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Dalhousie University's Marine Affairs Program (MAP) was first offered in 1988 as a one-year interdisciplinary graduate diploma program though the Law School. Dalhousie had been developing teaching and research programs in marine affairs since 1945, which were focused exclusively on the marine sciences. The 1970s saw the introduction of marine-related law and social science programs, and by the late seventies there were seven ocean-related institutes and centres established at Dalhousie. The Dalhousie Ocean Studies Council was established to coordinate and develop integrated ocean research and studies within the university and with external bodies such as the Bedford Institute.

The proposal for a marine affairs diploma program with funding assistance from the International Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) was submitted to Senate and MPHEC in 1986 and approved in 1987. Core courses were taken at Dalhousie, with electives offered through both Saint Mary’s University and the Technical University of Nova Scotia.

In 1992-1993 the program offered a Master of Marine Management (MIM) degree and program administration was moved to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. MAP moved again in 2005 to the Faculty of Management, where it stayed until 2013, when it moved to its current home within the Faculty of Sciences.

The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) was founded in 1936 by Lothar Richter and Dalhousie University through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in recognition of the need for greater regional economic and social development. It began as an experimental organization, intended to make connections between Dalhousie University and the community and the social sciences and public policy. The IPA’s primary areas of activity were government, business, labour and community, with a focus on public administration.

Guy Henson was appointed director in 1957 with a mandate to reorganize the IPA. Under his guidance, the institute broadened its socio-economic research programs, including the Africville Relocation Project and significant work in labour-management relations.

In 1977 Kell Antoft succeeded Henson and in 1980 the institute moved into its own building, the Henson Centre, named after its former director. In 1984 the Henson Centre, the IPA and the Office of Part Time Studies of Extension were amalgamated to create the Henson College of Public Affairs and Continuing Education. University funding for Henson College was discontinued in 1993, which led to a decline in its activities. In 2004 the Henson College of Public Affairs and Continuing Education was folded into a new faculty named the College of Continuing Education (CCE), which was later named the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development.

The Institute of Public Affairs maintained its own library, with holdings of more than 18,000 items, which covered topics such as economic development, local government, industrial relations, management development and labour organization. Beginning in 1984 the institute's library was gradually integrated into Dalhousie University Libraries.

Macdonald Memorial Library was planned long before Dalhousie had the means to build it. Charles Macdonald, Chair of Mathematics from 1864 until his death in 1901, bequeathed the university $2000 to purchase books, a gesture that triggered an eponymous fundraising campaign. By 1905 the fund had risen to $33,000, but it was not until 1911 that the university purchased the Studley Campus land and a new library became feasible. During the cornerstone-laying ceremony on 29 April 1914, President Mackenzie noted that Macdonald himself had been a foundation stone of Dalhousie.

The library was designed by architects Frank Darling and Andrew R. Cobb to fit into the narrow space between the Science Building and the old Murray homestead at the crown of the hill on the new campus. Built of local ironstone, with simple lines relieved by an ornamented gable and portico, the library was constructed by contractors Falconer & MacDonald, and was completed at a total cost of $90,000.

When it opened in the summer of 1916, the library contained only offices and a large and airy reading room on the second floor. In 1921 a five-storey expansion added a much-needed stack area on the north side. The stack capacity for 125,000 volumes was insufficient to hold the growing collection, so the Chemistry, Physics and Geology departments housed their own libraries and the remainder of the books were stored in the library's attic.

On 20 July 1956, a special convocation celebrated the opening of an addition on the building's west side. The O.E. Smith Wing, built of quartzite and ironstone in the same Georgian colonial style as the original building, housed the collection of Rudyard Kipling's works given to Dalhousie by James McGregor Stewart.

By the 1960s there were frequent complaints about the library's crowded conditions—for both books and students. In 1963 a new mezzanine in the Reading Room increased study space by one third, but the stacks were already at capacity. A third addition in 1965 joined the MacDonald Memorial Library to the Science Building, creating 40,000 square feet of floor space for the Department of Chemistry.

A campus development plan in the mid-1960s recognized the library's crucial role within the university and plans were made for a new, larger building. After the Killam Memorial Library opened in 1970, the Macdonald Memorial Library became the MacDonald Science Library, until the science collection was moved to the Killam in 1989. In 1991 the stacks of the former Macdonald Library were converted into administrative offices, and the reading room was refurbished as a meeting and special event room called University Hall. The Kilpling Room remains in what is now known at the Macdonald Building.

