In 1860, the number of students in Arts, Law and Science had increased to one hundred and five, of whom sixty were in Arts. It had been previously decided that when the students in Arts should exceed fifty, the original College buildings should again be wholly occupied. They had meanwhile undergone extensive repairs. The College grounds were now taking on some semblance of order as a result of trees and walks and clearings. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1860 the classes in Arts, Science and Law were moved back to the buildings which had been practically abandoned eight years before. The centre building was used for classes; the east wing was given up to rooms for the Principal and some of the professors and students. The erection of a third building, corresponding with the east wing, was then undertaken through the generosity of William Molson. It provided for a convocation hall above, and a library below. It was formally opened in 1862, and is known as the William Molson Hall. Through the efforts of Mrs. Molson the three buildings were soon afterwards connected into one, by intervening structures, and the Arts building as we know it was completed. One of the connecting structures was used first as a museum; the other as a Chemical and Natural Science room and laboratory. The museum received at once a portion of the Principal's own collection of specimens, and others purchased by the Principal from his own resources. Later Dr. Carpenter's valuable collection of shells was added, and the whole furnished the nucleus for the present Peter Redpath Museum. The Science room and laboratory were used for chemistry and assaying. It was there, in small rooms and with but scanty equipment, that Dr. Harrington later laid the foundations for the departments of Chemistry and Mining which were subsequently to contribute so largely to the industrial development of Canada. The Library in Molson Hall had room for twenty thousand volumes, but when it was opened the College possessed only two thousand books. These, however, formed the nucleus for the Peter Redpath Library.
During the following years the expansion of the University was steady. It is unnecessary here to describe its growth in detail and only outstanding additions to its equipment can be mentioned. The deeper interest of graduates in their University was manifested in the formation of a Graduates' Society by a small number of McGill men resident in Montreal. Greater co-operation with the smaller colleges in the Province was effected, and St. Francis College, Richmond, and Morrin College, Quebec, were affiliated with the University. Theological schools established by the various Protestant denominations were erected in the shadow of the University and were granted affiliation. The Congregational College was affiliated in 1865; it was followed by the Presbyterian College in 1873, the Wesleyan College in 1876, and the Diocesan College in 1880. Speaking of the connection of the Theological Colleges with McGill, Principal Dawson said: “The value of these to the University no one can doubt. They not only add to the number of our students in Arts, but to their character and standing, and they enable the University to offer a high academical training to the candidates for the Christian ministry in four leading denominations.”
The growth and development of the University was made possible only by the generosity of its graduates and friends. In 1871 a second appeal was made for funds, and the result was a large increase in endowments, and in revenue. Several chairs were established and scholarships and exhibitions were provided. It was in this year that the first attempt was made to offer facilities for the higher education of women, not yet, however, within the University, but unofficially connected with it. But this movement must be left to another chapter.
At this period the Medical Faculty which had carried on its work for twenty years in the Coté Street building required more accommodation and a closer connection with the University. Funds for its adequate equipment were not available. Indeed, ten years later Principal Dawson wrote: “It is somewhat singular that this school so ably conducted and so useful, has drawn to itself so little of the munificence of benefactors. Perhaps the fact of its self-supporting and independent character has led to this.” It was decided, however, to undertake the construction of a Medical Building on the College property. In 1872 the front block of what was afterwards known as “the old Medical Building” was erected for the Medical School, and the Medical Faculty returned, this time permanently, to the College grounds. Funds for its endowment were afterwards given by its friends. The year 1872 is a notable one in the history of the McGill Medical School, for another reason than the erection of its first McGill building,—it was also the year of the graduation of William Osler, destined later to exercise so great an influence on medical education in Canada, America, and Europe. The department of Applied Science which had been connected with the Faculty of Arts since 1856 was expanded into a separate Faculty in 1878. It had been temporarily suspended because of a lack of funds in 1870; it was now re-created, greater than before. But it had yet no building and no adequate equipment. These, however, were to come in due course.
Speaking later of the decade between 1870 and 1880, Principal Dawson referred to it as the middle period in his connection with McGill, “a period of routine and uniformity, succeeding the period of preparation and active exertion and preceding the period of culmination. During these ten years,” he said, “the University outlived for the most part its earlier trials and struggles. Its revenues expanded considerably.... The number of its students greatly increased, as did also its staff of instructors. Gold medals and scholarships were founded. The beginning of a museum was formed, and the library, although still small, was growing rapidly, by donations and occasional purchases. A suitable building on the College grounds was provided for the Medical Faculty. A new Faculty of Applied Science was active and prosperous, though as yet without any building of its own. The statutes and regulations had become fixed and settled, and the whole machinery of the institution was moving smoothly and regularly. It had, in short, reached a position in which it could challenge comparison with its sister institutions and rivals and which to many seemed adequate to all the requirements of the time. Still, there were many wants unsupplied, and constant difficulty was experienced in meeting the demands made upon us, from our limited resources, whilst many promising fields of usefulness had to remain uncultivated.... On the whole, the ten years had been characterised by steady, if slow, advance, achieved by much toil and many sacrifices.”
But the Principal was not yet satisfied with the University's service to the community. “It has been a matter of sorrow to me,” he said, “that we have been able to do so little, directly, for the education of the working class and of the citizens generally, more especially in science.”
Peter Redpath
Founder of the Redpath Library
and the Redpath Museum
The final period of Principal Dawson's connection with McGill, from 1880 to his retirement in 1893, saw a further growth in the University. Into the details of that growth we cannot here enter. The University was now becoming a national rather than a local institution; it was contributing more and more to national development. The Principal wrote, “we should not regard McGill merely as an institution for Montreal or for the Province of Quebec but for the whole of Canada.” Its expansion was fortunately in keeping with this ideal. In 1881 the erection of a museum was undertaken through the generosity of Peter Redpath, and in 1882 the Peter Redpath Museum was formally opened. In the former year, too, another appeal was made to the citizens of Montreal for funds to relieve its now straitened circumstances, and again the response was generous and encouraging. In 1882 Principal Dawson said in his annual University Lecture: “In these thirty years, [since 1852 when the amended Charter was obtained] the College revenues have grown from a few hundred dollars to about $40,000 per annum, without reckoning the fees in professional Faculties and the income of the more recent benefactions. Its staff has increased from the original eight instructing officers to thirty-nine. The number of students has increased to 415 actually attending college classes, or reckoning those of the Normal School and of affiliated colleges in Arts, to nearly 600. Its Faculties of Law and Applied Science have been added to those of Arts and Medicine. It has two affiliated Colleges in Arts and four in Theology, and has under its management the Provincial Protestant Normal School. Its buildings, like itself, have been growing by a process of accretion, and the latest, that in which we are now assembled, [the Peter Redpath Museum], is far in advance of all the others, and a presage of the college buildings of the future. We have five chairs endowed by private benefactors, fourteen endowed scholarships and exhibitions, besides others of a temporary nature, and eight endowed gold medals. More than this, we have sent out about 1,200 graduates, of whom more than a thousand are occupying positions of usefulness and honour in this country.”