Toronto's Historical Plaques

Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

Davidson Black 1884-1934

What comes to your mind when you hear the words 'Peking Man'? Nothing? Then this Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque found near the elevators here in the Medical Sciences Building at 1 King's College Circle on the grounds of the University of Toronto will enlighten you:

Davidson Black was born and educated in Toronto. He had begun a career in medicine when Sir Grafton Elliot Smith interested him in the problem of fossil man. After World War I, Black accepted a post at the Pekin Union Medical College, considering China to be a likely field for his studies. There, in 1927, on the basis of a fossil tooth found at Chou Kou Tien, he identified a new genus and species hominid, Sinanthropus pekinensis. This discovery of 'Peking man' was subsequently confirmed by the excavations of W.C. Pei and a team Chinese and European scientists working with Black. He died in China.

Location Co-ordinates: 43.661030 -79.393655

Photo by Alan L Brown - September 2006

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