Fonds yuk-593 - May Menzies fonds

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May Menzies fonds

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CA yuk yuk-593

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148 photographs : 94 b&w copy negs, 29 b&w negs, 14 b&w prints, 11 col. prints;.01 m of textual records;3 audio tape cassettes : (ca. 3 hrs.)

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Biographical history

Mrs. May Rose Menzies (nee Austin) was born in 1893. She moved to Hay River in 1918 and worked as a cook at the Anglican mission for three years. She then alternated her residence - living for a year in Ontario, three years at Hay River and another year in Ontario - before moving to Dawson City where she worked as a cook at St. Paul's Hostel. In 1928, she married Joe Menzies and they lived at Fort Selkirk where he ran the Taylor & Drury trading post. They had a son, Austin, in Dawson City in 1929. May's sister Grace Austin visited them in 1931, and May returned to Toronto to have her daughter Joyce (also called Joy). May and Joe Menzies later moved to Selwyn Creek, where Joe was in charge of the wood camp. They stayed there until 1939 when May and the children moved to the Whitehorse area to offer the children a formal education. May worked one summer as cook on the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR). She and the children left the Yukon around 1940-1941 because Joyce was ill. They returned to Ontario for Joyce's operation but found they could not return to the Yukon due to travel restrictions in effect because of the war. The family was never reunited. Joe died in Dawson City in 1952; May Rose Menzies died in 1985.

Custodial history

Accession 78/23 was brought to the Yukon Archives by Bruce Batchelor in 1978. The photographs in accession 2006/123 were brought to the Archives by Bob Cameron who received them from former Yukon resident, Chuck Hankins. It is unknown how they came to be in his possession.

Scope and content

The fonds consists of photographs, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, correspondence and tape recordings documenting May Menzies and her family's life in the north. Ninety-four photographs (taken between 1928 and 1939) depict family scenes in the Yukon at Selwyn and Fort Selkirk, especially activities of the children, wood camps, neighbours along the river, sternwheelers and boats on the river, airplanes, dog teams, the flood at Selwyn, and scenes in Dawson City. There are also 11 original colour photographs taken by Bruce Batchelor in 1978 of May Menzies and her family, and of native beadwork that she collected while in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Also included are copies of 4 letters written by May, to her mother and sisters in the 1930s, from Hay River and the Yukon; a newspaper clipping about her wedding; a list of wedding guests and presents; an article about the Chooutla (Carcross) Residential School; and a partnership agreement between Joe Menzies and Frieda Schwartz, 1946. There are also three 60-minute tape cassette recordings (ca. 1978): two are of Bruce Batchelor interviewing May Menzies, and the third is May Menzies being interviewed by her granddaughter (78/23). The second accession (2006/123) consists of 29 original b&w negatives and 14 matching prints depicting activities of the Menzies family at Fort Selkirk and Selwyn River. A panorama of Dawson City is also included.

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There are no donor-imposed restrictions on this material. General copyright or institutional or legal restrictions may apply.

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Inventory of photographs is available (Inventory #56). Caption list is available for the photographs in 2006/123.

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