As part of the on campus events commemorating Jack Layton’s legacy at Ryerson university and his lasting impact on Canada, the Ryerson archives have installed a display featuring items from his recently donated archival collection.
They date back to the 12th Century and European knights. Knights painted them on their shields as a form of identification in battle. They have always been a symbol of honour, pride and bravery. Many governments have one as do many academic institutions. Toronto Metropolitan University has one – an official Coat of Arms
Official coats of arms are made up of required components. Each component is a depiction of a particular group of people. The components typically are a central shield (or a military ‘coat’), two supporters on either side, a helmet or hat above with billowing fabric or ribbons, a twisted roll of fabric called a torse or wreath, topped off with a crest of any number of representations, for example an animal’s front half, top half of a human, a bird, or bird’s wings, etc.
The Back Story of Ryerson’s Coat of Arms
In the first year (1948) of Ryerson Institute of Technology, Howard H. Kerr, the school’s first and only principal, saw the school’s potential as a so-called “MIT of the North” and visited Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For Kerr, a coat of arms would be the symbol that would establish the school as a legitimate institution.
So inspired by MIT, Kerr borrowed their motto Mente et Manu (With Mind and Hand). However, officially belonging to MIT, the motto was changed by 1950 to a similar version, Mente et Artificio (With Mind and Skill). Both were used on crests, such as the one below:
Proceeding to apply for an official coat of arms in the 1960s, Kerr found himself persuading the College of Arms in London, England that Ryerson was worthy of its own unique design. It was granted in 1966.
And so, with Ryerson having its own official identity and coat of arms, coupled with the reputation of a sound fully-rounded technical education, recognition grew. The number of Ryerson applicants for the fall of 2012, as reported soon after the January 11, 2012 deadline, was for the first time the highest in the province at 40,553.
What follows is an explanation of Ryerson’s coat of arms and what Ryerson stands for and the coat of arms below of reference.
Torches:
(Appears on both rams)
The symbol of light, education, liberty, and increasing knowledge.
Lamp of Learning:
(Appears on the shield)
The symbol of intelligence and giving forth the flame of the spirit within. It is the light in the darkness, a symbol for inspiration.
Set Square:
(Used for technical drawings; appears on shield)
The symbol of artifact, construction, building, the practical and material.
Leaves:
Maple leaves, representing Ryerson’s Canadian heritage.
Rams:
(Two are supporters and one is the crest)
The ram, or aries, is a constellation representing our creative impulse through which potential becomes actual. In astrology, the aries governs the head and the brain.
Motto:
Mente et Artificio
While the coat of arms is reserved for use by the Chancellor’s Office and President’s Office, it is found in a number of places. The symbol is used for various official scholarly documents, but cannot be used for general information pieces such as flyers and brochures. If one would like to use a replication of the coat of arms, special permission must be requested.
You may also have seen the coat of arms or the crest on items such as university jackets, pins, and plastic book bags. Samples of some of these can be found at the Ryerson Archives; here are two clothing crest:
As there has only ever been one official coat of arms for Ryerson, other emblems of note were used before its creation. Below are some examples of related symbols of the past used to represent Ryerson:
This symbol contains the main heraldic symbols of the coat of arms. In this case, there is only one ram. (from the Academic Calendar covers 1965-66)
To see samples of the Ryerson coat of arms and related symbols and documents, or for more information, please visit the Toronto Metropolitan University Archives located on the third floor of the library, open Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
There has been a continual trend in the yearning for the representation of truth and the real within photography, and seeing an image in three dimensions is the ultimate depiction of reality. In 1838, a year before Daguerre’s official announcement of the discovery of photography, Charles Wheatstone provided the scientific basis for stereoscopy, or 3-D imaging, showing how the brain operates to allow us to see in three dimensions. Stereoscopy led photographers one step closer to accurate representation of the real world by mimicking how our eyes function.
Stereographic cards contain two separate images of the same scene, but from slightly different viewpoints, printed next to each other and corresponding the spacing of the eyes. The left picture represents what the left eye would see and the right picture represents what the right eye would see. Viewed through a stereoscope, the pair of two-dimensional images merges together into a single three-dimensional photograph.
Following are are some of the stereo viewers and 3-D cameras from the Ryerson Library Special Collections.
The Holmes stereoscope is a later version of the original stereoscope from the 1840s but was the most common one from 1881 until 1939. The stereoscope is not a camera but is a device for viewing stereographic cards. Without a stereoscope, the viewer must cross or diverge his or her eyes so that a central, third three-dimensional image appears.
