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archival descriptions
CA UVICARCH AR355 · Fonds · 2000-2002

The fonds consists of project files including correspondence, funding, proposals, newspaper clippings, research papers; journals and notebook; scrapbook entitled "Building of Change: the process exposed"; oral history interview tapes; video recordings. Audio cassettes included records interviews with: Jacquie Ackerly, Sharon Chow, Harrinder Dhillon, Dorothy Livingston, Norrie Preston, and Joan Russo.

Building of Change Project
Mary Macdonald fonds
CA UVICARCH AR357 · Fonds · 1919

The notebook consists of lecture notes for a Household Science course taken at the Summer School for Teachers, Victoria B.C. The notebook includes detailed notes about sewing, including sample patterns and embroidery samples; and notes on cookery, housewifery and cleaning, including several basic recipes.

Macdonald, Mary
CA UVICARCH AR421 · Fonds · 1943 - 2003

The Rikki Swin Institute transgender collection consists of the following fonds: Rikki Swin Institute fonds, Ari Kane fonds, International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) fonds, and the Virginia Prince fonds. The IFGE fonds includes material from Betty Ann Lind and Merissa Sherrill Lynn.

Kane, Ari
Stephanie Castle fonds
CA UVICARCH AR422 · Fonds · 1982 - 2002 (1993-2002 predominant)

Fonds consists of: copies of Zenith Digest and material relating to the administration of the Zenith Foundation; the Foundation’s participation as an intervener in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal regarding Synthia Kavanagh and the Correctional Service of Canada; and copies of the following publications:
The Partnership, by Stephanie Castle
Shadows in the City, by Stephanie Castle
Tales from Cascadia - Volume One, by Stephanie Castle
A Tale of Two Wives, by Stephanie Castle
Prisoner of Gender, by Katherine Johnson & Stephanie Castle
As Much as Me?, by Margot Roberts

Castle, Stephanie
CA UVICARCH AR425 · Collection · 1996 - 1998

The Lesbian and Bisexual Women in English Canada audio history collection consists of audio histories conducted for the 2001 University of Victoria Department of History doctoral dissertation The Spreading Depths: Lesbian and Bisexual Women in English Canada, 1910-1965. The Spreading Depths is the basis for Cameron Duder’s subsequent monograph Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada, 1900-65, published in 2010 by UBC Press.

The collection consists of 12 interviews (21 recordings in total as some were in multiple parts) conducted by Duder from 1996 to 1998. 27 women were interviewed for the dissertation research, and Duder also drew on interviews recorded in the 1980s for the Lesbians Making History Project. 12 of the women interviewed by Duder consented to their interviews being housed in the University of Victoria Archives. 10 of the 12 women requested to be identified by pseudonym.

Duder's dissertation, The Spreading Depths, examines lesbian and bisexual women’s formation of subjectivity in pre-1965 English Canada, a time when the terms and identities “lesbian” and “bisexual” were not widely discussed in society. Duder considers the existing historical information about the lives of women in same-sex relationships, in English Canada, before the social, political and sexual liberation movements of the 1960s. The interviews conducted by Duder provide information on what had been a neglected group in previous research on lesbian and bisexual women: the interview subjects are lesbians and bisexual women from lower-middle class and working class families. Duder argues that discourses on 19th and 20th century history of sexuality have reflected the documentation of the politically active and socially privileged, namely activist persons or organizations and women from upper middle class families whose histories were documented in public archives. Duder argues for a class-specific lesbian subjectivity in the decades before 1965, a subjectivity which does not always adhere to the forms of the “romantic friendship” and the “butch-femme relationship” which have dominated the discourse.

Duder adds a Canadian perspective to the large literature on the transition in women’s relationships from the romantic friendship to the modern lesbian. The Spreading Depths reveals that before the Second World War, women in same-sex relationships were influenced by the language of sexology. Their relationships were also much more explicitly sexual than were those of earlier generations of lesbians. Duder suggests, however, that we should not assume great expansion in the discussion of sexuality, because well into the 1950s and 1960s Canadians lacked information about sexual desire and sexual practice. The interview testimonies complicate the picture we have of women in the mid-twentieth century being much more sexually aware than women of previous generations.

