Archives

Today I visited the University of Ottawa archives. It was an interesting visit. There are some memorabilia: keys to the front door of the building where the university was located when it opened in 1854, sports trophies, battered old musical instruments from a late 19th century band, a menu from a ceremonial banquet in the 1880s where the final items were brandy and cigars, and much more. In those days it was a religious college that evolved rather slowly at first then more rapidly after the end of the 1939-45 world war when the university opened up in several ways as a necessary condition to obtaining government funds. There were no women students or staff (other than domestic servants) until after the 1914-1918 world war.  Some of the early buildings were made of wood, and were destroyed in disastrous fires early in the 20th century. As for documents, senate meeting minutes and financial records are kept, but not historically significant correspondence of the sort that I offered, and sent along with much else to the National Archives of Canada when the University of Ottawa wasn't interested. I gave the archives my spare copy of the memorial volume I compiled and edited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Medicine in 1995. Unlike the battered copy in the archives, my copy is in mint condition, so the archivist was duly grateful to have this.