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Archival description
Collection Women
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Diane Amirault Langlais Collection

  • Tantramar Heritage Trust 2007.14C
  • Collection
  • 1880-1929

Collection contains two photographs of unidentified women from separate time periods, showing examples of women’s fashion during those eras.

Morishita family collection

  • JCN 2011.79
  • Collection
  • 1903 - 1990

The collection consists of six series of papers, photographs and artefacts amassed by the Morishita family. The first series consists of papers and artefacts belonging to the patriarch of the family, Teiji Morishita. The second series consists of papers and artefacts belonging to Teiji's wife, Sawa Morishita. The third series consists of papers and artefacts amassed while the Morishitas (with the Ebisuzakis) ran the Ebisuzaki Shoten (store) at 337 Powell Street in Vancouver, BC. The fourth series consists of family photographs and artefacts belonging to the Morishita family. The fifth series consists of papers and artefacts belonging to the Morishita children. And the sixth series consists of papers and artefacts belonging to the Ebisuzaki family.

Lesbian and Bisexual Women in English Canada audio history collection

  • UVICARCH AR425
  • Collection
  • 1996 - 1998

The Lesbian and Bisexual Women in English Canada audio history collection consists of audio histories conducted for the 2001 University of Victoria Department of History doctoral dissertation <i>The Spreading Depths: Lesbian and Bisexual Women in English Canada, 1910-1965.</i> <i> The Spreading Depths</i> is the basis for Cameron Duder’s subsequent monograph <i>Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada, 1900-65,</i> published in 2010 by UBC Press.

The collection consists of 12 interviews (21 recordings in total as some were in multiple parts) conducted by Duder from 1996 to 1998. 27 women were interviewed for the dissertation research, and Duder also drew on interviews recorded in the 1980s for the Lesbians Making History Project. 12 of the women interviewed by Duder consented to their interviews being housed in the University of Victoria Archives. 10 of the 12 women requested to be identified by pseudonym.

Duder's dissertation, <i>The Spreading Depths</i>, examines lesbian and bisexual women’s formation of subjectivity in pre-1965 English Canada, a time when the terms and identities “lesbian” and “bisexual” were not widely discussed in society. Duder considers the existing historical information about the lives of women in same-sex relationships, in English Canada, before the social, political and sexual liberation movements of the 1960s. The interviews conducted by Duder provide information on what had been a neglected group in previous research on lesbian and bisexual women: the interview subjects are lesbians and bisexual women from lower-middle class and working class families. Duder argues that discourses on 19th and 20th century history of sexuality have reflected the documentation of the politically active and socially privileged, namely activist persons or organizations and women from upper middle class families whose histories were documented in public archives. Duder argues for a class-specific lesbian subjectivity in the decades before 1965, a subjectivity which does not always adhere to the forms of the “romantic friendship” and the “butch-femme relationship” which have dominated the discourse.

Duder adds a Canadian perspective to the large literature on the transition in women’s relationships from the romantic friendship to the modern lesbian. The Spreading Depths reveals that before the Second World War, women in same-sex relationships were influenced by the language of sexology. Their relationships were also much more explicitly sexual than were those of earlier generations of lesbians. Duder suggests, however, that we should not assume great expansion in the discussion of sexuality, because well into the 1950s and 1960s Canadians lacked information about sexual desire and sexual practice. The interview testimonies complicate the picture we have of women in the mid-twentieth century being much more sexually aware than women of previous generations.

The interviews reveal that lesbians and bisexual women shared heterosexual women’s longing for intimate relationships, their joy at finding a partner, and their pleasure in coming to an awareness of sexuality, but they also reveal that same-sex relationships held the same risks of infidelity, domestic violence, and alcohol abuse as existed for heterosexual women. Relationships with family were also mixed. Duder posits that because of the lack of public discussion around women’s sexual subjectivity, and therefore a lack of terminology that could be used to define and reject women living outside the heterosexual norm, women in same-sex relationships during the period under study may have had somewhat better relationships with their families than lesbians after 1965. Finally, The Spreading Depths discusses the Canadian lesbian community of the 1950s and the 1960s and contrasts the social world of lower-middle-class lesbians with the public bar culture of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The interview testimonies reveal the views held by these women towards the bar scene and the women who regularly socialized in the bars. The interviewees describe alternative ways they found to socialize with one another so as to avoid exposure.

Initially, the project intended to include heterosexual women as a part of its analysis of women in English Canada. Duder sought interviewees through advertisements in regular media and lesbian and feminist media, and consequently the text of these advertisements differed: for regular media, women 55 and older, who lived in British Columbia or Ontario for a minimum of 5 years between 1910 and 1955, were sought to speak about personal relationships and social life, all types of friendships, romantic relationships, courting and marriage; advertisements in lesbian and feminist media sought lesbian/gay and bisexual women 55 and older, who lived in British Columbia or Ontario for a minimum of 5 years between 1910 and 1955, willing to speak about personal relationships and social life, and the lives of lesbian and bisexual women. The dissertation was later narrowed to consider lesbian and bisexual women only.

Interviewees were offered use of pseudonyms, given the option of an audio recording of the interview or written notation only, and for those selecting the audio recording, the choices of destruction, preservation of the recording in an archives, or preservation of a transcript. Regarding access restrictions, participants choosing preservation of the recordings could select: no restriction, access with written consent, access after death of the participant, closure until a specified date, or other specifically stated restrictions.