The interviews reveal that lesbians and bisexual women shared heterosexual women’s longing for intimate relationships, their joy at finding a partner, and their pleasure in coming to an awareness of sexuality, but they also reveal that same-sex relationships held the same risks of infidelity, domestic violence, and alcohol abuse as existed for heterosexual women. Relationships with family were also mixed. Duder posits that because of the lack of public discussion around women’s sexual subjectivity, and therefore a lack of terminology that could be used to define and reject women living outside the heterosexual norm, women in same-sex relationships during the period under study may have had somewhat better relationships with their families than lesbians after 1965. Finally, The Spreading Depths discusses the Canadian lesbian community of the 1950s and the 1960s and contrasts the social world of lower-middle-class lesbians with the public bar culture of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The interview testimonies reveal the views held by these women towards the bar scene and the women who regularly socialized in the bars. The interviewees describe alternative ways they found to socialize with one another so as to avoid exposure.

Initially, the project intended to include heterosexual women as a part of its analysis of women in English Canada. Duder sought interviewees through advertisements in regular media and lesbian and feminist media, and consequently the text of these advertisements differed: for regular media, women 55 and older, who lived in British Columbia or Ontario for a minimum of 5 years between 1910 and 1955, were sought to speak about personal relationships and social life, all types of friendships, romantic relationships, courting and marriage; advertisements in lesbian and feminist media sought lesbian/gay and bisexual women 55 and older, who lived in British Columbia or Ontario for a minimum of 5 years between 1910 and 1955, willing to speak about personal relationships and social life, and the lives of lesbian and bisexual women. The dissertation was later narrowed to consider lesbian and bisexual women only.

Interviewees were offered use of pseudonyms, given the option of an audio recording of the interview or written notation only, and for those selecting the audio recording, the choices of destruction, preservation of the recording in an archives, or preservation of a transcript. Regarding access restrictions, participants choosing preservation of the recordings could select: no restriction, access with written consent, access after death of the participant, closure until a specified date, or other specifically stated restrictions.

The interviews were preceded by an informal meeting where Duder and the interviewee discussed the research and interview proposal. The guiding interview questions were organized into the following categories and general subjects (summarized from Appendix B of The Spreading Depths). Not all questions were asked of all interviewees:
Biographical background – of the interviewee and immediate family members, including birthplaces, nationalities, places lived, education and occupations;
Childhood – enjoyed or not enjoyed; feelings towards parents and siblings; family strictures; church attendance; playmates and racial characteristics of neighbourhood; school experiences; adolescence; reading habits; clothing worn; drinking and smoking habits; and special friendships;
Socializing and sexual knowledge – extent and location of socializing; types of socializing; friends and acquaintances; frequenting of clubs or bars; any secretiveness concerning activities and location; extent and source of knowledge of human anatomy, sex, pregnancy, masturbation, and same sex relations; awareness of and interaction with homosexual women or men;
Personal sexuality – sexual preference; words used to describe preference; early physical and emotional attractions; feelings associated with attraction; extent of intimate relationships; perceptions of mixed race relationships.

Additional questions were available to guide further discussion of relationships and sexuality. The following is a sample from these questions (excerpted Appendix B of The Spreading Depths). Questions may not have been required depending on the course of interview:

  • How would you describe the way you felt about sex in those relationships?
  • Were there any occasions where one of you wanted to do something different and the other refused? How did you feel about that?
  • Did you know from the beginning what you would like and dislike or was that something you learned about yourself over time?
  • Is there anything else that you would like to tell me about your sexual relationships?
CA UVICARCH AR430 · Item · 2009

Item consists of sound recordings of Debby Yaffe discussing her childhood, schooling and family life in California, including gendered family roles, expectations of femininity in the 1950s, university, marriage and life in Europe, her feminist consciousness raising experience in London, teaching high school in London, the differences between English and American societies, sex discrimination, radical feminist activities, restructuring of sexual relationships, life in Canada and involvement in the Women’s movement in Victoria, Status of Women Action group, Everywomens Books, disordered eating as feminist issue, work as a fitness instructor, abortion rights, impact on feminist awareness of the December 6, 1989 killings at École Polytechnique in Montréal, radical feminism, women’s lives in Canada and England, life as a lesbian, resisting dominant domestic relationship constructs, teaching Women’s Studies, feminist theory, and the Victoria Women’s Movement Archives.

The Debby Yaffe interview was conducted by Joy Fisher as a research project in the course History 358A, “Women in Canada,” taught by Dr. Lynne Marks, which covered histories of women in Canada from the era of New France to the present. Fisher’s resulting essay is entitled “Riding the Wave/ Watching the Wave: A Second Wave Feminist Talks about Gender Ideologies and her Life.”

