York University, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

Hours: Monday-Friday, 10:00am-4:30pm; Saturday-Sunday, Closed
Location: Room 305 in Scott Library; 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3; Researchers must ring the doorbell during hours of operation to gain entrance.
Contact: 416-736-5442, archives@yorku.ca
Access: Open to the Public for drop-in or appointment visits; Appointments can be booked with an Archivist or the Archives Technician by emailing archives@yorku.ca (same day service might not be possible) or contacting a subject & liaison librarian. Note that materials are retrieved from storage Monday-Friday three times daily: 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. Please call or email the archives ahead of time, should you require document retrieval prior to your visit. Researchers must register as Readers during their visit and are required to bring photo identification. Researchers who also require financial assistance are asked to visit the Kent Haworth Archival Research Fellowship page for more information on funding.
Website address: http://www.library.yorku.ca/web/archives/  

York University is home to the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, which houses the York University Faculty archives, private collections of community activists and organizations as well as digital collections, maps, manuscripts, photographs, rare books, Canadian pamphlet collections, and other primary source material in Canadian history, Women’s Studies, women’s health, labour history, fine arts (design, photography, music, film and theatre), philosophy, environmental history, and sexual diversity. Clara Thomas was a feminist and founding faculty member at York University.

York University Faculty Records include collections of the governing, administrative, academic and student bodies of York University. Some notable faculty collections include the Faculty of Health, Centre for Research on Environmental Quality, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, Counselling and Development Centre, Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, Institute for Social Research and Retirement Consultation Centre.  

Other collections of notable individuals within the greater community include the records of Dr. Allan T.R. Powell (1945-1988), a professor at the University of Toronto in 1966. The fonds reflect his work in securing the rights of those who contracted Hepatitis C through blood transfusions. Powell was an active member of the New Democratic Party during the 1970s and the founding president of the Hepatitis C Survivors Society (HEPSS). Marilou McPhedran (1973-2006, predominant 1985-2003) was a Canadian feminist lawyer, consultant and activist. From 1981 to 1985, she was employed as health advocate and counsel for the City of Toronto, serving as member of the Metro Toronto Task Force on Public Violence against Women and Children and was a coordinator of the Action Task Force on Discharged Psychiatric Patients. She was co-founder of the Metropolitan Toronto Action Committee on Violence against Women and Children (METRAC), the first non-government organization in Canada dedicated to research and advocacy countering violence against women and children.

There are pro and anti abortion materials including the Childbirth by Choice Trust collection (1961-2005, 16.5m of text). It was founded in 1982 as the research arm of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League. Notable private papers of faculty include historian Ian Gentles’ (1970-1989) private collection which contains materials related to abortion and organizations supporting the right to life.

The Archives’ Digital Collections also contain the Dorothy Stepler Fonds (1915-1919), which includes diaries, correspondence and postcards from Dorothy Hamilton Stepler, who worked for the Federal Department of Health and Welfare and advocated for mothers and children to receive family allowance payments. American pediatrician and critic of medical paternalism Robert S. Mendelsohn’s collection contains photographs, audio recordings and various issues since 1977 of The People’s Doctor, a medical newsletter. Other notable digital collections include the records of Canadian journalist and freelance reporter Cyril Knowlton Nash, highlighting his Washington through Canadian Eyes correspondences as a foreign correspondent in Washington, D.C. between 1958 and 1959.

The Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections also provide researchers with access to various guides organized by theme to help facilitate their research.