The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), Canada's largest fair was originally known as the Toronto Industrial Exhibition. Its name was changed to the Canadian National Exhibition in 1912. At that time, the hope was to better reflect the scope of this always diverse fair.
Since its inception, the CNE has featured exhibits on technological advances in industry and agriculture. Some of these included electric railway transportation in 1883, Edison's phonograph in 1888, the wireless telephone in the 1890s, radio in 1922, television in 1939 and plastics in the 1940s.
For your enjoyment, we've put together a selection of digitized materials from our Special Collections, highlighting the CNE over the decades, starting in the 1870s and going all the way up to the 1990s.
1870s
1880s
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
Explore all our digitized items related to the CNE.
Or read more stories of Toronto's history by visiting 150 sTOries, featuring 150 fascinating stories of Canada, with a decidedly Toronto perspective.
Edit: Removed mention of opening day of 2017's CNE and added link to all CNE items from our Digital Archive, May 13, 2020.
