So it has been quite a while since we have been at Ryerson (almost a year atleast even for the newbies). Intrigued by a thought, I went around asking people that is friends, class fellows and totally random strangers at times, about where they thought Ryerson University got its name from. Unsurprisingly, the most common answer was something like “Umm from that guy whose name ends with Ryerson” or “from the guy who has that statue made for him..Egerton Ryerson?” Upon asking who exactly Egerton Ryerson was, not much came up apart from “some famous person?” and hardly 5% could point out that he was a prominent figure in 19th century Canada who played an important role in the field of education and politics, amongst others. Because of his immense contributions to public education, the institution that is now called Ryerson University was hence named after him at its founding in 1948. An amazingly beautiful portrait of Egerton Ryerson was donated to Ryerson Library’s archives by Chris Maybee Ryerson, the great-great grandson of Egerton himself, at a ceremony held on February 11. Check out the portrait here.
While digging up more interesting facts on the history of Ryerson University, I came across this picture .This is how Lake Devo looked like in 1978 when it first opened!
Also did you know that in 2001 husband-wife Nelson Mandela and Graa Machel received Ryerson honorary degrees making them the second married couple to have graduated together.
Want to know some more cool facts about Ryerson? Check this out.
