Hours: Monday to Friday 8:30am-4:30pm
Location: 330 Elizabeth Dafoe Library, University of Manitoba Fort Garry Campus, Winnipeg, Canada. R3T 2N2.
Contact: archives@umanitoba.ca; (204) 474-9986
Access: Open to the public; Appointments encouraged
Website: https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/archives-special-collections
The University of Manitoba has university records, private papers, and archives of associations, political parties, and churches with strengths in environment, human rights, aboriginal history, religion, spiritualism, gender studies, and women’s history.
There are many records directly related to the history of medicine. The Mary Speechly fonds (1934, 1947-1969, 1980) include records of the Winnipeg Birth Control Society and the Family Planning Association of Winnipeg. The Robert Beamish fonds (1875-2001) consist of information about Beamish’s work at the St. Boniface Hospital and the Health Sciences Centre, as well as his professional work on cardiology. This university houses the administrative records, correspondences, and reports of the School of Nursing (1948-1984). A unique but relevant collection is the Age and Opportunity Inc. fonds (1992-1995), which includes the stories of ten seniors. There are important records related to the history of the LGBTQA+ community. The Manitoba Gay/Lesbian Archives (1968-2003) includes records from organizations like the Winnipeg Gay Media Collective (1980-1993) and the Council on Homosexuality and Religion (1976-1990). The Janet Reimer fonds (2000) discuss the controversial circumcision and sexual re-assignment case of Bruce Reimer.
Collections related to agriculture include the photographs, correspondence, and administrative records of the Manitoba Agricultural College (1901-1946), United Grain Growers (1867-1995), and Keystone Agricultural Producers (1915-1997). These collections also provide information on food history in Manitoba. Other collections also offer this information, such as the Co-Operative Vegetable Oils fonds (1947-1979) and the plentiful materials (24m) in the Ogilvie Flour Mills fonds (1847-1983).
The environmental records cover subjects like the Churchill River Diversion Project (in the fonds of Leonard A. Bateman), nuclear protests (in the fonds of W. O. Pruitt Jr.), and environmental concerns in general (in the Winnipeg Tribute fonds). This university also houses important records related to immigration and settlement. The Myroslav Shkandrij fonds (1960-2008) discusses Ukrainian settlement in Canada. The Tennenhouse Family fonds (1988) discusses Romanian settlement in Canada. As will be discussed below, there are also many records related to Aboriginal history in Winnipeg.
In addition, collections such as Oblates of Western Canada (1844-1948) offer a study of religion, settlement, and proselytization in Winnipeg. Records offer a study of paranormal beliefs and the practice of spiritualism in Winnipeg. These include the records of the Winnipeg Spiritualist Church (1952-2011), Calgary First Spiritualist Church (1995-2015) and the Springdale Park Spiritual Association (1998-2005).
This archive is a rich resource for Aboriginal studies. The Per Holting fonds (1957-1987) is especially unique as, in addition to textual and photographic records, the collection also includes 599 audio cassettes (1957-1987) that predominantly have interviews with Aboriginals in Northern Manitoba and with the Canadian Inuit. The university holds additional important records for The Indian and Métis Friendship Centre (1951-2010), the Department of Native Studies (1971-2003), and textual and audio records of the Dechene-May Indigenous Languages of Rupert’s Land collection (1960s-1980s). Their extensive Digital Collections archive offers additional materials related to the study of migration and settlement in the North, images of Aboriginal life in the Connie Macmillan Collection (1880s), images of the North West Rebellion of 1885 in the Kenneth Hayes Collection, and paintings and photographs of Louis Riel (1844-1885). The Walter Rudnicki (1925-2010) collection has many reports of Aboriginal (Métis mostly) experience and their negotiation for rights and better treatment.
For research from afar, the University of Manitoba has excellent digital collections available to the public online. These collections offer research in specific subject areas like “Aboriginal Peoples,” “Health and Medicine,” and “Immigration.” The site is a portal to important records, such as the Centre for Settlement Studies fonds from 1966-1975 (including a report on medical services in Northern communities by Jack J. Stephens and James Frideres) and numerous images and autobiographical related to settlement in the Prairies. Most notably, there is a digital Faculty of Medicine archive that consist of pictures of medical studies and students, the Canadian Red Cross hospital, and other records related to the study of medicine in Manitoba.