Did you know that UTARMS has…
- 11,000+ metres of paper records (that’s more than 31,000 banker’s boxes)
- 200,000+ photographs and negatives
- 100+ oral histories recording the personal memories of senior administrative staff, faculty, and students
- thousands of architectural plans and drawings of university buildings
- digitized 57,000+ pages of print material, including yearbooks, president’s reports and other university publications (available at archive.org)
- the original University Charter from 1827
- Masters theses from 1897-1989 and Doctoral theses from 1900-1985
- The papers of influential members of the university, including Harold Innis, Ursula Franklin, C.B. MacPherson, C.P. Stacey, Helen Hogg, Harry Cassidy, James Loudon, J. Tuzo Wilson, George Wrong, Samuel Hollander and Donald Coxeter
Visit Discover Archives, a shared platform across University of Toronto Libraries, to explore descriptions and finding aids of holdings from our collection.
University records
More than 60% of our holdings consist of the university’s administrative records. This material documents the day-to-day operations of the University of Toronto, the founding of the university and its development since 1827, and the work of administrators, staff and students in the various academic divisions of the university. This material is used for historical research, but also supports university administration and promotes accountability.
For more information on managing and transferring university records, see Records Management.
Private records
The Archives has the private papers of more than 1000 individuals and groups affiliated with the U of T, including faculty, alumni and student organizations. These papers document teaching, research, learning and extracurricular activities of the university’s prominent members and groups.
For information on making a donation to the Archives, see Donations.
University publications & theses
The Archives holds an extensive collection of university publications such as yearbooks, calendars, annual reports, newsletters, departmental handbooks and student newspapers. Early calendars and student registers dating back to 1845 are widely used to trace staff and students as well as course curricula. The Archives also has a complete set of Torontonensis, the University yearbook published from 1898 to 1966. The Archives holds Masters theses from 1897 to 1989 and Doctoral theses from 1900 to 1985.
Please note: Most theses are held off-site and require 2-3 business days to retrieve. Please contact us ahead of your visit to arrange for the theses' retrieval.
For more recent theses, see the University of Toronto's research repository, T-Space.