Stereoscopes were used in homes, schools, and churches, and covered every subject imaginable from astronomy to pornography.
Tru-Vue was a company that made binocular viewers and stereoscopic filmstrips. It began in 1931 and was purchased by Sawyer’s in 1951 – the manufacturer of the View-Master. Both the Tru-Vue and the View-Master were manufactured into the 1960s. Paired mounted slides, photographed on consumer cameras, are fed through the viewer, and, when held up to the light, the image appears in 3D.
The View-Master is a device from the 1950s used to view stereo images mounted in a paper disk containing fourteen film slides in pairs (and thus seven three-dimensional images). Though the View-Master is now marketed to children, it was originally oriented toward adults as the slides included educational and tourism content.
By the 1920s, movies and other media supplanted stereoscopic images as the leading photographic medium. There was a resurgence of stereoscopy in the 1950s when stereo cameras were introduced to the public by a number of manufacturers.
The Kodak Stereo camera was produced between 1954 and 1959. The dual lenses fire at the same time, creating an image for the right eye and one for the left. It was easy to use, allowing anyone to make their own 3-D photographs on 35mm slide film.
The Stereo Realist was the most popular 35mm stereo camera of all time. It was produced from about 1947 to 1971. It attracted celebrities throughout the 50s and its popularity continued on into the 60s. Harold Lloyd, a silent film star, formed a stereo camera club and was the most notable user of this camera. He shot portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Betty Page. Stereo advertisements of the time featured celebrities such as Vincent Price, John Wayne, Bob Hope, Joan Crawford, Doris Day, and Frank Capra, among others.
There was another revival of stereoscopy in the 1980s when point-and-shoot stereo cameras were introduced, but most suffered from poor optics and plastic construction, so they did not gain the popularity of the 1950s cameras.
The Nimslo 3D camera was produced in 1982 by Nimstec and was the first consumer-level 3D camera of the 1980s that used 35mm film and that was easily portable. Four images are taken simultaneously, creating two 3D images per photograph. It was discontinued in 1990.
Nimslo went bankrupt and was sold to Nishika in 1989. They introduced the four-lens Nishika N8000, the first Nimslo clone. It features a plastic body with plastic lenses, a fixed shutter speed, and 3 aperture settings. It is also focus-free. It uses standard 35mm film and creates lenticular images, which do not require a special viewer to see the 3D image. Four photos are taken simultaneously from four slightly different angles.
The FED Ctepeo is a Russian stereo camera. It uses standard 35mm film to produce two images of 24x30mm per exposure.
As an impressive and entertaining illusion, stereoscopy quickly became an ongoing trend and the technique is still catching people’s eyes today!
If you would like more information on any of the special collections in the Ryerson Library please drop by the 4th floor of the library, or make an appointment: asc@ryerson.ca. You can search our collection online here.
References:
FED (Camera). (2012, April 17). In Wikipedia: The Free Enclyclopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FED_(camera).
Kodak Stereo Camera (2012, February 9). In Wikipedia: The Free Enclyclopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Stereo_Camera.
Nimslo. (2012, April 13). In Wikipedia: The Free Enclyclopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimslo.
Spiro, L. (2006, October 30). A Brief History of Stereographs and Stereoscopes. Connexions. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://cnx.org/content/m13784/latest/.
Stereo Realist. (2912, April 7). In Cameraopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Stereo_Realist.
Stereoscope. (n.d.). In Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman Exhibit of Optical Toys. Retrieved July 6, 2016, from http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/opticaltoys.htm.
Stereoscopy. (2012, July 17). In Wikipedia: The Free Enclyclopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy.
Tru-Vue. (2012, April 30). In Wikipedia: The Free Enclyclopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tru-Vue.
View-Master. (2012, July 16). In Wikipedia: The Free Enclyclopedia. Retrieved July 20, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-Master.
An important component in defining the post-secondary experience is being able to take part in a club, sport, or other form of organization. Circle K International is the largest service-oriented, leadership-training, collegiate organization in the world and is a member of the Kiwanis International’s sponsored program. It is the university level of the Kiwanis Club but it maintains self-direction from its sponsor. There are currently over eleven thousand members in over five hundred colleges and universities worldwide.
