Article

David Boyle

Published Online May 19, 2008

Last Edited July 24, 2015

David Boyle, blacksmith, teacher, archaeologist, museologist, historian (b at Greenock, Scot 1 May 1842; d at Toronto, Ont 14 Feb 1911). Although apprenticed as a blacksmith on arriving in Canada in 1856, Boyle became internationally prominent as Canada's premier archaeologist before WWI.

David Boyle

David Boyle, blacksmith, teacher, archaeologist, museologist, historian (b at Greenock, Scot 1 May 1842; d at Toronto, Ont 14 Feb 1911). Although apprenticed as a blacksmith on arriving in Canada in 1856, Boyle became internationally prominent as Canada's premier archaeologist before WWI. Motivated by the artisan self-improvement ethic, he became a rural Ontario teacher in 1865 and a principal in Elora (1871-81). He was a practitioner of the radical child-centered theories and methods of Swiss educator Johann Pestalozzi.

Subsequently, Boyle became curator-archaeologist of the Canadian Institute Museum (1884-96) and the Ontario Provincial Museum (1896-1911), laying the groundwork for development of Ontario ARCHAEOLOGY as a systematic and scientific discipline. From 1887 to 1911 he published his Annual Archaeological Reports for Ontario, the first Canadian periodical devoted primarily to the study of the archaeological record. Boyle was also an avid history buff and preservationist and the author of a book of nonsense poetry for children.