The Office of Research Services (ORS) was created in the early 1980s in response to federal government funding of the three research councils: the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Medical Research Council, which has since been restructured and is known as the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). Universities required an official link with the tri-councils to review and administer research grants awarded to faculty on their campuses.

During the tenure of Vice President of Research Martha Crago, the office was renamed Dalhousie Research Services, but the name reverted to ORS shortly after the arrival of her successor, Alice Aikens.

Dalhousie School of Education had a short-lived existence, from 1989-1995. Classes in the history of education and educational philosophy were first offered in 1924, following the publication of a report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which advocated a closer relationship between the province's colleges and public schools. In 1926 the Nova Scotia Department of Education began to allow universities to offer teacher education/qualification programs, and Dalhousie established a five-course diploma program that could be taken following the attainment of a BA or BSc. In 1954 this was expanded to include a BEd degree, which was granted after the completion of a first degree, subsequent education classes, one year of teaching and a thesis. It wasn't until 1968 that the university calendar listed a Department of Education, which offered both a four-year integrated BEd/BA or BEd/BSc and a one-year sequential program taken after the completion of a first degree.

The Nova Scotia Council on Higher Education report on teacher education published in 1994 questioned the utility of nine institutions across the province offering teacher education; it made specific reference to Dalhousie and the limitations of its doctoral program and poor reputation with practicing public school teachers. Dalhousie's School of Education—along with the Nova Scotia Teacher's College and the education programs of five other universities—was closed the following year.

Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law originated as the first university law school established in the common-law provinces of Canada, and became the model for legal education across the country. The school was opened in 1883 with Richard Chapman Weldon as dean, supported by a volunteer faculty of Halifax lawyers and judges.

After four years in temporary housing, in 1887 the law school moved into a corner of the new Dalhousie College, known from 1919 as the Forrest Building. In 1951 the school moved to the Law Building (currently the University Club), which had been designed and built for the purpose thirty years earlier, but commandeered for other uses; by 1966 the law students and faculty had outgrown the space and moved into their current residence, the Weldon Law Building, named for the school’s first dean. After the fifth-floor library was destroyed by fire in 1985, the building was expanded and renovated to create the new James Dunn Law Library.

The Faculty of Law counts among its notable graduates Dalhousie’s first black graduate, James Robinson Johnston, who earned his law degree in 1898. In 1918 Frances Fish became the first woman to graduate from Dalhousie Law School and later the first woman to be admitted to the Barristers’ Society of Nova Scotia. By 1936 Dalhousie Law School graduates sat on the bench of all but three Provincial Supreme Courts, and in 1950 the faculty began offering graduate programs.

During the second half of the twentieth century the law school established initiatives and programs including Dalhousie Legal Aid (1970); the Marine and Environmental Law Program (1974); the Indigenous Blacks and Mi’kmaq Initiative (1989); the Health Law Institute (1992); and the Law and Technbology Institute (2001). In 2009 Sir Seymour Schulich donated $20 million to fund 40 new annual scholarships, the largest gift of its kind ever made to a Canadian law school, and the school was renamed the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

A $3 million gift from John McCall MacBain in 2011 established the MacBain Chair in Health Law and Policy, and Joanna Erdman was the first person to hold the chair.

The first Dalhousie library was established by order of the University Senate on 24 April 1867. Housed in the “new” Dalhousie College (renamed the Forrest Building in 1919), the library was beset by financial difficulties during the early decades, especially after the Board’s 1890 decision to withdraw all library funding. During this period the collection grew only through gifts in kind and sporadic donations by faculty and alumni, although 1894 witnessed both the advent of class memorial book gifts and the hiring of paid library staff, which led to expanded service hours, from two to seven hours per day, five days each week.

In 1916 a library was built on the new Studley Campus, thanks to the generosity of Professor Charles Macdonald. On his death in 1906, the former Chair of Mathematics bequeathed $2000 to the university for books, a gesture that triggered an eponymous fundraising campaign. Despite several renovations and later additions, eventually the collection and its user population outgrew the space, and in 1971 the Killam Library was opened.

From 1867 until the 1952 appointment of Douglas G. Lockhead, the library's operations were overseen by a Senate-appointed committee, which appointed an acting librarian, usually from the ranks of newly arrived junior faculty. Their responsibilities were limited to collecting fines, providing access to the library's limited book collection, and placing orders approved by Senate. Faculty librarians included James DeMille (1868-1875); Professor Liechti (1875-1876); Reverend Dr. William Lyall (1876-1881); John Forrest (1881-1885); Jacob Schurman (1885-1886); William Alexander (1886-1889); James Seth (1889-1892); Walter Murray (1892-1902); Daniel Murray (1902-1906); and Archibald MacMechan (1906-1931).

