Sous-fonds 20A - Collection about William Brodie

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Collection about William Brodie

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    Sous-fonds

    Reference code

    CA ON00259 SC20-20A

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    Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

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    Date(s)

    • 1835-1993 (Creation)
      Creator
      Brodie, William

    Physical description area

    Physical description

    3 boxes of textual records and graphic material

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    Name of creator

    (1831-1909)

    Biographical history

    William G.A. Brodie was a dentist and naturalist active in the Toronto area throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Brodie was born in 1831 in Peterhead, Aberdeen, Scotland to George Brodie and Jean Milne. At the age of four, Brodie's family moved to Upper Canada, Whitchurch Township and grew up surrounded by nature and fauna, and attending local schools in the area. He would marry Jane Anna MacPherson and have seven children together: one son and six daughters.

    Brodie was trained and educated locally and became a teacher in the Whitchurch and Markham townships. He also studied dentistry and in 1870 was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. He would practice in Markham for over forty years. Brodie was known to refer to his work in dentistry as a "means to make a living" so that he could pursue his true passion for natural history and entomology.

    Brodie was an avid naturalist and collected and studied all kinds of specimens. He became a recognized authority in entomology and botany. Brodie founded the Natural History Society of Toronto (originally known as the Toronto Entomological Society) and remained its president until its merger with the Canadian Institute to form it's biological collections. Brodie also wrote a number of articles which were published in the Canadian Entomologist, and the Toronto Evening News.

    By 1900 his biological collections were one of the largest in the continent and contained over 100,000 specimens of flora and fauna. He was recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture as the best authority in North America on the aspect of plant pathology. In 1903, he sold a collection of 18,000 galls to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. 80,000 specimen were also sold to the Government of Ontario, who placed them in the Ontario Provincial Museum and named Brodie the curator and first Provincial Entomologist (or Biologist) and was able to retire from dentistry. Brodie remained in this role until his death from pneumonia on August 6, 1909.

    The Brodie Club, founded in 1921 after his death, was named after him. The collections of the Ontario Provincial Museum would eventually come to form the basis of the collections at the Royal Ontario Museum.

    Custodial history

    Scope and content

    Sous-fonds consists of correspondence, photographs, catalogue of galls, and manuscripts. Some materials are authored by William Brodie, others were added after his death.

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