What’s New in Archives and Special Collections?

Current Exhibits:

Mariposa : fifty years of making music will run at the City of Toronto Market Gallery from 9 July to 15 October 2011.

This project of the Market Gallery, in partnership with the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the festival. Materials featured in this exhibit are taken from the Mariposa Folk Foundation’s extensive archives, which were donated to York University’s Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections in 2007. The exhibit documents the festival’s origins in Orillia and the folk revival movement of the 1960s, as well as the range of venue changes, culture clashes and the remarkable continuity that allows the festival to endure and to be relevant today. Music is at the core of this exhibit but other facets of folk culture like traditional dance, craftwork, and storytelling will also be highlighted. The importance of the First Nations community and children’s programming in the history of the festival will also be emphasized, particularly as it relates to the successful MITS (Mariposa In The Schools) program.

Mariposa : celebrating Canadian folk music is now online.

This project of the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, was made possible in partnership with The Mariposa Folk Foundation, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Council of Archives. The 50th anniversary of Mariposa was featured on CBC’s Metro Morning (July 2010).

You can read more about the online exhibit on the Archives blog and in the Y-file.

Ruth Dworin Collection : A glimpse into a special collection that contains many classic, forgotten and often-censored works of lesbian fiction from the early to late 20th century is now online.

This online exhibit is made possible through the contributions of M.A. student Renee Jackson in the Faculty of English at York University.

Letters Home : a selection of wartime correspondence from the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections is now online. Based on a 2009 exhibit of wartime correspondence held by the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, “Letters Home” highlights some correspondence exchanged by soldiers with their parents, siblings and friends during the First and Second World Wars.

This online exhibit would not have been possible without the generosity of family members who, over the years have donated their family records for the benefit of students and scholars of York University. In particular, archival staff would like to thank Dorothy Stepler, John Lennox, the late Bettie Lennox Locke, and Nick Aplin. A special thanks must be made to Vicki Ryckman. She found the letters of Charles Shore in an old barn in Prince Edward County where she grew up and donated the letters to the archives in 2008.

Recent Events:

More Toronto Telegram images have gone up online in YorkSpace, including There’s Lots to See at the CNE… and Caribana.

New Fonds

The Clara Thomas Archives is receiving new material all the time and our holdings continue to expand. Some of the new fonds d’archives that we have received over the last six months include the following. More extensive descriptions will be posted on our fonds registers as they become available.

• Women, social justice, and Canadian trade unions collection
• Virginia Rock fonds
• Rex Battle fonds
• George E.A. Reid fonds
• Knowlton Nash fonds
• Sig Gerber fonds
• Alison Pick fonds
• William Wicken fonds
• Naomi Black fonds
• Hilary Armstrong fonds
• Giles Endicott fonds
• Ruth Jones McVeigh fonds
• David Higgs fonds
• Obsidian Theatre Company fonds
• Allan Novak fonds 
• Portuguese Interagency Network (PIN)
• Mary Jane Warner fonds
• Canadian Italian Business and Professionals Association 
• Didi Khayatt fonds
• Theresa Burke fonds
• Varpu Lindström fonds
• Obsidian Theatre Company fonds
• Marilou McPhedran fonds

Recent Donations to Existing Fonds

Clara Thomas Archives has received numerous accessions to existing fonds over the course of the last year including new material in the following fonds d’archives:

• University archives:
• • Office of the President.
• Private archives:
• • Stevie Cameron fonds
  • Barbara Godard fonds
  • Lee Lorch fonds
  • Mary Young Leckie fonds
  • John N. Smith fonds
  • Avrom Isaacs fonds
  • Cameron family fonds

Award winning Archives:

The Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections has won the Archives Association of Ontario’s 2008 Institutional Award.

The award was presented as part of the AAO’s 2008 Conference banquet in Windsor, Ontario on June 6, 2008.

Why York University Archives was Renamed:

York University Archives was named in honour of Dr. Clara Thomas, Professor Emirata of English at York University from 1961 to 1984. The Clara Thomas Archives at York University has been a beneficiary of Dr. Thomas’ extensive literary connections, moral and financial support, and good will for many years.