarded an honourary Doctor of Laws degree by the University in 1939. Ling died in Toronto in 1942.