The Ontario Historical Education Collections (OHEC) house over 16,000 items. Along with historical Ontario K-12 textbooks, the OHEC includes documents from the Ontario Ministry of Education (formerly the Ontario Department of Education) that cover the areas of elementary, secondary and teacher education from the mid-1800s to the present day, such as:

Calendars: for teachers’ colleges, teacher summer schools, and model schools (early 1900s –1979)
Approved textbook lists: including Circular 14, a list of textbooks authorized for classroom use in Ontario (1873- 1996), which is also available online through the Internet Archive
Course profiles, curricula, and exemplars: for elementary and secondary levels (early 1900s –present)
Examinations: high school entrance, high school leaving, departmental, normal school and school inspector exams (1873-1967)
High school documents: outlining requirements for high school graduation (1943-present)
Ontario teacher college yearbooks (1900s-1970s)
Teacher manuals: used in normal schools and teachers’ colleges (1910s –1930s)
Policy/program documents and memoranda: detailing government planning and decision-making in Ontario education (early 20th century –present)
Programs for observation of special days: including Empire Day, Commonwealth Day, Remembrance Day and Arbour Day
Regulations: including legislative grants, religious education, and other general educational procedures
Reports: including studies and recommendations for the development of education in Ontario

Explore online

Explore the collections online using this pre-filtered search link and starting a keyword search
Dig into archival collections about the history of education in Ontario and Canada on U of T’s Discover Archives
For detailed information and search tips, try our OHEC research guide

Ontario Historical Education Collections

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