This fonds principally contains records connected with the Congregation of St. Basil (Basilian Fathers) whose members administered Assumption College and Assumption University from 1870 onward. Secondarily, it contains varied records that document the history of Assumption and its evolution over time. Included are legal documents, memos, correspondence, ephemera, constitutions and rules, historical narratives and memoirs, reports, and a variety of Basilian publications and formal histories of Assumption. Some items pertain to Catholic education broadly, or to the history of the Catholic Church in Southwestern Ontario. Of special note are Assumption fight songs and a victory song, and the Second World War war diary of Rev. Mike Dalton, a military chaplain.

This fonds contains financial records of Assumption College and University, ca. 1856-1999. These include general cash books, financial statements, correspondence, and records of accounts, as well as real estate acquired, constructed, maintained, or sold by Assumption and/or the Basilian Fathers in the vicinity of the present-day campus, from Tecumseh Road north to the Detroit River. Included are land deeds, contracts, and other legal documents, as well as architectural or schematic drawings and specifications for campus buildings. Notably, this includes records of property acquired in the early days of the college, and campus properties sold by Assumption in the 1960s to the University of Windsor. Of special note: a small number of 1950s-1960s records relating to Essex College, the non-denominational affiliated college that helped secure provincial government funding for the campus.

This fonds contains personal, professional, and domestic records from the life of Joan Somers Sullivan in the later-20th and early-21st centuries. Series I (Personal Records) includes reminiscences about Joan, medical information, clippings related to community activitism (including traffic problems in Old Sandwich), and personal journals. Series II (Professional Records) features her resumé and qualifications, as well as administrative records, correspondence, public talks, research material, clippings, and publications connected with her pioneering effort to unionize legal secretaries in Windsor, Ontario during the 1970s. This includes talks for events held by the Faculties of Law at the University of Windsor and the University of Western Ontario, and articles published in the Windsor Woman women’s liberation newspaper and The Oyez Windsor law students’ newspaper. Series III (Domestic Records) contains recipes and household hints used in her later-life personal housekeeping, as well as lists of her annual Christmas baking.

This fonds primarily contains personal papers, publications, and oral histories (ca. 1870-1984) relating to the Basilian Fathers who served as teaching staff for Assumption College and Assumption University. Included are diaries, notebooks, correspondence, memoirs, recorded interviews, memorials, manuscripts and published works. Of special note are the extensive papers of Bishop Leo C. Nelligan, records of O’Connor House, and a few records from Rev. Pierre Tourvieille. Secondarily, this fonds contains extensive administrative records documenting the history of Essex College, found in the papers of professor W.H. Arison.

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.

This fonds contains records connected with 22 Superiors or Presidents of Assumption College and University, ca. 1861-2009. For the most part it is organized chronologically by individual, although later accruals to the fonds have led to some quirks in file numbering or arrangement. Much of the fonds consists of administrative correspondence connected with institutional matters. There are also photographs, reports, publications, statistics, and notes on various subjects.