The history of Toronto in photos is a post I've been toying with putting together for a while. Having spent considerable time digging through the digital holdings of the Toronto Archives, it just seemed to make sense to pull all of these various posts together into one place â hence the ambitious title. This is not, of course, an authoritative history of this city (far from from it), but the 90 some odd posts linked to below provide a thematically organized visual overview of Toronto that I hope will be worth a return visit or two for those interested in the city of yesteryear. I also have every intention of adding to this little archive as additional historical posts are published on the site.

The vast majority of the photographs featured below derive from the Toronto Archives, which means that should you see something that you really like, it's probably available for purchase from the source. For those interested in a less visually oriented take on Toronto history, there is also our Nostalgia Tripping series, which was designed to be a bit more about storytelling than just the photos.

After having scanned the links below, should you have ideas for other posts that you'd like us to pursue, I'd be grateful for the feedback/suggestions. Here is our ongoing history of Toronto in photos.

Lost Toronto





The TTC





Cityscape





Streets and intersections





Structures and buildings





Non-TTC transportation

Places / Neighbourhoods





Vintage Toronto





Photographers





Art, maps and other documents





It wasn't always so rosy...





Overviews





By decade





Other Toronto history resources





Sites worth visiting for historical content

Photos in this post derive from the Toronto Archives with the exception of the painting of a streetcar on Dundas, which is by Michel Binette ("Brush Strokes on Dundas Street" 1979).