“A Lasting Alliance Between Town and Gown”? Dalhousie Extension Lectures, 1890 - 1945

Abstract

In the 1890s, universities across North America embarked on a short-lived “university extension” movement modelled on systems of lectures and examinations that had been developed at Cambridge and Oxford. While this movement lasted only a few years in the United States and failed to launch in Canada, it sparked substantial interest in the delivery of public lectures by university professors over the first half of the twentieth century. Based upon archival research, this article presents a historical case study of the extension lecture service organized by Dalhousie University. The article narrates the evolution of the lectures delivered, explains how the lecture service operated, and analyzes why the university launched, sustained, and ultimately terminated that service. The article highlights the antecedents of “friendraising” and argues that universities’ engagement with communities is driven by factors that are related more to institutional politics than to the interests or educational needs of people in those communities.