Today U is for Universities
Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources
If you had family members enrolled as students in one of the three British Columbia universities established before the 1970s, or a family member who worked for a university here, you may be able to find online information about their university days or even directly about their activities. Refer back to my A-Z article on L is for Libraries for information and links for some of the younger BC universities.
Depending on the years and types of records involved, many university records of individuals will be restricted. However, there are many kinds of records and publications that may be available. Examples of these would be student newspapers, administration newsletters, yearbooks, scrapbooks, directories and calendars.
In researching anyone attending or working at one of these universities, I suggest searching local newspapers for graduations, special or newsworthy events, retirements and the like.
And keep an eye out for additions to genealogical collections, for instance, Ancestry does have a couple of UBC yearbooks. And Theses Canada provides free access to Canada wide digital theses and dissertations or facilitates access. Many universities are now offering free access to some of these through their own digital collections.
Do not neglect searching MemoryBC. Photographs, documents and more may have been deposited with archives further away from the institutions concerned: https://www.memorybc.ca/ For the earliest years, some information may be available at McGill University:
https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/mua
In researching anyone attending or working at one of these universities, I suggest searching local newspapers for graduations, special or newsworthy events, retirements and the like.
And keep an eye out for additions to genealogical collections, for instance, Ancestry does have a couple of UBC yearbooks. And Theses Canada provides free access to Canada wide digital theses and dissertations or facilitates access. Many universities are now offering free access to some of these through their own digital collections.
Do not neglect searching MemoryBC. Photographs, documents and more may have been deposited with archives further away from the institutions concerned: https://www.memorybc.ca/ For the earliest years, some information may be available at McGill University:
https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/mua
A Very Brief Timeline
1899 - Vancouver College, affiliated with Montreal’s McGill University, offers programmes in part of the Vancouver High School. In 1906 McGill takes it over as McGill University College of British Columbia and offers 2 year programmes in Arts and Science. and later 3rd year in Arts. Closed 1915 when UBC opened. See more about Vancouver College-McGill here. If you had family members attending Vancouver College, they may have gone on afterwards, either to UBC, or further away. Check the local papers - many times students are mentioned as visiting family at home between terms, or as graduated and returning or working elsewhere.
1903 - The University of Victoria, Victoria, UVic, began as Victoria College, an affiliate of McGill with 2 year Arts and Science programmes; suspended from 1915. Opened again in 1920 as an affiliate of the University of British Columbia, still 2 year only. In the 1950s, courses gradually expanded to full 4 years for Arts and Science and the first degree was granted in 1961 - as a UBC degree. In 1963, UVic became independent. The Provincial Normal School (for BC, not including Vancouver area) opened in 1915. After WW II, Normal School and Victoria College shared space, and in 1955 united as Victoria College (later the University of Victoria).
1915 - The University of British Columbia, UBC, after quite a lot of political wrangling, foot dragging, and legislation opened temporarily in the McGill campus in Vancouver's Fairview area. According to the University Act, UBC was non-sectarian and co-educational. Students numbered 379 when UBC opened and the faculty, full and part-time, 34. Due to the war, construction and opening of the permanent site at Point Grey was delayed till 1925. See more about UBC's history here. The Vancouver Normal School opened in the old Vancouver High School in 1901, then in Lord Roberts School the next year, and to King Edward School in 1904 and in its own building in 1909. In 1956, UBC took over teacher training.
1965 - Simon Fraser University, SFU, opens on Burnaby Mountain - an 'instant university' with 2500 students. Read more about SFU's history here.
SELECTED SOURCES AT UBC, UVIC AND SFU
UBC Archives Blog - "UBC and the last great pandemic, 1918-19" by ewodar [Trang Dang] on April 6, 2020: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/2020/04/06/ubc-and-the-last-great-pandemic-1918-19/
UBC Archives Photograph Collections, over 40,000 images. Includes “UBC Student Yearbook Photograph Collection” (51.1/) images scanned from the published yearbooks:
https://archives.library.ubc.ca/ubc-archives-photograph-collections/
Faculty and Department Histories: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/faculty-department-histories/
"Lists", UBC people, including Presidents, Registrars, Faculty Deans, Rhodes Scholarship Awards, and more: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/lists/
UBC histories, including UBC Scrapbooks: 1890-1941; and the Record of Service in the Second World War (.pdf): https://archives.library.ubc.ca/general-history/
Virtual Displays including: UBC's First 100 Theses; Remembering the Great Trek, Stories from the University’s past, and The Evolving Campus 1914-1973: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/virtual-displays/
Athletics histories, including the UBC Sports Hall of Fame with lists of names: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/athletics/
"Woven into the stuff of other men’s lives” The UBC Faculty Book of Remembrance, 1935:
http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/memorialbook/index.html
UBC publications - scanned, including The Ubyssey student newspaper; TREK Magazine (formerly Alumni Chronicle); The Annual/The Totem 1916-66; Touchpoints (School of Nursing): https://archives.library.ubc.ca/university-publications/
Textual records, search for finding aids. very few digitized: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/textual-records/
“We Learn to Teach the Teachers”, Vancouver Normal School,
25 January, 1936 Saturday, The Vancouver
Province, Vancouver, BC, Canada [page 49-5].