The interviews were preceded by an informal meeting where Duder and the interviewee discussed the research and interview proposal. The guiding interview questions were organized into the following categories and general subjects (summarized from Appendix B of The Spreading Depths). Not all questions were asked of all interviewees:
<u>Biographical background</u> – of the interviewee and immediate family members, including birthplaces, nationalities, places lived, education and occupations;
<u>Childhood</u> – enjoyed or not enjoyed; feelings towards parents and siblings; family strictures; church attendance; playmates and racial characteristics of neighbourhood; school experiences; adolescence; reading habits; clothing worn; drinking and smoking habits; and special friendships;
<u>Socializing and sexual knowledge</u> – extent and location of socializing; types of socializing; friends and acquaintances; frequenting of clubs or bars; any secretiveness concerning activities and location; extent and source of knowledge of human anatomy, sex, pregnancy, masturbation, and same sex relations; awareness of and interaction with homosexual women or men;
<u>Personal sexuality</u> – sexual preference; words used to describe preference; early physical and emotional attractions; feelings associated with attraction; extent of intimate relationships; perceptions of mixed race relationships.
<p>Additional questions were available to guide further discussion of relationships and sexuality. The following is a sample from these questions (excerpted Appendix B of The Spreading Depths). Questions may not have been required depending on the course of interview:

  • How would you describe the way you felt about sex in those relationships?
  • Were there any occasions where one of you wanted to do something different and the other refused? How did you feel about that?
  • Did you know from the beginning what you would like and dislike or was that something you learned about yourself over time?
  • Is there anything else that you would like to tell me about your sexual relationships?

Women, social justice, and Canadian trade unions collection

  • ON00370 F0494
  • Collection
  • 1973-2006

Collection consists of publications, policy statements, research reports, conference and educational documents, and newsletters accumulated by Professor Linda Briskin in the course of her research on women and equity in organized labour in Canada. The documents were published by or about local, provincial, and national organizations, including the Canadian Labour Congress, provincial federations of labour, Canadian and United Auto Workers, Canadian Air Line Employees' Association, Canada Employment Immigration Union, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, the Committee for Cleaners' Rights, International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Metro Labour Council, Union of Provincial Government Employees, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, Public Service Alliance of Canada, United Steelworkers of Canada, Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, and the Windsor Hospital Clerical Workers Union of Canada. The collection deals with equity in collective bargaining units, including issues of sisterhood and solidarity, education, human rights, anti-racism, aboriginal issues, affirmative action, violence against women, and the impact of technological change. The documents are arranged into files by organization, and they reflect the equity initiatives undertaken by unions to transform organizational practice and culture in order to ensure fairness and representation for women and members of other equity-seeking groups.

Fredericton Women's Study Club

  • CA UNB MG H 100
  • Collection
  • 1940-1947

This collection documents the activities of the Fredericton Women's Study Club from 1940 to 1947. It consists of 3 scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings, minutes, and correspondence.

Fredericton Women's Study Club

Association of Canadian Women Composers Collection

  • CA pfla WCC
  • Collection
  • 1976-2010

The collection consists of records aquired by the Association of Canadian Women Composers archives. The materials, which include musical scores and sheet music, concert programs and flyers, media clippings, and sound recordings, were donated by ACWC members. They document the activities and contributions of women composers in Canada and elsewhere.
Records consist of two series: Composer Files containing materials that relate to a single composer subject, and Other Materials containing records that relate either to multiple composers or to the subject of women composers more generally.

Association of Canadian Women Composers

Alberta Association of Registered Nurses Oral History Collection

  • CA AARN aarn-2203
  • Collection
  • 1933-1994

The fonds consists of recorded interviews with various members of the nursing profession for their personal and professional histories and of the institutions in which they served. Subjects on the tapes include: Laura Attrux (as described by Helen Getzinger and Stella Boisvert) Nellie Beatty, Jackie Brewe, Yvonne Chapman, Gurty Chinell, Kay Christie, Betty Eggen, Vera Gingras, Glenna Gorrill, Betty Gourlay, Elnora Hibbert, Jessie Morrison, Florence Nightingale, Mary Adelaide Nutting, Geneva Purcell, Phyliss Robinson, Martha Rogers, Helen Sabin, Marguerite Schumacher, Winnie Shandro, Muriel Shewchuk, Margaret Street, and Helen Westley.

Alberta Association of Registered Nurses Museum and Archives

Marie Dorsey collection

  • EDM edm-1100
  • Collection
  • 1963-1971

The fonds consists of materials collected by Marie Dorsey of Edmonton and dating from 1963 to 1971. The fonds consists of a Campex catalogue, 1964; Edmonton Stamp Club Directory, 1971; Biographical pamphlet on H.P. Brown, secretary of the Edmonton Film Society; Edmonton Film Society program, 1966; Historical report on the Edmonton Transit System.

Dorsey, Marie

Eva McKitrick collection

  • EDM edm-1123
  • Collection
  • 1909-1983

The collection consists of materials collected by Eva McKitrick between 1909 and 1983. The collection consists of brochures and pamphlets relating to events in Edmonton.

McKitrick, Eva

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