Yaffe, Debby
CA UVICARCH AR442 · Fonds · 1993-1997

Fonds reflects Carol Cross’s art process as well as her interest and involvement in the women’s movement. Fonds consists of Cross’s two handmade books: “In Their Words” and “Ten Historical BC Women”, as well as accompanying exhibition materials and related correspondence.

Correspondents include Mary Billy, Andrea Trudel, and Michelle Benjamin.

Cross, Carol
Margaret Peterson fonds
CA UVICARCH AR445 · Fonds · ? - 1997

The fonds reflects Margaret Peterson’s artistic processes and practices, research interests, pedagogy, her relationship with Howard O’Hagan, and her relationships with friends, patrons, fellow artists, galleries and various institutions.
The fonds consists of correspondence, photographs, biographical documents, diaries and notebooks, financial and business-related documents, grant applications, teaching materials, unpublished poetry and manuscripts, exhibition catalogues, clippings and publications, drawings and small artworks, painting materials, objects collected by Peterson, and various ephemera.
Correspondents include Howard O’Hagan, Elza Mayhew, Glenn Wessels, J. Russell Harper, Jean Varda, Dorothy and John B. Grover, Joy Ling, Walter Askin, Robert and Sarah Amos, Helen Anderson, R.W. Peterson, Ellen Charlotte Peterson, and Jane Hanks.
The fonds has been arranged into five series: Biographical, Art Practice, Publications, clippings and collected ephemera, Teaching, and Howard O’Hagan Materials.

Peterson, Margaret
CA BOU BM 995-032-001 · Fonds · 1949-1955

The fonds consists of the minute book (1949-1955), including minutes of regular meetings and annual general meetings, lists of members, and financial statements.

Grand Forks Ladies Curling Club
CA DMA CR-107 · Fonds · 1963-1971

The fonds consists of meeting agendas, member orientation booklets, correspondence, and reference material.

Delta Women's Institute
Dallas Kamlah fonds
CA DMA CR-15 · Fonds · 1858-1984, predominant 1940-1960

The fonds consists of records, reference material and photographs created and accumulated by Dallas Kamlah in her capacities as farmer and member of various organizations. The fonds includes correspondence, agendas, minutes, and ephemera from the Delta Parent Teacher Council, Delta Central PTA, and British Columbia Parent-Teacher Federation, records from the Delta Central PTA dental clinics, and records from the Ladner United Church Women group.

Kamlah, Dallas, ca.1910-1990
Edith Eleanor Pearson fonds
CA DMA CR-28 · Fonds · 1902-1939, predominant 1902-1927

Fonds consists of black and white photographs, black and white copy prints, and negatives of the Pearson family at home in New Westminster and on holidays in British Columbia, Alberta, the United States (particularly California), and Europe. Includes many photographs of the Pearson family and friends engaged in leisure activities at their vacation home, "Edgewood", at Boundary Bay. The property was purchased by the Major and Pearson families in 1896. It is identified on the Corporation of Delta's Assessment Roll No. 160 as part of Lot 30, Group 2, consisting of two acres. The property was approximately where Meredith Place is now. The families that owned the neighbouring lots included the Corbould, Drew, Meredith, Major, and Kirkland families. Unidentified people in the Boundary Bay photographs may include members of these families. The majority of the photographs concern the activities of the Pearson, Major and Lee families. Edith's interest in photography appears to have begun around the time of her youngest son Geoffrey's birth in 1901, and the collection contains many photographs of him from infancy through adulthood. He married Shirley Foley and had a son, Ken. The two older boys, Thomas Roy (known as Roy) and Leslie, were born in 1888 and 1891, respectively. Roy appears to have been in the military during World War I, and later married Nora, a teacher. They had no children. The photographs show Roy and Nora at their home in Los Angeles and later in South Westminster, where they had a chicken farm. Leslie is also shown in uniform during the war. He married Ethel Watson in 1912, and they had a daughter Mary Isabel, who appears to have visited her Pearson grandparents frequently. Also prominent in the collection are Edith's niece and nephew, Dorothy and Ormsby Lee, the children of her sister Mildred Jane and John Andrew ("Jack") Lee, a New Westminster merchant. Dorothy traveled frequently with her aunt before her marriage to Sid Mallinson, with whom she had a daughter, Diana. Ormsby married Jessie Blair and had a son, John ("Jackie").

