University of Western Ontario

History

The university was founded in 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth of the Anglican Diocese of Huron as "The Western University of London Ontario." It incorporated Huron College, which had been founded in 1863. The first four faculties were Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine, and there were originally only 15 students when classes began in 1881. The first of these students graduated in 1883. In 1916 the current site of the university was purchased from the Kingsmill family, and in 1923 the name of the university was changed to its present form. The first two buildings constructed at the new site were the Arts Building (now University College) and the Natural Science Building (now the Physics and Astronomy Building). These were built in a neo-Gothic or "Collegiate Gothic" style. The University College tower, one of the most distinctive features of the university, was named the Middlesex Memorial Tower in honour of the men from Middlesex County who had fought in World War I (all 40 male students at the university in 1914 had enlisted). Classes on the present site began in 1924.

Related Topics:
1878 - Bishop Isaac Hellmuth - 1863 - 1881 - 1883 - 1916 - 1923 - Neo-Gothic - Middlesex County - World War I - 1914 - 1924

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Although enrolment was low for many years, after World War II the university began to increase greatly in size, and by the 1970s 10% of university students in Ontario were enrolled at UWO. After World War II, the university saw the addition of new faculties such as the Faculty of Graduate Studies (1947), the School of Business Administration (now the Richard Ivey School of Business) (1949), the Faculty of Engineering Science (1957), the Faculty of Law (1959), and Althouse College for Education students (1963).

Related Topics:
World War II - 1970s - 1947 - Richard Ivey School of Business - 1949 - 1957 - 1959 - 1963

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Other notable buildings on campus include Thames Hall (built in 1950), the Stevenson-Lawson Building (built in 1959), Middlesex College (with its clock tower, another distinctive feature of the university, built in 1960), Talbot College (built in 1966), Alumni Hall (built in 1967), the University Campus of the London Health Sciences Centre, the John P. Robarts Research Institute, the Lawson Health Research Institute, the D.B. Weldon Library, the John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, the University Community Centre, the Social Science Centre, and T.D. Waterhouse Stadium (built in 2001). There is also the Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory, built in 1940 as the first observatory at a Canadian university, and named after the grandfather of actor Hume Cronyn. The McIntosh Memorial Art Gallery was built in 1942, and is now the oldest university art gallery in Canada.

Related Topics:
1950 - 1959 - 1960 - 1966 - 1967 - John P. Robarts - Labatt - 2001 - 1940 - Hume Cronyn - 1942

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The school colours are white and purple (often mistakenly reported as 'purple and white'), and the school's motto is Veritas et utilitas, meaning Truth and usefulness.

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