A century and a half now separate us from the founding of Canterbury College, the institution from which the University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha evolved. In ‘A New History: The University of Canterbury 1873–2023’, historian John Wilson offers a fresh interpretation of an institution that has played a central role in shaping the development of research culture and university education in Aotearoa New Zealand and that has been at the forefront of the shift to a postcolonial university world. In examining the University’s development, Wilson highlights how the institution evolved as part of the community it continues to serve, while offering city, province and Aotearoa as a whole leadership and, on occasion, challenging expectations.