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.)