The Archives of Thomas McCulloch: A Guide
Collection Number: MS-2-40Fonds-level description created by Laurena Fredette, November 2006
Electronic version prepared by Kathryn Harvey, March 2007
Collection Level Description
Title: Thomas McCulloch fonds
Dates: 1808-1955
Extent: 6 folders of textual records. - 4 rolls microfilm. – 1 photograph : b&w glass plate ; 7 x 5 cm
Thomas McCulloch was a Presbyterian minister, author, and educator. Born in Fereneze, Scotland, to Michael and Elizabeth McCulloch in 1776, he studied logic at Glasgow University (graduating in 1792) and then theology at the General Associate Synod in Whitburn. In 1799 he was ordained, assigned a presbytery in Stewarton, and married Isabella Walker with whom he had nine children.
McCulloch asked to be sent to North America after about four years at Stewarton. He arrived in Pictou in 1803 and became minister of that congregation the following year. In 1824 McCulloch resigned his ministerial position to concentrate on education and teaching. He had begun operating a school in his home in 1806, helped establish Pictou Academy in 1818 where he served as principal, and had been working steadily to bring about educational reform in the province. He remained at Pictou until 1838 when he became the first president of Dalhousie University teaching courses in logic, rhetoric, and philosophy, a position he held until his death in Halifax in 1843. McCulloch was also interested in the natural sciences and authored books and articles on theology and politics, as well as some popular satirical stories of which the Stepsure Letters are perhaps the best known.
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Buggey, Susan and Gwendolyn Davies. “McCulloch, Thomas.”Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. 2000. University of Toronto/Universite Laval. 16 November 2006 < http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=37661&query=mcculloch>.
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The custodial history of this fonds is unknown.
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This fonds contains both original records and reproductions of materials related to Rev. Thomas McCulloch. The fonds contains one glass plate of McCulloch, correspondence with Sam Cunard, Lord Dalhousie, the University of Edinburgh, and the Wernerian Natural History Society; a hand written paper concerning vegetation in the Minas Basin; some short hand notes; a ticket for McCulloch’s Moral Philosophy course at Dalhousie College; and microfilmed copies of three books by McCulloch and a Dalhousie thesis discussing McCulloch and the Nova Scotia educational system.
For related materials see also the Thomas McCulloch fonds, MS-2-41.
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All records are open.
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[Identification of item], Thomas McCulloch fonds, MS-2-40, Box [box number], Folder [folder number], Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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