The first paid assistant librarian was Zillah Macdonald in 1894, followed by a series of part-time student assistants and finally, in 1907, a full-time assistant. In 1915 Francis Jean Lindsay was hired as a cataloguer. She was the main library's first trained librarian and in her three years at Dalhousie she reclassified the entire collection according to the new Library of Congress system, increased the library's opening hours to 44 hours a week, initiated circulation procedures and wrote a column in the Gazette. President MacKenzie referred to her as being in charge of the library, albeit without authority over policies, collections or budget, and her low salary led to her resignation in 1919. Her work was continued by a series of untrained library assistants.

During the tenure of C.L. Bennett (1931-1950), who was the last Library Committee faculty member to oversee the library, operations were in the hands of librarians Ivy Prickler (1940-47); Dorothy MacKay (1947-1951); and Jean Carter (1951-1952). Douglas G. Lochhead (1952-1960) was Dalhousie's first University Librarian, appointed with faculty status and directly responsible to the university president. He was followed by J.P. Wilkinson (1960-1966); Louis G. Vagianos (1966-1969) and as Director of Libraries (1976-1973); Dorothy Louise Cooke (1970-1981); William F. Birdsall (1981-1997); and William R. Maes (1998-2010). During the tenure of Donna Bourne-Tyson (2010-2022), the position of University Librarian changed to Dean of Libraries.The second Dean of Libraries, Michael Vandenberg, was appointed in August 2022.

Killam Memoiral Library was the outcome of a campus development plan in the mid 1960s that acknowledged the need for a new university library, and the timely bequest of Dorothy Killam, who died in 1965 and left Dalhousie $32 million.

Leslie R. Fairn received the architectural contract for the new library, although NSTC professor of architecture Ojars Biskaps is considered the principal design architect, working closely with the new University Librarian, Louis G. Vagianos. The primary decision-maker behind the library's design philosophy, Vagionos had a vision of a library that served Humanities and Social Sciences students and strengthened the quality of education at Dalhousie through a single, continuous operating unit centred around the provision of public services.

Built by Fraser-Brace Maritimes Limited, work on the Killam Memorial Library began in 1966 and was completed in 1971 at a final cost of $7.3 million, 80 per cent of which came from a provincial self-liquidating loan. The library officially opened on 11 March 1971, with a special convocation and a week-long celebration of the arts, including a symposium with Alex Colville, Harold Hamer, John Hobday and Alden Nowlan; an exhibit of nineteenth-century French paintings on loan from the National Gallery; an Isaac Stern violin recital; and a performance by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. During the dedication ceremony, the keys to the library were exchanged five times, from contractor to architect, to the chairman of the Board of Governors, to President Henry Hicks, and finally to Louis Vagianos.

The 230,000 square foot building was designed to eventually accommodate 8000 undergraduate and graduate students, a faculty of 750 and library staff of 130. With a capacity for one million books, it was equipped with conference rooms, reading areas, telex equipment, public typing rooms and a conduit structure wiring each room to the basement's computer centre. The auditorium was named for Archibald McMechan, Dalhousie English professor from 1889-1933 and the university librarian from 1906-1931. An open courtyard was the principle source of light and intended to enhance traffic patterns. The design attempted to be inherently flexible and adaptable to future changes in computer and communications technology. The Killam, as it came to be known, won a 1971 Nova Scotia Association of Architects Design Award.

Finished in pre-cast concrete similar to Dalhousie Arts Centre, the Killam exemplified modern architectural and decorating features. Henry Hicks, a skilled cabinetmaker, pushed for the use of Brazilian rosewood in the interior, while Basil Cooke, a geologist and Dean of Arts and Science, recommended the micaceous slate tiles on the ground-level floors. The fourth and fifth floors initially contained departmental offices and the third floor housed the School of Library and Information Studies. In the early 1970s, the University Archives moved to its location on the fifth floor, where it remains along with Special Collections. When the Macdonald Library closed in 1990, the science collection was moved to the fourth floor.

In 1996, a glass roof enclosed the courtyard, creating an atrium, and the stone floor was restored after years of exposure to the weather. A coffee shop was introduced and the ventilation and lighting systems were replaced. In 2002, the first floor of the library was remodelled to house a Learning Commons with computer workstations, support services, offices and group meeting rooms. Later renovations included two additional Learning Commons, the GIS Centre; a graduate students' centre; the Collider, a multimedia room; and the Academic Technology Services offices. The Killam also houses the Writing Centre; the Centre for Learning and Teaching; and the Office of the Dean of Libraries.

