3-077-856 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The University of Toronto after the fire, 1890. 'The destruction of the finest public building in Canada dedicated to educational purposes was a disaster that has excited general regret. It was on Feb. 14, by a fire accidentally caused through dropping a tray of petroleum lamps, in preparing festive illuminations, that the University of Toronto was burnt down. The library, museum, and the class and lecture-rooms, with their contents, have all been destroyed...The spread of the fire was so rapid that there was little chance of saving anything. A small number of the specimens in the museum and some of the scientific apparatus were brought out by the students, but were mostly broken while being removed. The library contained 33,000 volumes, which are valued by the librarian at about 100,000 dols., and many of them cannot be replaced. Some hundred volumes only were saved. It is impossible correctly to estimate the total loss, but the building and contents are valued at 1,500,000 dols. The total insurance amounts to only 160,000 dols. Notwithstanding the fire, the work of the University has not been interfered with; and the 1500 students of the University resumed their attendance at lectures on the Monday following the fire'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.