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The Post-Graduate Students Society of McGill University was founded in 1908 to represent graduate students of the downtown campus of McGill University. The Society came into its own as an independent entity recognized by the University in 1991 after successful disunion from the Student Society’s of McGill University (SSMU). Forty years prior, in 1951, the Dean of Graduate Studies, David L. Thomson, initiated a trust fund to provide space on campus for graduate students. This fund remains in existence today, administered by the Society’s President as the Thomson House Trust Fund (THTF) whose purpose remains ‘to complete occupancy of the House.’

The Society was originally an affiliated constituency of the SSMU much like the current day faculty-specific undergraduate societies (SUS, EUS, AUS). Although affiliated with SSMU, it began its occupancy of the Charles Edouard Gravel House in 1968 when it was purchased by the University to house the German Department, Management Institute and to provide a graduate student space. To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Trust Fund in 1971, the House was renamed to honour Dean Thomson.

The Society became a member of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) between 1991 and 1995. The Society was also a founding member of a graduate network named Regroupement des associations des cycles supérieures du Québec (RACSQ) which merged into the Fédération des Étudiant(e)s Universitaires du Québec (FEUQ) and its Conseil Nationale des cycles supérieurs in 1994. In February 1992, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) was duly constituted following a resolution of the Society’s then standing TA Committee.

After five years of operation as an independent Society, and almost thirty years of occupancy in the House, a vision project was initiated by the 1996-97 Executive. Though much of the text of the current Statutes remains true to wording in effect prior to 1991, a rigorous project was undertaken to revise the Statues, following the resolutions of the “Vision Document” created in 1997. In addition to significant changes to the Society Statues, this process created the forum, and subsequent momentum to address the survival and overall performance of the Society.

By 2001, a post-disunion fee agreement was renewed with the SSMU. In 2002, following their formal integration into the University, postdoctoral fellows were added to the Society’s constituency with a growing constituency of approximately 300 members (now over 500). The position of Equity Commissioner was created to alleviate the growing weight of the VP Academic’s portfolio.

By 2003, the Society had increased its Council participation rate by 300% over five years and began reconsidering its affiliation with the CFS on the basis of ineffective provincial component representation but also in the spirit of transparency; that standing fees and affiliations be subject to renewal. The Society successfully hosted the Canadian Graduate Student Leadership Conference in September 2003. In 2004, major Statute revisions were brought to address fee collection and recognition brought upon by new clauses added to the Memorandum of Agreement with the University as renegotiated in 2003-04. Further, the culture of the operations of Thomson House was altered significantly by the Council-initiated tobacco ban in January 2004.

Ottawa Valley Graduates’ Society was one of the McGill University Graduates’ Society branches, composed of all graduates of McGill University who desired to become members.
Its objective was to inform the members about all matters of importance concerning the university, to promote its interests more effectively, and to provide the opportunities of social connections to its graduates residing in the Ottawa Valley.

The office of Chancellor was established by the University statutes of 1864, which ordered that the President of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning should also bear the title and perform the function of University Chancellor. The Chancellor is the titular head of the University and the presiding officer of convocation and of joint sessions of the Board of Governors and the Senate. Until 1970 the Chancellor/ President of the Royal Institution usually served as Chairman of the Board of Governors, although this arrangement was customary not statutory. In 1970 the positions of Chancellor and President of the Royal Institution were split. The Chancellor remained the ceremonial head of the University. The President of the Royal Institution usually also serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors, the latter position being concerned mainly with financial and administrative affairs. At present the Chancellor's duties include presiding over convocation and other University functions and serving as chairman of the honourary degreees committee and the committee to select a Principal.

McGill University’s Medical Library was started in 1823 by the staff of the Montreal General Hospital – it was the first medical library in Canada. The Library was located within the Montreal Medical Institution (north east corner of Place-d’Armes, 20 rue Saint Jacques, Montréal, Québec), before McGill Faculty of Medicine was established in 1829. As McGill’s Faculty of Medicine grew and became more established, the Library moved between various locations until, at last, the Faculty opened its very own building on campus in 1872. By 1898, McGill’s Medical Library had grown to be the largest medical library in all of North America, with over 15,000 volumes.

1907 was a fiery year in McGill’s history, and when flames tore through the Medical Building on 16th April 1907, thankfully the majority of the Medical Library’s collection was saved. The building itself, however, was completely destroyed. With the generosity of Lord Strathcona, a new medical building was built in 1909 and the Faculty of Medicine along with the library, museum, and laboratories, relocated to the new Strathcona Medical Building designed by Brown and Valance, Architects. When Sir William Osler’s library was bequeathed to McGill and the Osler Library of the History of Medicine was established in 1929 (also located in the Strathcona Medical Building), it was decided that the older historical collections of the Medical Library would gradually be extracted and re-housed at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine.

In 1966, the Faculty of Medicine, the Medical Library, and the Osler Library of the History of Medicine all moved to the newly built McIntyre Medical Sciences Building. The Medical Library would later change its name to the Health-Sciences Library in 1988, and in 1996 most of its older collections (1850-1964) were moved into off-site storage in order to create more space for computers, printers, and terminals. More recently in 2013, the medical and life sciences collections at McGill merged into what is now the Schulich Library of Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering, and the library was closed.