Prior to July 1970 the University Archives existed only as a small collection of manuscripts (including some of the early records of the Board of Governors) in the Special Collections department of the University Library. While these records were available to researchers, they had not been properly catalogued.

In July 1970 the first University Archivist, Dr. Charles Armour, was appointed and was placed in charge of the Archives as part of the Special Collections department. The Archivist's responsibilities included acquiring and organizing the extensive university records, which were scattered throughout the many administrative and faculty offices on campus. In addition, the Archivist was to set up a new Theatre Archives and a Business Archives; to catalogue the private manuscripts which had been donated to the University, and to solicit papers from former Dalhousie administrative and Academic staff. Within a year a Music Archives was added.

In the early 1970s the Archives moved to its current location on the fifth floor of the Killam Library, and in the fall of 1975 the Archives became a separate department within the University Library. New collections were added over the next few years including the Nova Scotia Labour History Archives, a Medical Archives section, a collection of papers of Citizen Action Groups, and an expanded collection of Canadian and British shipping records. The Archives' collection of private manuscripts also grew to include the papers of both Dalhousie and local individuals, including professors, historians, and writers. In addition to the above archival collections the Archives has also acquired an extensive collection of Dalhousie memorabilia, a large collection of theatre and music programmes, business brochures and catalogues (including an excellent collection of Eaton's and Simpson's catalogues from 1894 onward), and copies of Dunn and Bradstreet's business ratings (1882-1950). The Archives has also compiled extensive reference files related to its major acquisitions areas, a huge collection of photographs relating to both Dalhousie and Nova Scotia, and numerous video and audio tapes.

In October 2000, Michael Moosberger was appointed the second University Archivist of Dalhousie University. Since that time the Archives has made a number of acquisitions, including the literary papers of Donna Morrissey, theatre company records from Two Planks and a Passion, Jest in Time, Upstart, and records from the Eye Level Gallery and the Centre for Art Tapes, two of Canada's oldest artist-run centres.

The James Dunn Law Library opened in 1967, occupying the fourth and fifth floors of the newly built Weldon Law Building. The library was funded by the widow of Dalhousie Law School graduate Sir James Dunn. As early as 1969 the Dunn Foundation had initiated funding for the university's first professional law librarian, Professor Eunice W. Beeson, one of Canada's earliest qualified lawyer librarians who is widely credited with establishing the foundation of the modern law school library.

In August 1985, a lightning strike caused an electrical malfunction, igniting a fire that destroyed the library's fifth floor, along with hundreds of books. Despite the losses, the fire was considered a “mixed tragedy" as it spurred the construction of a four-storey addition on the north side of the law building. Completed in 1988, the new library was financed by Lady Beaverbrook, law foundations across Canada, and Dalhousie alumni. The Dunn Law Library now occupies four floors in the Weldon Law Building, offering space for study and research and a collection of over 220,000 volumes.

W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library at Dalhousie University holds the University Libraries' biomedical collections and provides services to the faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Professions, as well as to health professionals throughout the Maritime provinces.

In 1864 Dr. Charles Cogswell donated his personal medical library to the Medical Society of Nova Scotia, envisioning its use as a resource for future medical students and practitioners. The Cogswell Collection made up the greater part of the Cogswell Memorial Library, which was housed in the City Hospital before being moved to the Halifax Medical College around 1875. After the Medical College closed in 1910 and re-opened at Dalhousie College as the Faculty of Medicine, the Cogswell library moved to the Forrest Building. The original collection is now housed in Special Collections.

In 1937, the Medical Dental Library was built to accommodate the growing collection of the medical college and the newly formed Faculty of Dentistry. Thirty years later, in 1967 the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library opened in the recently built Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building. It was named for philanthropist and entrepreneur William Keith Kellogg in recognition of his $420,000 donation earmarked for library resources. In 1986 the Kellogg Library, formerly administered by the Faculty of Medicine, became part of the Dalhousie University Libraries system.

Between December 2015 and January 2017 the Kellogg Library was temporarily relocated in Chapter House while renovations were completed in the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building. In January 2016 a health sciences learning commons was created in the newly constructed Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB).

The Dalhousie Women's Club (DWC) was established in 1951 largely through the efforts of Jean Elizabeth Macdonald (née Frazer) and Evelyn Olive Longard (née Nickerson), both of whom were alumnae members of the Board of Governors. The purpose of the club was to promote acquaintance and friendship among the women of Dalhousie University, King's College and affiliated institutions.