Ryerson’s Circle K Club belonged to the Eastern Canada and Caribbean District, one of the oldest districts. It was chartered at Ryerson on February 16, 1955 and became the second Circle K Club of the district. Ryerson’s Circle K Club included the clubs of Waterloo, Western, and Queen’s Universities as well as Ridgetown, Fanshawe, and Chicoutimi Colleges. It was the oldest continuous club in the district until it became inactive in 1988.
The Circle K Club meetings were public and any student could join as long as they had good character and an adequate academic standing. They held a weekly one-hour meeting, which was the minimum involvement for maintaining membership.
The motto for Circle K is “We Build”. The 1980 Ryerson Circle K President, Mark Donner, said the “main goal is to develop brotherhood and fellowship” through helping people.
The Circle K Club at Ryerson found many ways of being involved. They organized dance marathons, car rallies, charity casino nights for cystic fibrosis, Shinerama, movie screenings, luncheons, parties, and blood drives at the school and provided funding for first year students with financial difficulties. One of their first campaigns was a safe driving campaign among students and staff.
Other events were bingo nights at a senior citizens’ home, sports nights at a local youth club, activities for mentally and physically disabled children, and career night for the Parkdale Boys and Girls Club. They aided organizations such the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, the Big Brother and Big Sister Programs, and the Endangered Animal Sanctuary.
One of Circle K’s major advocacies was the blood clinics since the clinics first came to Ryerson. As incentives to donate blood, the Club issued prizes such as trophies, monetary awards, and dinner for two during their “bleed off” contests between course unions.
What was once a club with as many as thirty-five members in the mid-1960s became a club with only six members by the 1980s. Low revenue at fundraisers as well as low turnout at clinics were partly the result of this lack of internal participation. Chuck Menezies, the 1978 Circle K Vice-President, attributed the demise to the club’s straight image as well as to the growing influence of the Student Union.
The Student Union became the leading campus organization and soon became involved with tasks that Circle K had been handling previously. They took over management of the used book store, the cloak room, the lost and found, and helped organize the blood clinics. The interest in and influence of the Circle K Club diminished and by 1988 the club was abolished.
For more information, please visit Archives and Special Collections on the 4th floor of the library.
Although the Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing graduated its last class in 1975 when it officially became part of Ryerson’s School of Nursing, we celebrate its history and spirit – kept alive by its active and dedicated Alumnae Association – on what would have been its 100th anniversary year.
The school opened in 1912, with the official opening of the Hospital, It graduated its first class of 10 nurses in 1915, and its last class of 71 nurses in 1975. In between it graduated 2083 nurses. Its Alumnae Association was created in 1915 and is still active today. In 2011 The Association donated its collections of papers and artifacts to the Toronto Metropolitan University Archives (see earlier blog post Wellesley Alumnae donation )
To celebrate Wellesley’s centennial, the Ryerson Archives has created an exhibit and slide show. Both will be available for viewing in the Archives until the end of September. The Archives will be open for Alumni weekend on Saturday September 22. Contact us at (416) 979 5000 ext. 7027 to find out opening times for that day. Please enjoy the images included below – some are from the exhibit itself, and others are taken from the collection.
Are you a Wellesley grad? Was someone in your family a Wellesley girl? You can now email The Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association at: thewellesleyschoolnsgtoronto@gmail.com
The Heritage Camera Collection more than doubled in size this past January thanks to the generous donation of approximately 500 cameras and pieces of camera equipment from Wilfrid Laurier University. The collection improves the holdings in European and Japanese manufacturers, and provides a greater selection for research in early camera designs.
This past weekend the Ryerson Theatre School celebrated its 40th anniversary, but the history of student theatre on campus goes back well beyond that of the school. In 1951 the Ryerson Opera Workshop was first offered, headed up by English professor Jack McAllister. Students across campus, in any program, were invited to participate. The inaugural production was an exciting double bill of The Devil and Daniel Webster and Down in the Valley; the first was a re-telling of the classic Faust tale using a poor farmer as the lead character who sells his soul to the devil, and the second, a folk-opera peppered with famous American songs, including the titular “Down in the Valley.” According to newspaper reviews at the time, the shows were a success for the new Workshop.
Although the name implies something different today, the Opera Workshops focused on popular musical theatre, and the repertoire included Broadway hits like Once Upon a Mattress, Bye Bye Birdie, Snow White, The Wizard of Oz, The Beggar’s Opera and Peter Pan.
