The History of King’s
The University of King’s College has a long and rich history. Founded in 1789 in Windsor, Nova Scotia, King’s was the first university in English Canada to be established, and the first university in Canada to receive a charter. King’s is thus the oldest English-speaking university in the Commonwealth outside the United Kingdom.
There had already been one King’s College in North America. Founded by King George II in New York in 1754, its short life ended with the beginning of the American Revolution and it re-opened eight years later as Columbia College. King’s in Windsor was founded by Anglican Loyalists who fled to Nova Scotia in the wake of the Revolution. In 1802, King George III granted the College a Royal Charter which proclaimed it as “the Mother of an University for the education and instruction of Youth and Students in Arts and faculties, to continue forever and to be called King’s College.” In recent years, King’s has embraced the opportunity to more fully explore the legacy of its history, including the involvement of some who founded and funded King’s in its early decades with the enslavement of Black people.
King’s remained in Windsor until 1923. In 1920, a fire ravaged the College, burning its main building to the ground and thus raising the question of how (or even whether) this small university was to survive. But King’s was determined to carry on and accepted a generous endowment for professors from the Carnegie Corporation in New York on the condition that it raise the money to rebuild in Halifax, the capital city of Nova Scotia. King’s relocated to a five acre site on the campus of Dalhousie University, now the largest post-secondary institution in the Maritimes.
Entering into a formal association with Dalhousie, King’s put its power to grant the BA and BSc degrees into abeyance and formed with Dalhousie a joint Faculty of Arts and Science (now the College of Arts & Science, which includes the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science). With the endowment from the Carnegie Corporation, King’s contributed a number of professors (now called Carnegie Professors) to the joint Faculty, who also helped in the management and academic life of the College. For a number of years, these professors taught many of their Dalhousie courses on the King’s campus.
Although its Arts and Science programs were combined with those of Dalhousie, the College successfully retained its institutional independence, an Anglican School of Divinity, separate residences, and distinctive collegiate traditions.
The city of Halifax played a central role as a port during the Second World War, and King’s took part in the war effort. From 1941 to 1945, the college buildings became His Majesty’s Canadian Ship “HMCS King’s,” and nearly 3,100 officers were trained there for sea duty with the Royal Canadian Navy. Students and staff carried on elsewhere in Halifax, aided by Dalhousie University and the Pine Hill Divinity Hall of the United Church.
In the 1960s, increased enrolment meant that King’s was able to expand, building a new Alexandra Hall, which was then a residence for women, a new gym and a new dining hall, still called Prince Hall.
The academic face of the College changed dramatically during the 1970s. In 1971, King’s entered into a partnership agreement with Pine Hill of the United Church, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax and the Anglican Dioceses of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and of New Brunswick, to found the ecumenical Atlantic School of Theology (AST). At the same time that the work formerly done by the Faculty of Divinity was being relocated to AST, a new educational project was underway, marking the beginning of a long period of academic experimentation.
In 1972, the College introduced its unique Foundation Year Program to serve as an alternative first-year experience for BA and BSc students of the “great books” variety. By taking advantage of its independence from the dominant concerns of the large modern university, while drawing strength from its very close association with Dalhousie, the Foundation Year Program (FYP) aimed to provide King’s students with the basis for an integrated university education through a consideration of the Western tradition from the ancient world to the present, principally through the study of core texts.
In 1978, King’s took another step forward by establishing the only degree-granting School of Journalism in Atlantic Canada, offering a four-year undergraduate Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) degree, and a one-year Bachelor of Journalism degree for university graduates. The successful expansion of the College through the Foundation Year Program and Journalism enabled King’s to build a beautiful new library, completed in 1991.
Then, in 1993, King’s and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Dalhousie began offering the Contemporary Studies Program, the first of three upper-year interdisciplinary combined honours programs to be offered at King’s. Early Modern Studies and History of Science and Technology, which began in 1999 and 2000 respectively, were built upon the Contemporary Studies model. All three are available to students registered at King’s and in the Dalhousie College of Arts & Science and include a second honours subject taken in a Dalhousie department. In 2001, King’s opened its New Academic Building to house the new programs and to provide an expanded Foundation Year Program with a spacious and well-equipped lecture hall.
In 2011, the King’s School of Journalism and Dalhousie University introduced the only Master of Journalism in Atlantic Canada. In 2013, the two universities added the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction to their joint graduate offerings. In 2023, a second Master of Fine Arts, this one in Fiction, was added. In 2023, the School of Journalism was reconfigured into the School of Journalism, Writing and Publishing to reflect the growing importance of the creative writing degrees and the shared focus on both journalism and creative writing in storytelling.
The College still maintains many distinctive traditions, such as Formal Meal, at which academic gowns are worn; a rich array of student societies, including some founded in the late 19th century; Matriculation ceremonies, held each year in recognition of entering students, that centers on a Latin oath and signing of the Matricula, which has been maintained since 1802; and an Encaenia ceremony for graduates each May. Daily services are held in the Chapel for those who wish to participate, some involving its highly regarded choir. The combination of these traditions with the radical innovations of students and faculty makes for a stimulating intellectual environment, one that embraces the incongruity of things. In recent years, the College has put its acknowledgement of its location in Mi’kma’ki into action by including Mi’kmaw elements in its ceremonies and events.
Through it all, King’s remains committed to retaining the personal atmosphere, individual attention, and sense of community that are especially rich in a small college. At the same time, its students have access to the tremendous resources of Dalhousie, Atlantic Canada’s largest university, enabling unique opportunities in both undergraduate and graduate education.