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Founded in 1894, Havergal College remains one of Toronto’s most recognizable women’s educational facilities. What may be unfamiliar, however, are the evangelical roots of the school- a school that emphasized a gendered sense of Empire and foreign missionary activity.
In “Girls on the Homefront”, snapshots of daily life at Havergal from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War show how students were ingrained with a sense of duty to the British Empire and to Canada during war efforts.
As a school that was first established on Toronto’s fashionable Jarvis Street then later moved to the growing suburb of North Toronto, Havergal is also a study in the evolution of Toronto’s upper middle class. This Community Memories Exhibit explores the nineteenth-century roots of the school, the development of North Toronto and comparative war-time educational practices of other local schools.
Visitors will find artefacts, ephemera and photographs from the school’s Dr. Catherine Steele 1928 Archives as well as oral history and material from other community partners. The exhibit was produced with help from Havergal students in grades eight to 12, who gathered material and interviewed seniors in the Havergal College and North Toronto communities.
In this Community Memories Exhibit, visitors can explore the themes of gender and national identity in a challenging time in the history of Toronto and Canada.
