The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin |

About the Discovery of Insulin

The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Medicine to Frederick Banting and J.J.R. Macleod in 1923 formally recognized the tremendous achievement of the Toronto team in discovering and developing insulin, a substance that continues to alleviate the suffering and prevent the death of many millions of diabetics throughout the world.

This site documents the initial period of the discovery and development of insulin, 1920-1925, here at the University of Toronto. It presents over seven thousand page images reproducing original documents ranging from laboratory notebooks and charts, correspondence, writings, and published papers to photographs, awards, clippings, scrapbooks, printed ephemera and artifacts. Drawing mainly on the Banting, Best and related collections housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and the Archives and Records Management Services at the University of Toronto, it also includes significant holdings from the Aventis Pasteur (formerly Connaught) Archives, and the personal collection of Dr. Henry Best. More