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This fonds contains records created or collected by the Windsor, Ontario club of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) between 1945 and 1997. Collectively, the records provide insight into club members’ social and political activities, as well as their engagement with provincial and national CFUW bodies, and select member organizations of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW). The records have been arranged into four series: Series I: CFUW – Windsor Club (1945-1997); Series II: CFUW – Ontario (1950-1994); Series III: CFUW – National (1943-1995); Series IV: International Federation of University Women (1918-1994).

Series I is the most extensive, containing 13 subseries for administrative and financial records, meeting minutes and annual reports, conferences, social gatherings, fundraising initiatives, correspondence, publications, news clippings, scrapbooks and photographs, and advocacy work (mainly around the status of women, education, and/or local heritage). Of particular interest are the club’s 1968 submission to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, and records of its role in challenging gender-based discrimination within the Windsor Board of Education during the 1970s-1980s.

Series II – IV contain some general information about the provincial, national, and international levels of the CFUW/IFUW, but primarily reflect the specific participation of Windsor members in those organizations, often in the form of social gatherings, conferences, or issues related to the status of women. The CFUW’s practice of passing resolutions related to issues of contemporary concern provides useful insights into members’ collective social and political views.

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 consists primarily of historic postcards depicting landscapes, buildings, attractions, infrastructure, and vehicles in the region of Southwestern Ontario, with a particular focus on Windsor and Essex County. Many of the postcards are undated, but formats include hand-tinted Early Twentieth Century (ca. 1900-1914) and White Border (ca.1914-1932) styles, as well as Linen (ca.1933-early 1950s), Standard/Chrome (ca. mid-1950s-1970s), and Continental/Modern (ca. 1970s - present) styles. Also included are a small number of photographs and ephemera items including arrest warrants, tokens, medallions, patches, maps, brochures, tickets, and advertisements, all relating to local people, businesses, events, or locations.

The years 1900 to 1914 were a so-called Golden Age for postcards in North America, thanks to the popularity of photography and mass production techniques that made them an affordable collectible item. Views of all kinds were produced, including residential neighbourhoods, churches and civic buildings, commercial districts, industrial plants, bridges, and landscapes. From 1900 into the 1930s, many postcards were black-and-white photographs with colour added. In subsequent decades glossy colour photographs became the norm, and a narrower range of views were produced (often depicting popular tourist sites, where they were sold as souvenirs). By the 1970s most North American postcards shifted from the traditional small size (8.5 x 14cm) to the larger European (“Continental”) size (10 x 15.5cm) and continued to feature a small range of local tourist attractions. All of these trends are reflected in the postcards contained in this fonds.

This collection contains an eclectic assortment of material – primarily images –relating to the history of Southwestern Ontario and its surrounding areas. The collection has been arranged into series that reflect the types of material received for digitization by SWODA. Series I contains photographs, including a number depicting the work and premises of a Windsor-area construction company, ca. 1920s-1970s; a 1943 group photo from a Windsor factory doing war production; and a Windsor elementary school class photo, ca. 1918; and mausoleums in Windsor Grove Cemetery, 1987-2021. Series II contains several hundred historic postcards in various styles (ca. 1900-2001) depicting landscapes, buildings, attractions, infrastructure, and modes of transportation primarily in Southwestern Ontario (especially Windsor and Essex County) and Detroit, Michigan. Five 1946 postcards depicting other places are all addressed to Miss F. “Rose” Perjul of Windsor, Ontario, mostly from newly demobilized soldier “Frank.” One postcard commemorates a 1959 royal visit. Further series will be added as applicable. Any known details about a specific item are included in the finding aid.

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.