Established and named in honour of Dr Frank Underhill (1889-1971), the Underhill Reading Room on the fourth floor of Paterson Hall provides a comfortable study space for graduate and senior undergraduate History students, along with a large collection of books on Canadian, American and British history, as well as classical works on economics and politics. The reading room also offers a number of current periodicals for students to read such as History Today, BBC History Magazine, the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, and Women’s History. The Underhill Reading Room is open weekdays from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. The Underhill Reading Room is supported by a generous endowment that allows the Department to purchase new materials and to provide funding for the annual Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium and the Underhill Undergraduate Student Colloquium, as well as supporting research carried out in the Underhill Digital Research Room.
The Underhill Digital Research Room (UDRR) is a suite of rooms offering research facilities for faculty, graduate students, and senior undergraduate students. One room (accessed by signing out a key from the Main Office) has a state-of-the-art digital microfilm reader; the other has three MAC workstations equipped with film and audio editing software as well as a scanner. The UDRR (entrance and workstations) is open from 8:30-4:30 Monday to Friday. For further information please contact Professor John Walsh.
The Underhill endowment also supports the Underhill Publications Fund which, as well as covering the cost of binding theses and research essays for the Reading Room, offers limited financial support for the production of graduate theses and research essays (such as securing high quality images for publication) and costs associated with dissemination (such as conference posters). Students or their supervisors should contact the chair of the Underhill Committee, Professor David Dean, for information on how to apply for assistance. Applications are taken on a first come, first served basis, at any time of the year.