Christina Murray and friends at the President's Residence, prior to University of Saskatchewan convocation ceremonies, 1917; no other individuals are identified.

Head and shoulders image of Lucy Murray.

Bio/Historical Note: Born in 1902 in Nova Scotia, Lucy Hunter Murray was the second daughter of Walter C. Murray, the University of Saskatchewan's first president, and Christina Cameron Murray. Lucy Murray received her BA at the University of Saskatchewan in 1923 and her MA from the University of Toronto in 1925. Then followed a B.Ed. degree in 1933 at the University of Saskatchewan where she received the McColl scholarship in 1933. Murray earned a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1935. She joined the Regina College's department of English in 1936 and was an Associate Professor there at the time of her death in 1967. Murray was given the Cliff Shaw Memorial Award for her contributions to the Blue Jay, the journal of the Saskatchewan Natural History Society.

Looking northeast at the J.S. Fulton Lab.

Bio/Historical Note: The Virus Laboratory Building was constructed from 1947-1948, and was designed by the architectural firm of Webster and Gilbert. It was located on what is now a grassy area in front of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine. The construction of the building was financed with proceeds from the sale of the equine encephalomyelitis vaccine. The disease equine encephalomyelitis, more commonly known as "sleeping sickness," first appeared in Saskatchewan in 1935. It recurred in 1937 and 1938, when it killed an estimated 13,000 to 15,000 horses. The vaccine was developed by Dr. Fulton in the late 1930s while he was still head of the Veterinary Sciences Department, and was first sold by the University in 1939. While commercial production companies in the United States were selling a similar vaccine for $1.80 per dosage, the University undersold them at 75 cents – which accounted for all the funding available for construction. Dr. Fulton also demonstrated that a human disease previously diagnosed as non-paralytic poliomyelitis was in fact caused by the same virus, at which time he produced a vaccine for humans. Demolition of the J.S. Fulton Virus Laboratory was completed in 1989.

Exterior view of St. Andrew's College on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

Progress shot of construction of the most westerly gate of the Memorial Gates. Thorvaldson (Chemistry) Building in background.

Bio/Historical Note: The Memorial Gates are a military memorial that is part of the University campus. Sixty-seven University students and faculty lost their lives while on service during World War I. The impact of the war on the University was immense: 330 students and faculty served during the War, a number equivalent to nearly all of the students who had registered the year prior to the beginning of the conflict. The desire to honor the staff and students who had fallen during the Great War was strong within the University community. As early as August 1918, 3 months prior to the formal Armistice, University President Walter C. Murray began making enquiries into the cost of a suitable memorial. What was settled upon were gates made of solid bronze, imported from England; the remainder, made of local greystone. Architect David R. Brown estimated the cost of what would come to be known as the Memorial Gates to be $30,000, with an additional $10,000 required for the memorial. The cement work was done by Richard J. Arrand in 1927-1928. A concerted fundraising effort among students and alumni helped cover the costs. The Memorial Gates were unveiled by President Murray and dedicated by the Bishop of Saskatchewan on 3 May 1928. A stone tablet, positioned between the bronze gates, bears the inscription: "These are they who went forth from this University to the Great War and gave their lives that we might live in freedom." For many years after, the site was used for the university’s Remembrance Day services at which wreaths are still laid every November 11th. These Gates were originally the entrance gates to campus and flanked University Drive. In the 1980s, due to increased traffic to the southwest portion of the campus, primarily Royal University Hospital, a new road entrance was built to the west. The gates remain, with the remnant of University Drive passing through them renamed Memorial Crescent. The gates are now primarily used by pedestrians, though the roadway is open to vehicles.

Students dancing and drinking at Louis' Pub in the Memorial Union Building.