At Newspapers.com
The University of Victoria Archives and the Library have a number of helpful online sources.
UVic Archives and Special Collections -
Search the collections here: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/ AND/OR search at MemoryBC.
(Several times I've noticed more information here, for e.g. Victoria College Library fonds, Reference code CA UVICARCH AR230 - Inventory available "with file level control". The fonds consists of: Office files, 1952-1962; Account records, 1928-1956; Cataloging records, 1953; Circulation records, 1912-1963; and Collections records, 1952-1963.
Biographical history: An informal library was established in the early days of Victoria College, which was administered by staff. Individuals include, Margaret Ross 1934-1935, Staff Administrator; and Sydney G. Pettit 1937-1938, instructor of History. Beginning in 1946, formally trained librarians were appointed: Marjorie Griffin 1946-1947; Edith Stewart 1947-1948; Kathleen R. Matthews 1948-1951; Douglas G. Lochhead 1951-1952; Albert A. Spratt 1953-1960; and Dean W. Halliwell 1960-1963. Halliwell became the University Librarian at the University of Victoria in 1963.
Digital collections online at UVic include:
The Changing Face of University of Victoria Campus Lands, from the 1950s: http://archives.library.uvic.ca/featured_collections/changing_face_uvic_campus/default.html
Provincial Normal School Oral Histories. The Normal School in Victoria opened in 1915:
http://contentdm.library.uvic.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/uvoh
UVic Historical Photograph Collection - related to the history of the University, and to both Victoria College and the Victoria Provincial Normal School: http://archives.library.uvic.ca/hpc/
University of Victoria newspapers. Only The Martlet is online but all are available at the Archives -later - including The Microscope, Victoria College, 1938-1940, 1946-1948; The Martlet, Victoria College, then UVic, 1948-1973; Gazette of the University of Victoria, 1963-1975, official news, including faculty and staff details; UVic Alumni Quarterly, 1965-1980.
Find a UVic Thesis:
https://www.uvic.ca/library/use/info/grads/thesis/finduvic.php
Tip: The British Colonist, 1858-1980, Victoria, BC, newspapers, digitized and online free has many references to Victoria College and the Victoria Normal School in the early days and the University of Victoria later.
SELECTED SOURCES AT UBC, UVIC AND SFU
Researching students and staff at the University of British Columbia
View of Main Library (now the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre) on University of British Columbia campus, Vancouver. Photographer Rosemary Gilliat, August 20, 1954. Library and Archives Canada, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Rosemary Gilliat. Rosemary Gilliat Eaton Fonds. Library and Archives Canada, e011161180.
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
UBC Archives and Library -
UBC Archives Photograph Collections, over 40,000 images. Includes “UBC Student Yearbook Photograph Collection” (51.1/) images scanned from the published yearbooks:
https://archives.library.ubc.ca/ubc-archives-photograph-collections/
Faculty and Department Histories: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/faculty-department-histories/
"Lists", UBC people, including Presidents, Registrars, Faculty Deans, Rhodes Scholarship Awards, and more: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/lists/
UBC histories, including UBC Scrapbooks: 1890-1941; and the Record of Service in the Second World War (.pdf): https://archives.library.ubc.ca/general-history/
Virtual Displays including: UBC's First 100 Theses; Remembering the Great Trek, Stories from the University’s past, and The Evolving Campus 1914-1973: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/virtual-displays/
Athletics histories, including the UBC Sports Hall of Fame with lists of names: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/athletics/
"Woven into the stuff of other men’s lives” The UBC Faculty Book of Remembrance, 1935:
http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/memorialbook/index.html
UBC publications - scanned, including The Ubyssey student newspaper; TREK Magazine (formerly Alumni Chronicle); The Annual/The Totem 1916-66; Touchpoints (School of Nursing): https://archives.library.ubc.ca/university-publications/
Textual records, search for finding aids. very few digitized: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/textual-records/
“We Learn to Teach the Teachers”, Vancouver Normal School,
25 January, 1936 Saturday, The Vancouver
Province, Vancouver, BC, Canada [page 49-5].
