Casey Albert Wood (1856-1942) was an ophthalmologist, an ornithologist, and a bibliophile. He was born to American parents in Wellington, Ontario on November 21, 1856. Wood attended school in Ottawa and graduated from the Ottawa Collegiate Institute in 1874. He then attended Bishop’s College in Montreal where he graduated with an M.D.C.M. degree in 1877. Wood was awarded an ad eundem degree in 1906 following Bishop’s College merger with McGill University. He also received D.C.L, LL. D honorary degrees from these institutions. Under Sir William Osler (1849-1919) Wood became the first clinical clerk at Montreal General Hospital, which began a close lifelong friendship.

On October 28, 1886, Casey Wood married Emma Shearer, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Shearer, a prominent Montreal family.

Based in Montreal from 1878-1886, Wood practiced general medicine and surgery and taught chemistry and pathology. By 1886, Casey Wood decided to make Ophthalmology and Otology his speciality, beginning further studies in New York followed by Europe. In 1890, Wood settled in Chicago where he practiced, taught and published extensively. He also travelled, held various appointments, and conducted research during this time.

From 1916-1920 Wood served in the United States Army Medical Reserve Corps as a member of the Office of the Surgeon General for the majority of his military career. In Autumn 1917, Major Wood was put in charge of Camp Sherman Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department in Chillicothe, Ohio. Then in December 1917, he was transferred to the War Department in Washington, D.C. where he served until his retirement in 1920 holding the rank of Colonel.

Casey Wood's research in ophthalmology extended to an interest in the history of ophthalmology, comparative ophthalmology, ornithology, and finally into a passion for collecting books and other materials on these subjects. In 1917, Wood published the monograph ""Fundus Oculi of Birds, Especially as Viewed by the Ophthalmoscope," a major milestone in his career. He also translated many hitherto untranslated works of historical interest on ophthalmology and ornithology.

From 1920 until mid-1930, Casey Wood, his wife Emma, their niece Marjorie Fyfe, and their beloved parrot John III travelled extensively to study birds in their natural habitat. They explored Europe, British Guiana, India, Ceylon, Kashmir, the South Pacific, Northeast and Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Wood was supported in his travels and research by friends, researchers, book dealers, libraries, museums, and locals. Wood also continued to produce publications and was an active member in many international ornithological societies, unions, and associations. Wood also taught ornithology at Stanford University beginning in 1927 and was research associate at the California Institute of Technology in 1932.

In 1911, Wood presented a large collection of rare books on the subject of diseases of the eye to McGill's Medical Library and in 1919, he established and endowed the Emma Shearer Wood Library of Ornithology. The Blacker Wood Library of Biology, established in 1988, resulted in the fusion of the Emma Shearer Wood Library of Ornithology with the Blacker Library of Zoology founded and endowed by his friends Robert Roe Blacker (1845-1931) and his wife Nellie Canfield (d. 1946) of Pasadena, California in 1920. During his travels, Wood actively collected materials for the Emma Shearer Wood, Blacker, and Medical Library collections at McGill University and other institutions.

In 1931, Wood published one of his most extensive works "An Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology, based chiefly on the titles in the Blacker Library of Zoology, the Emma Shearer Wood Library of Ornithology, the Bibliotheca Osleriana, and other libraries of McGill University, Montreal." The volume was well received and provided a thorough catalogue of works published on vertebrate zoology.

Wood’s last work, published after his death and written with his niece F. Marjorie Fyfe, was "the Art of Falconry," a translation of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen’s De Arte Venandi cum Avibus.

Casey Wood passed away on January 26, 1942 at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California, survived by his wife Emma. Wood was cremated and buried in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Anna Wentworth was the daughter of John Wentworth, a farmer and Church warden of the Parish of Finchley, Middlesex County, England. At the age of 26 she married watchmaker John Wood. After their marriage, the couple lived in Brighton, where John established his watchmaking business. The couple's first child, Charles (1817-1892), and daughter Charlotte Elizabeth (1821-1837) were born in Brighton. They moved to Littlehampton, England, sometime during 19825 or 1826. They had two more sons, Peter Wentworth in 1826 and John in 1828, as well as a daughter Mary Anne (born 1832) who did not survive to crossing to Canada in 1832.

In 1916 the Women's Canadian Club of Montreal formed a committee to compile a register of unemployed English-speaking women in the city willing to work as replacements for enlisted men. This Women's War Register was modelled on similar groups in Great Britain and Toronto, and functioned until the end of the War. Its chairman was Ethel Hurlbatt, Warden of Royal Victoria College.

The Women’s Centennial Committee was founded in 1983 in order to organize series of events for the celebration of the past and present achievements of women at McGill University. The festivities started on 11 September 1984, one hundred years after Lord Strathcona wrote a letter to Sir William Dawson, Principal of McGill University, to establish and sustain a college for Women. The Women’s Centennial Committee was chaired by Arlene Gaunt. Students, staff, graduates and friends were participating in year long plan in order to highlight the role of women at McGill. To this event a book Fair Shake of thirty autobiographies of McGill women was published documenting hundred years of women students at the University.

Founded in 1906 as a merger of the McGill Women’s Club (1905) and the McGill Women’s Union (circa 1900) the Women’s Associates of McGill University was an organization primarily for the wives and daughters of McGill University administrators, faculty and leadership. The official mandate of the McGill Women’s Associates was to “to furnish… the interests and activities of social life of McGill University…”.

Many of the social events and activities mentioned were reflective of their times, during the war years the organization raised funds by buying war bonds as well as knitting projects and correspondence to frontline forces in the world wars. Peacetime activities included book sales, tea soirees and philanthropic endeavours such as providing scholarships. The fonds extends well past the first half of the twentieth century and up to 2007 reflecting the activities of the organization. The organization has changed its name several times (McGill Women’s Club, McGill Women’s Union, Women’s Associates of McGill University) and has remained an important part of McGill’s history.