Pearson, Edith Eleanor
CA DMA CR-77 · Fonds · 1950-1972

The fonds consists of a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings describing the activities of the IODE from 1950 to 1972.

Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire. Delta Chapter
Kate Braid fonds
CA SFU F-10 · Fonds · 1963-2013

Fonds consists of records relating to Braid's life and work as a student, teacher, carpenter, and writer.

The first five series from Braid's first donation in 1995 are comprised primarily of interview material relating to Canadian women in trades, in the form of sound recordings, transcripts, notes, and drafts of profiles generated by Kate Braid in the course of four projects: her Master's thesis (1978-1979); a convention in Holland and subsequent trip to Denmark (1984); the Labour Canada booklets (1988); and the CBC Ideas program (1990). Also includes some correspondence, logbooks and published reference material.

The next series from several additional accruals in 2009 to 2013 consist of records arising from many aspects of Braid's life. These records include drafts and notes from Braid's writing, projects for CBC Ideas, women in trades, her company, Sisters Construction, and other writing and teaching projects.

There is also a large series of correspondence, including letters and emails (printed out) between Braid and other writers, her family, and business correspondents. Finally, there is a series of Braid's diaries, which she has kept regularly from the 1960s to 2012.

The fonds is arranged in 24 series:

  1. Master's thesis interviews
  2. Europe interviews
  3. Labour Canada interviews
  4. CBC interviews
  5. Women in trade
  6. In Fine Form: the Canadian Book of Form Poetry
  7. Red Bait: Struggles of a Mine Local
  8. A Well-mannered Storm: the Glenn Gould Poems
  9. Emily Carr: Rebel Artist
  10. Inward to the Bones: Georgia Okeeffe's Journey with Emily Carr
  11. Vancouver Island Highway Project Road to Equity
  12. CBC Ideas: Men of the Deep
  13. Appointment calendars
  14. Correspondence
  15. Personal and early accomplishments
  16. Writing and teaching projects
  17. Turning Left to the Ladies
  18. Journeywoman
  19. Diaries
  20. First drafts and handwritten notes
  21. Sisters construction
  22. Publications
  23. Covering Rough Ground
  24. To this Cedar Fountain
Braid, Kate
CA SFU F-101 · Fonds · 1981 - 1999

The fonds of the Women's Monument Project consists of records created and received in the course of carrying out the Project. Activities documented include Committee and sub-committee meetings, fundraising events, groundbreaking and unveiling ceremonies, site selection, dedication, language selection, design selection, construction, and gallery exhibits.

Includes proposals, reports, minutes, correspondence, speeches, published materials, press releases, news clippings, design competition guidelines, design submissions, construction contracts, Monument inscriptions, drawings, site maps, photographs and slides, videotapes, a cloth banner, and the original maquette and artwork of the winning design by Beth Alber.

Women's Monument Project
Women's Bookstore collection
CA SFU F-111 · Collection · 1937 - 2018, predominant 1937-1997

The Women's Bookstore collection consists of materials relating to the operation of several Vancouver women's organizations and reflects the issues that dominated the women's movement throughout the 1970s. Consistent with the community based nature of women's movements during this period, the scope and content of the collection reflects the diversity common to a phenomenon rather than the administrative and subject coherence found in records generated by a single organization. As such, the collection as whole gains its coherence due primarily to the interdependence rather than independence of the individual items to one another. This also applies to the records generated by autonomous organizations in the collection. While the different organizations should be regarded as distinct, a good deal of the records concern the communication between various organizations and women's groups across the country or identify issues of concern to a broad range of organizations. Thus, the collection as whole should be regarded as a record of a dynamic process in which a common ideology served to unify the aims of distinctive organizations, persons, and subjects.

The collection is comprised of the records of the Women's Bookstore, Women's Caucus, A Woman's Place, Transition House, the British Columbia Federation of Women and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Includes constitutions, minutes, reports, correspondence, position papers, and sound recordings. Also includes newsletters from women's centres across British Columbia and Canada, subject files, and an assortment of feminist publications.

Margo Dunn fonds
CA SFU F-115 · Fonds · 1968 - 1993

The fonds is comprised of the records of Ariel Books and a number of subject files compiled or collected by Margo Dunn. Records reflect Margo Dunn's business interest as owner of Ariel Books, and her role as collector of the records of the Vancouver women's movement.

Includes correspondence, financial records, log books, promotional material, catalogues, articles, clippings, manuscripts, artifacts, and ephemera.

