Title: Bovell's House on Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
Location: Spadina Avenue (Toronto, Ont.)
Date: 1925
Physical Description: image.photograph.black and white
12.5 x 17.6 cm including borders
11.4 x 15.7 cm including borders
Image Number: CUS_032-026_P
Description: The house on Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, where Dr. James Bovell once lived. Dr. Bovell exerted a great influence on the young William Osler, acting as medical director of Trinity College School, Professor of Natural Theology at Trinity College, and lecturer on physiology and pathology at the Toronto Medical School during Osler's time at all three institutions. Along with Rev. William Johnson of Trinity College School, he encouraged Osler's interest in natural history and was therefore instrumental in directing him toward a career in medicine, not in the Anglican Church as was his original aim. While he lived in Toronto, William Osler spent much of his spare time at Bovell's house.
Notes: Copy 2406. The Old House at Spadina Ave. Toronto, Ontario Canada Dec. 7, 1925. Sir W.O. Bovell's House? W.W.F. 1945 (transcribed from back of photo)
"With his four daughters Bovell lived on Spadina Avenue, and the young Osler soon after his entrance to Trinity [in 1867] began to frequent the place 'to keep his aquaria stocked with pond material likely to contain good specimens of algae...' " From Henry Cushing's "Life of Sir William Osler" (1925), vol. 1, p. 49.
Subject Spadina Avenue (Toronto, Ont.)
Subject Bovell, James, 1817-1880
Subject Osler, William, Sir, 1849-1919 -- Homes and haunts
Publisher: Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University
is Part Of: Cushing Collection
Image Is Related To: Back


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