Bio/Historical Note: The Memorial Union Building (MUB) has the distinction of being the last building in the centre of campus designed in the collegiate gothic style and completely clad in greystone. It was designed to serve as a memorial to the students, faculty and staff of the University of Saskatchewan who perished overseas in the First and Second World Wars. The Upper MUB has been transformed several times since its formal opening on 11 Nov. 1955. It has been used as a student lounge, concert venue, pub, bookstore and coffee shop. It has hosted receptions, fashion shows, beauty and air guitar contests, club meetings, dances and political debates. During the 1945-1946 academic year a Students’ Union Building Committee was formed. The Committee outlined proposals for the new building, which included an auditorium, a ballroom, lounge rooms, a tuck shop and student offices, all for a cost of $600,000. A brief on the Committee’s findings and proposals was later presented to the Board of Governors of the University, which created a $100,000 sinking fund for construction of the building and student fees were raised $4 to raise an additional $200,000. The MUB formally opened on 11 November 1955. It was used primarily for student functions including dancing, card-playing, chess, and studying, though it never became the hub of student activities it was originally intended to be. Included in the original furnishings was a generous supply of ashtrays. In 1957 a Board of Directors was established to operate the MUB, and to promote social, cultural and recreational activities and programs for the students, faculty and alumni of the University of Saskatchewan. Due to the surge in enrolment at the University of Saskatchewan during the 1960s the student body quickly outgrew the building. Though the MUB had been designed to accommodate expansion to the south, by the 1964-1965 academic year the Students’ Union recognized the need for facilities much more extensive than even expansion could provide. As a result plans for what would eventually be the Place Riel Student Centre were born. In 1980 renovations to the MUB were completed as part of Phase III of the Place Riel Project. The renovations were designed by Ferguson Folstad Friggstad, and were completed by Bennett and White Construction. They included the demolition and removal of portions of the building, structural alterations, interior renovations including the refitting of Louis’ Pub, improvements to the elevator, and alterations and renovations to the pedestrian tunnel connected to the residences. The renovations cost $1.7 million. In 1983 an elevator was installed in the MUB for $143,600 and ramps for disabled access were constructed by Cana Construction. These improvements were designed by the Friggstad architectural firm. A 1985 renovation to the building was also designed by Friggstad. The renovations were performed by Haig Construction for $124,725. In March 2001 the Upper MUB was renovated as part of a planned relocation of the Browsers used bookstore. Included in the renovations was a snack and beverage bar as well as public access computers for Internet usage. The entire store is centred around the original war memorial, and the renovations have returned the space to its original purpose as a comfortable lounge for students.” The new Browsers opened its doors in late August 2001. During the summer of 2002 Louis’ Pub, located in the basement of the MUB, was also renovated, by contractors PCL Maxam. The renovations were designed by the architectural firm of Saunders Evans, and were performed by PCL Maxam for $5.25 million. The newly renovated Louis’ was opened in October 2002.

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.

Formal/Studio portrait of R.J. St. Arnaud, Professor, Department of Soil Science.

Formal/Studio portrait of R.J. St. Arnaud, Professor, Saskatchewan Institute of Pedology (Soil Science).

Formal/Studio portrait of R.J. St. Arnaud, Associate Professor, Department of Soil Science.

The original veterinary laboratory, the Veterinary Hygiene Building shortly after its construction; it was in use until its demolition in 1969.

Members of the Shuttleworth Mathematical Society.

Bio/Historical Note: The Shuttleworth Mathematical Society was designed to give students interested in mathematics an opportunity to meet in an informal setting, and was open to all students who had completed one math class and were registered in a second. The Society was originally formed in November 1916 as the University Mathematical Society. It was renamed in honour of Roy Eugene Shuttleworth, a brilliant honours student who had been the first president of the organization. Shuttleworth was born in 1896 in Leavenworth, Washington. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Saskatchewan. He joined the Army in the spring of 1917 and served as a private with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment). Shuttleworth died in combat during World War I on 26 August 1918 at Vimy Ridge, France. His name is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial. The society has been inactive for many years.

Looking northwest across the Bowl at the Geology Building under construction.

Bio/Historical Note: The construction of the Geology Building marked a return to the early style of campus architecture. The Department of Geology had been formed in 1927 and for the next six decades was based in the east wing of the Engineering Building. A growing faculty and student population had forced the department to cobble together makeshift accommodation in trailers and remote campus buildings. Designed by the architectural firm Black, McMillan and Larson of Regina, the building was given a neo-Collegiate Gothic exterior to blend harmoniously with the other buildings in the central campus. The two-and-a-half-storey building was erected just south or the Bowl side of the W.P. Thompson Biology Building, providing 8,543 square metres for office, laboratory, library, classroom, and storage space for rock and fossil samples. The exterior was clad with greystone and dressed with tyndal limestone. The dominant feature of the interior was a two-story atrium that featured the mosaics for the former exterior walls of the Thompson Building, a life-size skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex and geological and biological displays. The $18.5 million Geology Building was completed in 1988 and fused the space between Physics and Biology and linked, through a walkway, with Chemistry, creating an integrated science complex on campus.

View looking northwest of the Livestock Pavilion; blurry piece of machinery visible in foreground.

Bio/Historical Note: The Livestock Pavilion, one of the five original campus buildings, was designed by Brown and Vallance and constructed between 1910-1912. Built of red brick, slate and translucent glass panels (some of which could be opened for ventilation), it included a large show arena with seating. The Pavilion had a slaughter room and cold storage for the butchery courses. It was demolished in 1986.

Ice jammed against the pier of the Traffic Bridge (off 19th St.); with the Bessborough Hotel in the background. Note the candled ice, dust cover, and flotsam. Spring breakup, Saskatoon, SK.