Dunn, Margo
Makara Magazine fonds
CA SFU F-116 · Fonds · 1975 - 1979

Fonds consists of records created, received and collected in the process of publishing Makara magazine. Records reflect general operation, correspondence, production, and advertising. Includes correspondence, notes, distribution lists, articles, clippings, surveys, manuscripts, lay-out roughs, illustrations, press releases, contracts, promotional material and notes.

Makara Magazine
CA SFU F-117 · Fonds · 1976 - 1977

Fonds consists of records generated by the Women's Cultural Exchange in the process of establishing the society, finding a location, opening, and using the space to fulfill their mandate to provide a cultural centre for women. Records reflect the incorporation of the society, minutes of meetings, membership, events, and finances. Includes constitution, certificates of incorporation, minutes, agenda, correspondence, membership lists, account book, scrap book, and ephemera.

Women's Cultural Exchange
CA SFU F-123 · Fonds · 1986 - 1999

Fonds consists of records made or recieved by the Association in the course of its activities. Activities documented include incorporation; meetings of the Annual General Meeting and various committees; maintenance of membership; financial management, budget planning, and grant applications; correspondence with member centres, regional representatives, government ministries and agencies, and other organizations; and development of a training strategy ("Planning for Change") and other projects. Records include correspondence, reports, meeting minutes and supporting papers, policies and procedures, financial records, agreements, published materials retained for reference, and notes, drafts and working papers.

British Columbia and Yukon Association of Women's Centres
Maggie Benston fonds
CA SFU F-126 · Fonds · 1966 - 1972

Fonds consists of records reflecting the academic and personal interests of Maggie Benston. The fonds is arranged in 5 series: Research files, Women's Caucus, Subject files, Publications, and Personal documents.

Benston, Maggie
Press Gang Printers fonds
CA SFU F-134 · Fonds · 1970 - 1993

The fonds consists primarily of records relating to the business activities of Press Gang Printers; it also includes some records arising from the collective's participation in the British Columbia Federation of Women. Activities and events documented include incorporation, the evolution of Press Gang's organizational structure, and the separation of the printing and publishing operations; collective and committee meetings; administration and unionization; financial management, grant and loan applications, and fundraising; liaison with other organizations in the women's movement and in other social movements; production and press work; marketing and promotion; and the financial difficulties leading to the closure of Press Gang in 1993.

Record types includes articles of incorporation; correspondence and reports; meeting agendas, minutes and supporting papers; collective agreements; photographs; ledgers, financial statements, income tax returns, and annual reports; printing samples (newsletters, newspapers, leaflets, brochures, posters, cards and other graphical material); production logbooks and customer accounts; and a Press Gang quilt.

Press Gang Printers
CA SFU F-148 · Collection · 1989

The collection consists of audio cassette recordings of the interviews and associated paper documentation (biographical forms and interview summaries) for each of the women who participated. Twelve women were interviewed. The names of the interviewers and interviewees are:

  • Beverly Ann Carlson interviewed by Anda Jones.

  • Bertha Cochrane interviewed by Linda Henderson.

  • Suzanne Crawford interviewed by Pat Newton.

  • Kathleen Dawson interviewed by Linda Cluelett.

  • Ann St. Clair Ecclestone inteviewed by Jane Ecclestone.

  • Jean Ferguson interviewed by Marsha Ferguson.

  • Melitha Rose Kraus interviewed by Laurie Doig.

  • Patricia Mazzarella Larson interviewed by Angela M. Larson.

  • Violet Piersma interviewed by Peter van Drongelen.

  • Florence Vilma Shannon; interviewer not recorded.

  • Miyako Shinkawa interviewed by Debbie Shinkawa.

  • Ilo Urquart; interviewer not recorded.

Note that there is no paper documentation for one of the interviewees (Ilo Urquart).

McPherson, Kathryn
CA SFU F-149 · Fonds · 1966 - 1999

The fonds of the SFU Childcare Society consists of records made or received in the course of administering the Society and its predecessor bodies and providing facilities, personnel and funding for childcare programs. The bulk of the material ranges from 1968 to the early 1990s. Activities documented include meetings of the various societies and centres established to provide childcare services; obtaining license agreements with the University; securing collective agreements with staff; planning for child care services; construction of buildings; correspondence and liaison with government officials and university administrators; and providing information to parents and staff.

Simon Fraser University Childcare Society