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Archives & Special Collections

Archives & Special Collections is a department of the Libraries and is located in Room 330 on the third floor of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library. Since its establishment in 1978, the Archives' mission has been to acquire, catalogue and preserve university records and special research collections which further the educational aims of the University of Manitoba, and to promote and provide wide access to them. The Archives' wide-ranging collection mandate includes the acquisition of the records of the University of Manitoba, Canadian Prairie Literary Manuscripts, the Archives of the Agricultural Experience and rare books in the areas of western Canadiana, early Arctic exploration, early Native language syllabics, spiritualism, church history and philosophy, and agriculture among others.

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: Faculty of Agriculture fonds; Manitoba Agricultural College was formerly opened in 1906. In the following year, Manitoba Agricultural College became affiliated with the University of Manitoba so that the degree in agriculture could be conferred on students who had successfully completed the five-year course. However, the affiliation of Manitoba Agricultural College with the University was terminated by an Act of the Provincial Legislature in 1912 when the College was granted degree conferring powers. However, in 1916, the Act was amended and the affiliation between the College and University was restored again. The University of Manitoba conferred the degree Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (B.S.A) for the first time in May 1911. Regular instruction in Home Economics began the same year and the degree of Bachelor of Home Economics (B.H.E.) was first conferred in May 1918. On March 1, 1924, by Act of the Manitoba Legislature, the administration of Manitoba Agricultural College was transferred to the Board of Governors of the University and it was arranged that in future, the instructional work of the College could be carried on as a Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics of the University. The length of the degree courses in both Agriculture and Home Economics was reduced to four sessions in 1927-1928 to conform with the other university faculties. In 1929, the Legislature selected the site in Fort Garry, already occupied by the Manitoba Agricultural College since 1913, as the permanent site of the university. A systematic program of work in the field of rural adult education was begun in 1940. By 1941, the Faculty consisted of six departments: Animal Science, Bacteriology and Animal Pathology, Dairy Husbandry, Entomology, Plant Science ,and Soils. In 1946, the Department of Agricultural Engineering was added to the faculty. In 1966, the Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics opened the Centre for Applied Research at Glenlea, twenty kilometers south of Winnipeg. In 1970, the Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics separated into two independent faculties, Agriculture and Home Economics. Beginning in 1971, the Faculty of Agriculture, through sponsorship from the provincial government, became involved with various foreign aid programs. This culminated in 1979 when the Canadian International Development Agency (C.I.D.A.) financed a joint agricultural program with the University of Zambia. In July 1991, the Faculty became the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.

: John Leslie Charles fonds; Major John Leslie Charles was a Chief Engineer for Candian National Railway's (CN) Western Region and consulting engineer for CN. He later became responsible for much of the engineering and construction in western Canada, northern Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories. In 1926, he was appointed as a transit man for a survey crew and surveyed the second section of the Hudson Bay Railway (Limestone- Fort Churchill). He also published studies of the Great Slave Lake Railway, the first railway to enter the Northwest Territories and the most northerly railway connected to the continental system. The collection includes articles, reports and maps created by Charles regarding Northern Canadian railway routes.

: Melita and David A. Ennis fonds; The Melita and David A. Ennis fonds consists of 2 scrapbooks featuring photographs depicting life in Churchill, Manitoba between 1929 and 1932. The photographs depict construction projects, settlement communities, rail roads, indigenous peoples, Charles and Anne Lindbergh, and images of northern landscapes. They document the process of mechanization and frontier expansion.