This bilingual (French/English) fonds contains financial records, daily journals, and a short family history created by Jules Robinet over more than six decades of business, family, and community life in Sandwich and Tecumseh. Since Robinet employed and/or entered business partnerships with many family members and neighbours, the records document intertwined elements of both his personal and professional activities. The journals in particular capture elements of daily life within a large Franco-Ontarian family during an eventful half-century of war and economic depression. Also included is a book of biographies about notable men in Essex County, inscribed by the author to Robinet, and a modern article about Robinet’s local significance as a winemaker and Francophone community figure.

This fonds consists of a graduate student essay entitled “Discovering, Recovering, Uncovering: Commemorating the Buxton Settlement,” written by Sean Kheraj for the Master’s-level History course HIST 5145 “The Use of the Past - Public Memory and Popular History in Canada,” taught by Dr. H.V. Nelles at York University. The essay examines the history and historical commemoration of Black settlement in and around Buxton, Ontario, with particular attention to community involvement in commemorative activities and the role of commemoration in the formation of identity. Included are anecdotes of visiting the sites in 2003 and transcriptions of the text found on relevant historical plaques. This is a relatively polished draft of work that was later re-envisioned and reworked for publication in the York University graduate student journal Problématique 9 (2003) as “Plaque Build-Up: Commemorating the Buxton Settlement, 1950-2003.” Substantial differences exist between the two versions.

This fonds contains documents and images related to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European settlement in Essex and Kent counties. These include an Irish immigrant’s personal journal of settling in Essex County with his two sisters (1850). The journal primarily details Jasper Golden’s travels (Atlantic crossing, St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Kingston, Niagara, Buffalo, Detroit, Windsor) but also includes later details about time spent in Malden, Anderdon, and the now-lost port of Albertville (near Kingsville). There are also official records of infrastructure and property in Howard Township (1909), and organizational and research material related to an effort to preserve the Walker family’s rare fieldstone-clad Kent County farmhouse as a historic site. (David and Ann Walker were Scottish immigrants who settled in Harwich Township, Kent County in 1845, with their original grant of farmland remaining in the family until 1972.) The fonds also includes approximately 448 slides depicting pre-1900 homes, buildings, furnishings, objects, weapons, and equipment in Kent and Essex counties, from a Canada Council-funded project to document these artifacts. There is also a short history of Buxton, Ontario, and slides of a memorial to Shawnee chief Tecumseh.

This fonds consists of a single file containing five short histories (written 1969-2019) about aspects of the Maltese-Canadian community. As one of several significant settlement areas for Maltese immigrants in Canada, Windsor is featured prominently. Three of the items (including one early draft with handwritten corrections) are by Maltese-Canadian Windsorite Angelo Dougall; two are by Maltese-Canadian Dan Brock and originally appeared in a Maltese-Canadian newsletter.