At Newspapers.com Researching students and staff at the University of Victoria and Victoria College
Victoria College Ladies' Hockey Team, 1930/31. University of Victoria Archives, Reference code
009.0204. The ladies are identified as: "Front row: Helen Harris, Miss Nixon, Rosalind Watson Young, ?, Bessie Thorne, ? Back row: Daphne Allen (fourth from right) and Dallas Homer-Dixon (second from right)."
The University of Victoria Archives and the Library have a number of helpful online sources.
UVic Archives and Special Collections -
Search the collections here: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/ AND/OR search at MemoryBC.
(Several times I've noticed more information here, for e.g. Victoria College Library fonds, Reference code CA UVICARCH AR230 - Inventory available "with file level control". The fonds consists of: Office files, 1952-1962; Account records, 1928-1956; Cataloging records, 1953; Circulation records, 1912-1963; and Collections records, 1952-1963.
Biographical history: An informal library was established in the early days of Victoria College, which was administered by staff. Individuals include, Margaret Ross 1934-1935, Staff Administrator; and Sydney G. Pettit 1937-1938, instructor of History. Beginning in 1946, formally trained librarians were appointed: Marjorie Griffin 1946-1947; Edith Stewart 1947-1948; Kathleen R. Matthews 1948-1951; Douglas G. Lochhead 1951-1952; Albert A. Spratt 1953-1960; and Dean W. Halliwell 1960-1963. Halliwell became the University Librarian at the University of Victoria in 1963.
Digital collections online at UVic include:
The Changing Face of University of Victoria Campus Lands, from the 1950s: http://archives.library.uvic.ca/featured_collections/changing_face_uvic_campus/default.html
Provincial Normal School Oral Histories. The Normal School in Victoria opened in 1915:
http://contentdm.library.uvic.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/uvoh
UVic Historical Photograph Collection - related to the history of the University, and to both Victoria College and the Victoria Provincial Normal School: http://archives.library.uvic.ca/hpc/
University of Victoria newspapers. Only The Martlet is online but all are available at the Archives -later - including The Microscope, Victoria College, 1938-1940, 1946-1948; The Martlet, Victoria College, then UVic, 1948-1973; Gazette of the University of Victoria, 1963-1975, official news, including faculty and staff details; UVic Alumni Quarterly, 1965-1980.
Find a UVic Thesis:
https://www.uvic.ca/library/use/info/grads/thesis/finduvic.php
Tip: The British Colonist, 1858-1980, Victoria, BC, newspapers, digitized and online free has many references to Victoria College and the Victoria Normal School in the early days and the University of Victoria later.
The Daily Colonist, Victoria, BC. Friday, 12 February, 1960, page 13.
Researching students and staff at Simon Fraser University
The Peak, SFU's student newspaper, front page, First Anniversary Issue, 5 October 1966.
The SFU Archives and the Library have many useful resources.
The SFU Archives has research guides to the evolution of women's rights at SFU, political action on campus, and to individuals and organizations who've contributed to SFU arts and culture.
Tip: Reading "SFU Campus Politics: Guide to Sources" even if you're not interested in those eras will give good ideas on archival and published sources about SFU and its students and staff:
Tip: Reading "SFU Campus Politics: Guide to Sources" even if you're not interested in those eras will give good ideas on archival and published sources about SFU and its students and staff:
A 50th Anniversary series of Arts & Social Science faculty biographies - partially available via the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20160301210036/http://www.sfu.ca:80/fass/fass-at-50/Faculty-Biographies.html
The Peak, SFU's student newspaper has been digitized and is searchable. Available in the SFU Digital Collections: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/peak Initially and only in 1965, there were 2 other publications, The Tartan and SF View.
SFU's Archive catalogue SFU AtoM: https://atom.archives.sfu.ca
Finding SFU Theses and Projects: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/format-type/finding-sfu-theses
Finding SFU Theses and Projects: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/format-type/finding-sfu-theses
Tip: Early local news coverage of SFU was extensive. The University Archives may have a clipping collection. Or search the Vancouver Sun and Province.
CATCH UP ON ALL MY A-Z APRIL 2020 BLOGGING CHALLENGE ARTICLES - https://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/04/my-blogging-for-a-to-z-april-challenge.html
1 comment:
Thanks for another great resource post. University libraries are the best! Perhaps because they have dedicated funding and staff -- and an educational mission -- they have some of the best photographic, and even newspaper, collections I have found.
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