ABSTRACT
The Museum, Archives and Records Management Section (MARM) of the Toronto Board of Education is responsible for a diverse collection of materials documenting the history of the Toronto Board of Education from the 1840s to the present. The collection ranges from traditional sources of information such as manuscripts, publications and historical pictures to examples of material culture such as presentation silver, major works of Canadian art and jars of snakes from a 1912 science classroom. The collection supports research on the administrative history of the Board, on past and on current issues in Toronto’s education, on the development of educational ideas and techniques and their introduction into the Toronto schools and on the history of individual schools. Because of the collection’s richness and accessibility, it supports research on Ontario’s educational history as well. At the same time, the collection captures the classroom experience of the students and teachers, and the nostalgic recollection, sometimes good, sometimes bad, of school days. Drawing on this collection, the staff of MARM serve the educational community within the Board and a research community beyond. A traditional reference service to users is supplemented by active programs to encourage knowledge of the Board’s history and to actively promote the use of the collection.
