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The official beginning
On Dec.16, 1910, “An Act to Incorporate Mount Royal College” was officially passed by the Alberta legislature, officially establishing Mount Royal as a “body politic and corporate” for “the education of youth and the promotion of knowledge.”
The historic eight-page document outlines Mount Royal’s mandate as a co-educational institution instructing students in a variety of disciplines — including music, art, speech and drama, journalism, business, technical and domestic arts — as well as detailing the duties of the Board of Governors.
The incorporation document kick-started a flurry of activity, as Board members and Mount Royal’s first principal, Rev. George W. Kerby, set out to build the preparatory school of their dreams.
They quickly began recruiting top-quality faculty members, as well as selecting a building site and securing funds to begin construction on the campus near downtown Calgary.
From January to March 1911, Kerby took an intensive tour of 65 colleges and universities across the continent, including McGill, Harvard, Radcliff, Upper Canada College and others, in order to interview leading educators and understand what went into an outstanding institution.
Meanwhile, student recruitment began. A course calendar was printed and circulated to Methodist churches, and advertisements described Mount Royal as a “high-class residential college” with an “ideal location” and “staff of highest scholarship and experience.”
In his Principal’s Report to the Board of Governors in March 1911 — six months before the school opened its doors — Kerby had little doubt about Mount Royal’s tremendous potential:
“There is no reason, so far as I can see, why Mount Royal College should not become one of the famous colleges of Canada…. [It] will be largely what we make it; if we set our ideals high, if we lay the foundation for a great institution, we can have it.”
And, 100 years later, Mount Royal University is still going strong.
This page regularly showcases the collections of the Mount Royal University Archives.Thanks to the Director of the Archives, Patricia Roome, PhD, and her staff for their assistance in selecting artifacts and conducting research.