19th-century McGill University student publication available online

McGill University has digitized 107 issues of its student publication, the McGill Gazette, from 1874 to 1890, starting with Vol. 1 No. 4, published January 1, 1874.

The McGill Gazette is currently the university’s oldest serial in its digitized student publications collection. The semi-monthly publication is available on the Internet Archive and is full text searchable within each issue.

McGill University Gazette Vol6 No1_November 1 1882The McGill Gazette was published by undergraduates who received tales, essays, and all suitable literary matter from university men.

Social history of university life
This series of student publications offers a view of the social history of university students at the time.

If one of your ancestors attended McGill and you have an idea of when, it is worth browsing issues from that period to acquire a sense of what pre-occupied students. Even the advertisements provide insight. For example, one ad lists the cost of shirts, collars, and ties.

Don’t expect to find mention of any female ancestors in the first ten years of the McGill Gazette. Women were not allowed to attend class at McGill until 1884. An editorial in the January 1, 1885 issue comments on the women’s performance in the exams. Here are the opening lines:

Ladies First.
We heartily congratulate the ladies upon the success which has attended their first examination in McGill. That success was not wholly unexpected, it is only another evidence of the effect of concentration and industry. Our lazy Freshmen may well take a lesson from their rivals.

Personals
While you will not find many student and faculty names in the McGill Gazette, the Personals may contain information that will be useful to your research, and you may be one of the very lucky ones. Here is an example of some of the information available in the Personals in the November 1, 1882 issue:

Weir, ’82, Law, is at present in Switzerland.
Mr. A.W. Martin, ’82, has gone to Harvard to study theology.
A.D. Struthers, ’81, medicine is practising in Frelighsburg, P.Q.
J.H. Burland, ’82, Ap. Sc., has gone into business with his father in the city.

McGill Student Publications digital collection
Digitzing the McGill Gazette has been part of a large project to showcase the material published by McGill students. The university’s library students have digitized and uploaded all of the issues of the McGill Daily, the McGill (University) Gazette (1873-1890), the McGill Fortnightly (1892-1898), the McGill Outlook (1898-1907), the McGill Fortnightly Review (1925-1926), and the McGilliad (1930-1931). Soon to be offered online will be the (McGill) Martlet (1908-1911).

These publications are available on the McGill Student Publications digital collection that contains almost 10,000 issues of student publications, from 1874 to 2014.

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