University of Guelph Library
History of Veterinary Science Collection
Veterinarian sketches.
Resources on the History of Veterinary Science at Guelph in Special Collections include rare and scarce veterinary materials in book and archival form. The collection first started with the formation of a Veterinary School at Toronto in 1862 under the leadership of its first Principal, Andrew Smith, and continued when it moved to Guelph in 1922.
The collection principally focuses on Ontario, but contains strengths in the practices of the veterinary profession beginning in the seventeenth century, e.g., books in the F.C. Cherry Collection highlight the work of farriers before 1830. The C.A.V. Barker Collection contains early Ontario Veterinary College records and materials for the careers of practicing veterinarians who were former graduates of OVC. Important early books printed before 1800 are held in rare books and include:
- Carlo Ruini, Anatomia & Medicina Equorum Nova (Frankfurt, 1603)
- E.R. Gent, The Experienced Farrier: or, Farring Compleated (London, 1678)
- Gervase Markham, The Compleat Jockey(London, 1688)
- Thomas Prosser, A Treatise on the Strangles and Fevers of Horses(London, 1710)
- William Gibson, The True Method of Dieting Horses (London, 1726)
- Richard Bradley, The Gentleman and Farmer's Guide for the Increase and Improvement of Cattle (London, 1729)
- William Hird, Remarks Upon Pestilence and Pestilential Diseases (London, 1753)
- Claude Bourgelat, Elemens de l'art Veterinaire (Paris, 1769)
- William Taplin, The Gentleman's Stable Directory: or, Modern System of Farriery, third ed., (London, 1788)
This historical collection, with more than 300 printed rare books at its core, continues to grow and can be browsed at this main catalogue location. Some publications prior to 1800 (such as the ones hyperlinked above) are available in electronic, full-text format for registered students and staff in Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online.