Born in Gravesend, Upper Canada, Wrong graduated from Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto, where, in 1895, he became the first Professor of Modern History. A believer in the historian's moral duty to interpret the past for society's present needs, he viewed Canadian history in terms of the country's British and French origins, and the American presence. As a teacher, administrator, writer, and a moving force in the early days of the Canadian Historical Association, he helped to provide an intellectual base for a developing Canadian nationality. He died at Toronto.