McGill web gems

More website mysteries unveiled

Mark Shainblum | Come explore the hidden gems and secret places on the websites of McGill University and its affiliated institutions.

Virtual McGill

cac.mcgill.ca/campus

The original Roddick gate house.
Courtesy of McGill Archives

Which McGill buildings burned to the ground within two weeks of each other in 1907? Why is Burnside Hall named Burnside Hall?

Why are there clocks on the Roddick Gates? These and many other perplexing mysteries are answered at Virtual McGill. A small part of the much vaster Canadian Architecture Collection site, Virtual McGill was one of several documentary projects created in honour of McGill's 175th anniversary in 1996. The look and feel of the site is still very 1996 (down to the retro Netscape Now! button on the front page), so you're time-travelling even before you click the "Evolution and Early History of McGill" link. Other fascinating sections look at McGill as it used to be, a building-by-building photographic and historic tour of McGill's two campuses (circa 1996, don't look for the Trottier or Wong buildings), and biographies of the architects and donors who built McGill from the ground up over 175 years.

Office for Science and Society

www.oss.mcgill.ca

McGill's OSS (not to be confused with the pre-CIA U.S. spy agency of the same initials) is the public face of McGill's Chemistry for the Public program co-founded by Joe Schwarcz, Ariel Fenster and David Harpp. Its website is a treasure trove of science facts and news (including a huge archive of science questions and answers from Schwarcz's radio show) but the coolest section of the site has to be the Look and Listen links to online lectures, slideshows and downloadable audio files.

Do you have a favourite McGill website mystery place? Please send it to mark.shainblum@mcgill.ca.