Tea parties, dances, fashion shows, guest lectures and field trips provided an opportunity for club members and their families to convene. In addition, the DWC organized a special luncheon each September—referred to as the “Newcomers' Party”—for incoming female faculty members and the wives of male faculty.

During the 1960s the DWC began forming interest groups such as a book club and the “out to lunch” club. The Dalhousie Women's Club ceased operation in 1995.

George Ramsay, 8th Earl of Dalhousie (1730 – 15 November 1787) was a Scottish peer. He served as a Lord of Police (1775–82) and the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. he was a representative Scottish peer (1774–1787).

Dalhousie was the second surviving son of George, Lord Ramsay (dvp 25 May 1783) and was the grandson of William Ramsay, 6th Earl of Dalhousie (1660 – 1739). His mother, Jean Maule, was the daughter of Hon. Harry Maule of Kellie and thus the niece of the attainted Earl of Panmure.

The Dalhousie-King's Reading Club was founded in 1925. Comprised of faculty members and their spouses from Dalhousie University and King's College, the club presents social/educational sessions on a monthly basis during the academic year. Sessions cover a wide range of topics and are delivered by both club members and invited guests. Sessions have been held at the homes of members as well as on either campus, when necessary.

When the club was founded, a President and Secretary were elected to manage the affairs of the club. They recorded meeting minutes, compiled annual reports and member lists, and managed the clubs minimal financial expenditures. The make-up of the executive has evolved throughout the years and has now grown to include a Vice-President, Treasurer, Past-President, Members at Large, and someone to oversee membership. Club Presidents were traditionally elected for one-year terms. Each meeting was presented by a hostess and two co-hostesses, all whom volunteered to do so.

On September 28, 2015, the reading club celebrated its 90th anniversary with the launch of a cookbook titled "Still…Followed by Refreshments."

The Honourable Sir Malachy Bowes Daly was born February 6, 1836 in Marchmount, Quebec to Sir Dominick Daly and Caroline Maria Gore. He attended school in Montreal, at St. Mary’s College in Oscott (England), and obtained a B.A. from St. Mary's College in Halifax. In July 1859 he married Joanna Kenny, with whom he had one daughter, Mary.

Daly was a well-known lawyer, politician and civil servant. He was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1864 and served as a secretary to his father (then governor of Prince Edward Island) as well as a succession of lieutenant governors of Nova Scotia. In the early 1870s, Daly ran unsuccessfully for the Nova Scotia Legislature. He was an elected member of the House of Commons from 1878-1887, where he served as the First Deputy Speaker, and served two terms as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1890 until his retirement in 1900. Daly was also active in numerous community organizations before and after his retirement and was knighted in 1900. He passed away in Halifax on April 26, 1920.

The Dark Night Theatre was established in January 1988 under the auspices of the Nova Scotia Drama League. It was a small informal group of writers, actors, and directors based in Halifax, Nova Scotia and it operated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The mission of Dark Night Theatre was to promote interest in theatre, to develop and support writers (particularly those in Atlantic Canada), and to provide a forum for onging exchange of ideas and information.

Dark Night Theatre's primary activities involved script reading and critiquing. The group held weekly meetings each Monday at the Cunard Street Theatre, and later, the CBC Radio Room. The meetings were known as "ScripTease" and later, "Playwright's Corner." The reading series focused primarily on local theatrical works in development, but occassionally read plays of national or international significance. The group led to the creation of Upstart Theatre and had connections to the Dramatists' Cooperative of Nova Scotia.

The Dartmouth Players is a community theatre group in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The theatre group was first formed in 1954 under the name of the Dartmouth Drama Club, and it was not until 1971 that the name was changed to the Dartmouth Players. In 1958 the Club lost its backing from the Home and School Association of Dartmouth and was forced to split up due to financial difficulties. In 1961 it was resurrected by the Dartmouth Parks and Recreation Department but in 1974 was once again forced to disband when its playhouse, the Dundas Street Theatre, burned and everything was lost. In 1985 the Players were yet again resurrected, only this time by the Dartmouth City Council, who felt the need for community theatre in Dartmouth. The group has been together ever since.

Throughout its years the Dartmouth Players have performed in various locations including the Prince Arthur Junior High School auditorium, the Prince Andrew High School auditorium, the Dartmouth High School auditorium, and the Findley Community Center. Not until 1987, when the Crichton Avenue Community Center was opened, did the Players found a permanent home. The Dartmouth Players produce about four productions a year; they have participated in numerous theatre festivals throughout the region and have won many awards.