In the 1970s, Ryerson established the Theatre School and became one of the first professional schools in North America to offer training in all aspects of the theatre arts, from technical production to arts administration. It wasn’t long after the first cohort of theatre students appeared on campus that the extracurricular productions of the Ryerson Opera Workshops finally ceased. The last performance by the Opera Workshop was a children’s show entitled Stick with Molasses (1976). Today, the popular student musicals are replaced by an ambitious program of student-driven work throughout the year.
To see what else we have regarding the Ryerson Opera Workshop click here
In a shocking but not completely unforeseen announcement last week, the Kodak corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.
As little as a decade ago, the future for Kodak still seemed bright. Company literature produced in the 1990s confirmed Kodak Canada’s optimism that digital photographers would continue to look to Kodak for leadership and innovation in image-taking technologies. The move to digital would be slow and considered, with Kodak confident that the right product was better than any product.
Was this transition too slow? Is Kodak still the master camera-maker it once was? Ryerson Professor Robert Burley and Curatorial Specialist Beth Knazook speculate on the unfortunate circumstances that have left Kodak in its current position.
Matt Galloway speaks with Robert Burley on CBC’s Metro Morning radio show (Thursday, Jan 19 2012): http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/episodes/2012/01/19/unthinkable/
CBC reporter Havard Gould interviews Robert Burley and Beth Knazook for The National (Thursday, Jan 19 2012): http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/1233408557/ID=2188640879
Architectural models breath life into otherwise straightforward ideas on paper; they easily and quickly communicate complex design schemes, embellishments, finishes and details, and they facilitate an easier dialogue between architect and client. Well-crafted architectural models even win competitions. While these models are very rarely preserved once building is begun, the realized design in miniature form represents the very essence of the architectural practice.
From January 4th- February 13th, 2012, photographs of models taken for Canadian Architect magazine will be on display in Special Collections on the Library’s 4th floor. These images were originally captured for project announcements, and today they give us as much to discuss as the finished buildings themselves. See the process that the architect goes through when bringing his or her idea to the public, and consider some of the challenges the architect faces in communicating with that audience. Is it useful to see the detailed model superimposed onto a photograph of the existing landscape, as with the Toronto Eaton Centre image? Why do some architects choose to put contextual detail in the model itself, making tiny trees and cars on the adjacent streets? Every model has a purpose and an audience, which is perhaps even more apparent in the scenic model taken from the set design for a CBC television special [borrowed from the Robert Hackborn collection for comparison’s sake]. With this model, the purpose is to show the interior to the cameras – not the exterior to a client.
Whatever the goal with these miniature worlds, either to emulate a real three-dimensional building as closely as possible or three walls that merely suggest one, the model serves as a stepping stone to the final idea. Here the idea of architecture is on display – judge for yourselves whether the real lives up to the imagined.
Peter. It’s his name. An interesting fellow, don’t you think?
“The Dream That Fagged Out” is Peter’s official title. The word fagged in its historical usage means completely exhausted, and there certainly seems to be a weight on Peter’s shoulders. “The work is so successful in its depiction of human despair and misery that no one at Ryerson has been able to keep it for long.” [The Lectern, October 1975, Works of Art docfl.]
He was created by artist Julius Damasdy, (1937/38 – ) in the mid 1960s and was donated to Ryerson in 1967 by a founding member of the Board of Governors, Franc Joubin, who acquired him at an art show of the Ontario Society of Artists at the Toronto Art Gallery (now AGO). Mr. Joubin stated he would purchase whatever statue won in its class at the art show. As it turned out it was Peter who won and who became part of the university’s art collection.
He resided in the reception area of President Fred Jorgenson’s office (in Kerr Hall South). After two years of dismally greeting staff and visitors alike, Peter was moved to where he could cheer up the students. What better place than the Library (located, then, in the former Business Building, now the Victoria Building).
General feelings were:
When the Library moved to its current location in the Library Building in 1974, Peter insisted he come along. His new home was in a semi-dark area (they tried to hide him) near the 2nd floor elevators. He later moved to the 6th floor stacks.
Peter got a medical diagnosis in the mid 1970s by a few Ryerson nursing students. They posted their diagnosis from his neck, stating, for example, he suffered from: Malnutrition, Scoliosis, Stove Pipe Legs, Middle Age Spread, Facial Paralysis, and other interesting ailments.
Finally, in an attempt at banishment, Peter was offered to the Archives in the mid 1970s. He was cheerfully accepted and has been in safekeeping there since, still creeping-out researchers and Archives staff.