Unidentified man walks on pathway in front of Thorvaldson Building.

Looking north at Thorvaldson Building; cars parked in front.

Looking north at Thorvaldson Building.

View from the south of Chemistry (Thorvaldson) Building, Administration Building, Saskatchewan Hall, Qu'Appelle Hall and the Bowl.

E.M. (Ted) Culliton, University Chancellor, drawing back a curtain from a plaque fixed to an easel. Dignitaries seated behind him.

Bio/Historical Note: The Chemistry Building was enlarged with an addition and was renamed in honour of Dr. Thorbergur Thorvaldson, professor and dean of Chemistry from 1919-1959. The Thorvaldson Building opened on 6 June 1966. Architect John B. Parkin’s modern design continued with exterior stone cladding. The near windowless, stone three-storey addition provided classrooms, undergraduate and research laboratories, offices, a library and service facilities.

J.W.T. Spinks, University President, greets Dr. Edith C. Rowles Simpson, Dean of Home Economics, at official opening of the Thorvaldson Building.

Bio/Historical Note: The Chemistry Building was enlarged with an addition and was renamed in honour of Dr. Thorbergur Thorvaldson, professor and dean of Chemistry from 1919-1959. The Thorvaldson Building opened on 6 June 1966. Architect John B. Parkin’s modern design continued with exterior stone cladding. The near windowless, stone three-storey addition provided classrooms, undergraduate and research laboratories, offices, a library and service facilities.

View looking south of rear of National Research Council building. Crop Science and Field Husbandry building at left; Physical Education visible at right.

Bio/Historical Note: In 1916 the National Research Council legislation was enacted and the institution was formed with the mandate to advise the government on matters of science and industrial research. For the first 15 or 16 years of its existence the NRC consisted of offices and borrowed lab space. It launched Canada’s first research journal, “Canadian Journal of Research” and funded research for human and bovine tuberculosis – a significant domestic problem in the 1920s. In 1932, NRC’s first dedicated lab was built in Ottawa. The NRC established a laboratory on the east side of the University of Saskatchewan campus in 1948. The original purpose of the facility was to “use chemistry and biology to diversify Canadian agriculture.” Originally called the “Prairie Regional Lab” then the “Plant Biotechnology Institute,” the facility is now known as “NRC Saskatoon.”