This fonds contains materials created or collected by CARAL Windsor and affiliated organizations between 1968 and 1994. It has been divided into six series reflecting the group’s pro-choice activism during a tumultuous period of uncertainty around abortion legality and access in Canada. Series I to V contain records of day-to-day operations, advocacy, and resource sharing by CARAL itself, as follows: Series I - Administrative Materials; Series II – Correspondence; Series III - Publicity and Awareness; Series IV - National Office Materials; Series V -Resources. Series VI - Windsor Women’s Incentive Centre (WIC) contains a small number of records related to the WIC’s broader support for women’s issues in Windsor-Essex in the same time period.

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 fonds contains records charting the institutional life and physical premises of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in the Town of Walkerville / Walkerville neighbourhood of Windsor. Series I – Paper Files is not formally arranged into sub-series, but significant record-creating groups or genres of material are grouped together in the file order. These include: church wardens, board of management/vestry, financial records, various church committees, women’s groups, men’s groups, youth groups, orders of service (bulletins), special events, church visitors and staff, as well as the building, its contents, its churchyard and cemetery (including sketches and architectural plans). Of note are a small number of records relating to the church’s relationship to the family of Walkerville founder Hiram Walker, and rich records of social and service groups for men, women, children, and youth. Series II – Photographs was originally arranged separately from the paper files. Its previous arrangement and description has been retained here; the images capture elements of the congregational activities and physical premises documented in the paper files.

The fonds does not contain parish records of births, deaths, marriages, or baptisms.

This fonds contains documents and images created or collected by WAVE from the period 1974-1988. It has been divided into four series. Series I: Administrative Records includes meeting minutes and other details related to the organization’s activities, also correspondence between members of WAVE and several corporate organizations and media outlets regarding issues of pornography. Series II: Writing Campaigns contains letters written by WAVE drawing attention to issues of pornography. Series III: Resources features research articles, bibliographies, legislation, reports, slide shows, and a film discussion guide used by WAVE in their work. A number of these resources were produced by a similar New York organization. Series IV: Examples of Pornography in Pop Culture contains advertisements, magazines, and photography books to which the group objected.

This fonds contains records created ca. 1979-1981 in an attempt to identify and catalogue historical records found in both urban and rural parts of Essex and Kent counties which could be of use to those interested in local and family history. At the time, most of these records were not held in formal archives or other repositories, but rather were inactive files held on-site in the institutions that created them. The fonds has been divided into two series. Series I contains the original index cards used in the field to gather data for the Ontario’s Heritage project (ca. 1980-1981?) from both Essex and Kent County locations. These remain as much as possible in their original order, arranged by geographic location and institution. Series II contains a bound copy of the Windsor Archival Project report (1979) focusing on city records, and an incomplete typescript draft of Ontario’s Heritage: A Guide to Archival Resources, Vol. 10 Essex and Kent Counties which includes only Essex County records (ca. 1981?).

Although some of the record collections detailed have subsequently been donated to archives (including Leddy Library Archives & Special Collections), the index cards and reports still remain a valuable starting point for those seeking leads on archival sources.

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.)