This fonds consists of 31 student projects depicting historical and contemporary features of Southwestern Ontario (primarily Windsor/Essex County but also Sarnia/Lambton County), created by Bachelor of Education students in History or Social Studies courses in the 1980s. They take a variety of forms, including illustrated storybooks, scrapbooks, captioned photo albums, reports, lesson plans, activities, or fact sheets. The projects themselves are of variable quality, but the photographs and ephemera included in many projects provide valuable insight into local landmarks or industries in the 1980s. The collection has been arranged into six thematic series: Series I (Overviews by Geographic Area), Series II (Cultural Attractions), Series III (Sociocultural Groups and Histories), Series IV (Local Government), Series V (Business and Industry), Series VI (Transportation).

Warning: The N-word appears in a historical quotation in one project; stereotyped depictions of Indigenous peoples appear in another. See finding aid for details.

The J. Clark Keith papers contain a record of activities pursued by one of Windsor’s most eminent engineers during his career with the Essex Border Utilities Commission (1920-1935) and the subsequent Windsor Utilities Commission (1935-1957), largely in the form of personal correspondence and scrapbooks. Also included are numerous reports, subject files, a small number of engineering specifications, blueprints, contracts, and excerpts from Keith’s book The Windsor Utilities Commission and Its Antecedent Commissions, covering nearly seventy years of urban history in the Border Cities. The fonds provides detailed insight into projects such as the Wyandotte Street extension and construction of a filtration plant at Ford City, as well as broader issues of city planning and legislation. Hospitals and parks are also dealt with, thanks to the EBUC’s broad mandate. Collectively, the records provide an excellent survey of the diverse responsibilities shouldered by the utilities commission in Windsor’s development, and the central role J. Clark Keith played at its helm.

The fonds is arranged into seven sub-series: Sub-series A contains subject files; Sub-series B contains annual reports; Sub-series C contains other reports; Sub-series D contains financial reports; Sub-series E contains contracts; Sub-series F contains a diary; and Sub-series G contains scrapbooks.

This fonds contains records related to the life and work of 19th century Upper Canadian shipwright Shadrach Jenking. The records are primarily original legal documents related to the sale, acquisition, and boundaries of land in the Township of Sandwich, but also included are original papers relating to Jenking’s training as a shipwright and copies of his descendants’ genealogical research. The fonds is arranged into three series. Series I: Labour Agreements contains documents relating to Jenking’s apprenticeship. Series II: Land Agreements includes deeds and assignments of mortgage, as well as one property sketch and one blueprint. Many are tied to families of Jenking or his wife Margaret Maisonville. Series III: Genealogical Research and Fragments contains bits of unidentified original documents and a variety of correspondence, notes, and photocopied resources relating to the family history of Shadrach Jenking and his descendants.