Waterloo Lutheran University Library, 1965

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Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

Colour outdoor photograph of thirteen staff members in front of the Waterloo Lutheran University Library construction site. University Librarian Erich Schultz is in the front row, far left.

Notes

Wilfrid Laurier University is a public university in Waterloo, Ontario. Laurier traces its roots to 1911 with the founding of the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary of Canada, the first Lutheran seminary in Canada.

As the seminary grew, it expanded teaching into new areas. From 1914-1929 it founded and operated Waterloo College School, an all-boys high school offering pre-theological education leading to senior matriculation. In 1924, the seminary expanded its higher education offerings when it established Waterloo College of Arts, a non-theological honours degree program affiliated with the University of Western Ontario. Waterloo College and Associate Faculties, offering science and engineering programs, was launched in 1956. Three years later, Waterloo College and Associate Faculties separated from Waterloo College and became incorporated as the University of Waterloo.

Also in 1959, the seminary received a revised charter from the Province of Ontario. The charter established Waterloo Lutheran University, a degree-granting university composed of two units – Waterloo University College (formerly Waterloo College) and Waterloo Lutheran Seminary (formerly the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary of Canada). In 1960, WLU ended its long-standing affiliation with the University of Western Ontario, and began to grant its own degrees.

On November 1, 1973, Waterloo Lutheran University became a public institution and was renamed Wilfrid Laurier University. Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, renamed Martin Luther University College in 2018, remains a federated college of the university.

In 1999 a second campus, Laurier Brantford, opened in Brantford, Ontario. In 2006 the Faculty of Social Work moved to a century-old building in downtown Kitchener.

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