This fonds consists of 62 files produced during Bert Weeks’ three terms as mayor of Windsor, 1975-1982. Organized alphabetically, the records consist primarily of subject files covering a diverse array of current events and issues of interest to Weeks, including: crisis services, the automotive sector, unemployment, smoking by-laws, recycling, youth, 3-year terms for Ontario municipal councils, Canadian unity, a 1980 election, the Edmonton commitment, decision-making in local government (the Hickey Report), the Pelee Island lighthouse, the Great Lakes seaway, a hotel opportunity, heritage highways, sporting events (Canada Games, Highland Games, international marathon), a 1979 Olympiad, the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Vietnamese refugees, Lebanese and Cambodian relief, UNICEF, 1978’s anti-nuclear project Operation Dismantle, and the Church of Scientology. There are also files of personal correspondence, telegrams, speeches, memos, press releases, transcripts of CKWW radio broadcasts, and news clippings. One file contains six photographs.

This collection provides glimpses into community and associational life for people of African descent in Windsor, Ontario between the late 19th and early 21st centuries, with an emphasis on the mid-20th century. It is divided into nine thematic series.

Series I contains records of the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church, 1873-1999, both Windsor-specific and national. Included are doctrinal books, church registers and membership rolls, land indentures, annual reports, church histories, orders of service, ephemera, press clippings, correspondence, conference programmes, and photographs of historic BME chapels in Windsor, Woodstock, and Chatham, some of which have since been demolished.

Series II consists of administrative and financial records and ephemera from the annual Emancipation Celebration held in Windsor, 1837-1983, including papers of the British-American Association of Coloured Brothers of Ontario, souvenir programmes, and photographs of Emancipation parades ca. late 1950s/early 1960s.

Series III contains minutes, financial records, correspondence and two newspaper clippings from a committee to organize a concert in Jackson Park in affiliation with a conference of the National Association of Negro Musicians, 1955-1956.

Series IV contains minutes, correspondence, and a guest book from the International Women’s Committee (of Black women in Windsor in Detroit) relating to speakers and events in conjunction with Emancipation events, 1954-1956.

Series V holds the constitution, minutes, financial records, history, correspondence, and event-related ephemera (1940-1960) of the Armstead Club, a sporting and social club that also provided youth scholarships. Of special interest is a letter from the first scholarship recipient reflecting on being one of only a few Black students at Queen’s University in the late 1940s.

Series VI consists of minutes, ephemera, and correspondence of the War Mothers Protective League, 1943-1945, which provided morale-boosting cards and gifts to local armed forces personnel serving abroad during the Second World War. One file contains letters of thanks from the servicemen themselves.

Series VII contains minutes, history, and correspondence of the Central Citizens’ Association, 1929-1958, an organization that advocated for the rights and opportunities of Black citizens in Windsor and organized collective action including social clubs, mentoring, boycotts, and political activism.

Series VIII consists of a small number of administrative records – constitution, financial records, names of members (1867-1881) – from the Lydian Association of Windsor, a working women’s mutual aid group that provided financial and nursing support to sick or injured members.

Series IX contains personal records from the Christian/Shreve/Moore family, consisting of A.S. Shreve’s course notes from his flight engineer training in 1944. (Note: further accruals to Series IX are expected.)

This fonds primarily contains curated scrapbooks that document the people and events of Assumption College and University through the late-19th and 20th c. Additional oversize posters, photographs, and guestbooks (not housed in scrapbooks) are also present. The scrapbooks contain a mixture of news clippings, photographs, and ephemera (especially posters and programs from special events, but also athletic ‘school letters’, typescript sermons, and more), generally arranged by year(s). Photographs range from candid shots of students and professors around campus, to formal portraits of classes and sports teams; clippings cover news of the college/university, current students and alumni, Basilian fathers, and developments in higher education and Catholic education. Of special note are items relating to the 1951 royal visit of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, tributes to campus veterans and/or the war dead from the two world wars, promotional material relating to the Christian Culture Series and Father J.S. Murphy, and campus ministry in the later 20th c.

This fonds contains records charting the institutional life and physical premises of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in the Town of Walkerville / Walkerville neighbourhood of Windsor. Series I – Paper Files is not formally arranged into sub-series, but significant record-creating groups or genres of material are grouped together in the file order. These include: church wardens, board of management/vestry, financial records, various church committees, women’s groups, men’s groups, youth groups, orders of service (bulletins), special events, church visitors and staff, as well as the building, its contents, its churchyard and cemetery (including sketches and architectural plans). Of note are a small number of records relating to the church’s relationship to the family of Walkerville founder Hiram Walker, and rich records of social and service groups for men, women, children, and youth. Series II – Photographs was originally arranged separately from the paper files. Its previous arrangement and description has been retained here; the images capture elements of the congregational activities and physical premises documented in the paper files.

The fonds does not contain parish records of births, deaths, marriages, or baptisms.

This fonds contains records of students and student activities at Assumption College and Assumption University, ca. 1870s-1980s. It also includes some records from Assumption High School in that period, and for the University of Western Ontario during the years of Assumption’s affiliation with Western. Included are roll books and testimonials; minutes of the Literary Society; newsletters, yearbooks, and student publications; handbooks for students, residents, and faculty; promotional and recruitment brochures for Assumption; ephemera relating to special events, convocation, dramatics, and athletics; program and course listings; and news clippings. There is a small amount of material relating to student grades or schoolwork, alumni, Second World War servicemen, and deceased Basilian Fathers. Of special note: correspondence relating to the Assumption victory song, a history of Holy Names College, and brochures for 1940s summer school offerings listing Wyndham Lewis and Marshall McLuhan as faculty.