This fonds contains a copy of "By Section, Township & Range: Studies in Prairie Settlement", by John Langton Tyman. This publication was based on Tyman's doctoral thesis, (which is also included in this fonds)completed in 1970 and titled "The Disposition of Farm Lands in Western Manitoba, 1870 - 1930: Studies in Prairie Settlement." Fonds also includes extensive research materials compiled by Dr. Tyman on prairie settlement. They include: copies of the Annual Report of the Department of the Interior; documents relating to C.P.R. land sales (c.1870-1900); personal accounts and local histories of municipalities in southern Manitoba such as Shoal Lake, Justice, and local C.P.R. lines; the Canadian Homestead Settlement Co.; The Free Land Homestead Co,; the Canadian Northwest Lands Co.; the N.W.H.B., C.N.R., Lake Manitoba Railway & Canal Co.; land grants given to Veterans; Wellams and Dominion Steamship Co.; maps of southern Manitoba RM's; Sowden and Co. (a land settlement company); corespondance to a Rev. L.O. Armstrong in Emerson (c. 1885); legislation; agricultural progress; history of school lands; correspondance to and from J. Tyman (c.1960); the settlement of Icelandic, Hungarian, and Scandinavian immigrants; a plethora of maps both relating to prairie settlement and to world geography; a manuscript by William Pearce (1925); a transcript titled "Patterns of Settlement"; 5 roles of microfilm containing maps and copies of some publications acquired by Dr. Tyman; a number of books and c.1900 publications to do with prairie settlement; maps by township and range of the prairies; 100 photos and drawings all c.1880 to 1900; extensive township summaries; and extensive land disposal records as recorded by the Lands Department, including the names of settlers.

Fonds contains an unpublished autobiography written by Martin Kavanagh and several draft narratives for a slide presenation based on Mr. Kavanagh's biography of La Verendrye. Fonds also contains one file of business correspondence c. 1971.

Fonds contains copies of settlement era 1881-1905 documents related to Wallace family homesteading in the Shellmouth region, correspondence between Andrews Wallace and figures at Brandon College c. 1941 concerning the donation of the Wallace correspondence to the Brandon College library, and extensive correspondence to and from Dr. William Morrison concerning the publication of My Dear Maggie, an edited version of some of the Wallace correspondence.

The William Wallace fonds consists of hundreds of letters that Wiliam and his brother Andrew, wrote to their sister Maggie, who was in Scotland. The correspondence dates from 1881 until 1904. The first letter, dated 22 March 1881, was written by both William and Andrew who were aboard the S.S. Prussia as they sailed to North America from Scotland. The last letter was written on 4 January, 1904, by William Wallace. This letter was written to inform Maggie and her husband that William had reserved a homestead in Maggie's husband's name. William was keenly interested in everything going on around him; his letters and Andrew's reveal what life was like for inexperienced settlers on the Canadian agricultural frontier in the last years of the ninteenth century. Fonds touches on a variety of social, political and economic themes.