Series - Records relating to the Nova Scotia Agricultural College library, the MacRae Library, and to the Agricola Archives, Museum, and Special Collections

MacRae Library was established in 1912, seven years after the founding of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. Known for the first 78 years simply as the College Library, it became a repository of highly specialized and general literature and artifacts concerning aspects of agricultural education, agricultural technology, research and extension in the Maritimes. In 1980, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the college, plans were made for a new library building, which coincided with the formation of a Historic Collections Committee, charged with preserving and developing the college's historical collections and archival holdings. An archive was included in the new library plans, which eventually housed what became known as the Agricola Collections. The new building opened in 1983 and in 1990 the College Library was renamed the MacRae Library in honour of Herbert F. MacRae, Principal of NSAC from 1972 to 1989. After the merger between NSAC and Dalhousie University, the MacRae Library became a unit of Dalhousie University Libraries.