Showing 209 results

archival descriptions
Jean Dorgan fonds
NWMA IH 2004.43 · Fonds · 1942-1945

Fonds consists of a series photographs and postcards that document her war time experiences.

Dorgan, Jean
CA WVAN 020 · Fonds · 1940-1978

The fonds consists of material relating to the history, development, and activities of the Duncan Lawson Chapter of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire. The material includes financial records, policies, correspondence, reports, speeches, minutes, agendas, historical information, magazines, brochures, certificates, greeting cards, booklets, and photographs.

The fonds is arranged into the following series:
Series 1: Financial records
Series 2: Policies and procedures
Series 3: Correspondence
Series 4: Reports
Series 5: Speeches and history
Series 6: Membership information
Series 7: Minutes and agendas
Series 8: Echoes magazine
Series 9: Ephemera

Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire. Duncan Lawson Chapter (West Vancouver, B.C.)
Ida Madeline Gunterman fonds
CA VPL 16762-16773 · Fonds · [ca. 1890-1910]

The fonds consists of photographs of the Lardeau area of B.C. including portraits and images depicting scenery and pioneer life.

Gunterman, Ida Madeline
Margaret Peterson fonds
CA UVICARCH AR445 · Fonds · ? - 1997

The fonds reflects Margaret Peterson’s artistic processes and practices, research interests, pedagogy, her relationship with Howard O’Hagan, and her relationships with friends, patrons, fellow artists, galleries and various institutions.
The fonds consists of correspondence, photographs, biographical documents, diaries and notebooks, financial and business-related documents, grant applications, teaching materials, unpublished poetry and manuscripts, exhibition catalogues, clippings and publications, drawings and small artworks, painting materials, objects collected by Peterson, and various ephemera.
Correspondents include Howard O’Hagan, Elza Mayhew, Glenn Wessels, J. Russell Harper, Jean Varda, Dorothy and John B. Grover, Joy Ling, Walter Askin, Robert and Sarah Amos, Helen Anderson, R.W. Peterson, Ellen Charlotte Peterson, and Jane Hanks.
The fonds has been arranged into five series: Biographical, Art Practice, Publications, clippings and collected ephemera, Teaching, and Howard O’Hagan Materials.

Peterson, Margaret
CA UVICARCH AR442 · Fonds · 1993-1997

Fonds reflects Carol Cross’s art process as well as her interest and involvement in the women’s movement. Fonds consists of Cross’s two handmade books: “In Their Words” and “Ten Historical BC Women”, as well as accompanying exhibition materials and related correspondence.

Correspondents include Mary Billy, Andrea Trudel, and Michelle Benjamin.

Cross, Carol
CA UVICARCH AR430 · Item · 2009

Item consists of sound recordings of Debby Yaffe discussing her childhood, schooling and family life in California, including gendered family roles, expectations of femininity in the 1950s, university, marriage and life in Europe, her feminist consciousness raising experience in London, teaching high school in London, the differences between English and American societies, sex discrimination, radical feminist activities, restructuring of sexual relationships, life in Canada and involvement in the Women’s movement in Victoria, Status of Women Action group, Everywomens Books, disordered eating as feminist issue, work as a fitness instructor, abortion rights, impact on feminist awareness of the December 6, 1989 killings at École Polytechnique in Montréal, radical feminism, women’s lives in Canada and England, life as a lesbian, resisting dominant domestic relationship constructs, teaching Women’s Studies, feminist theory, and the Victoria Women’s Movement Archives.

The Debby Yaffe interview was conducted by Joy Fisher as a research project in the course History 358A, “Women in Canada,” taught by Dr. Lynne Marks, which covered histories of women in Canada from the era of New France to the present. Fisher’s resulting essay is entitled “Riding the Wave/ Watching the Wave: A Second Wave Feminist Talks about Gender Ideologies and her Life.”

Yaffe, Debby
CA 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 The Spreading Depths: Lesbian and Bisexual Women in English Canada, 1910-1965. The Spreading Depths is the basis for Cameron Duder’s subsequent monograph Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada, 1900-65, 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, The Spreading Depths, 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:
Biographical background – of the interviewee and immediate family members, including birthplaces, nationalities, places lived, education and occupations;
Childhood – 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;
Socializing and sexual knowledge – 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;
Personal sexuality – 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.

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?
Stephanie Castle fonds
CA UVICARCH AR422 · Fonds · 1982 - 2002 (1993-2002 predominant)

Fonds consists of: copies of Zenith Digest and material relating to the administration of the Zenith Foundation; the Foundation’s participation as an intervener in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal regarding Synthia Kavanagh and the Correctional Service of Canada; and copies of the following publications:
The Partnership, by Stephanie Castle
Shadows in the City, by Stephanie Castle
Tales from Cascadia - Volume One, by Stephanie Castle
A Tale of Two Wives, by Stephanie Castle
Prisoner of Gender, by Katherine Johnson & Stephanie Castle
As Much as Me?, by Margot Roberts

Castle, Stephanie
CA UVICARCH AR421 · Fonds · 1943 - 2003

The Rikki Swin Institute transgender collection consists of the following fonds: Rikki Swin Institute fonds, Ari Kane fonds, International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) fonds, and the Virginia Prince fonds. The IFGE fonds includes material from Betty Ann Lind and Merissa Sherrill Lynn.

Kane, Ari
Mary Macdonald fonds
CA UVICARCH AR357 · Fonds · 1919

The notebook consists of lecture notes for a Household Science course taken at the Summer School for Teachers, Victoria B.C. The notebook includes detailed notes about sewing, including sample patterns and embroidery samples; and notes on cookery, housewifery and cleaning, including several basic recipes.

Macdonald, Mary
CA UVICARCH AR355 · Fonds · 2000-2002

The fonds consists of project files including correspondence, funding, proposals, newspaper clippings, research papers; journals and notebook; scrapbook entitled "Building of Change: the process exposed"; oral history interview tapes; video recordings. Audio cassettes included records interviews with: Jacquie Ackerly, Sharon Chow, Harrinder Dhillon, Dorothy Livingston, Norrie Preston, and Joan Russo.

Building of Change Project
CA UVICARCH AR353 · Fonds · 1999-2001

The fonds consists of case files of each interviewee. Each file contains a tape summary, biographical information, a personal photograph, and an audiocassette tape of the interview. Also included is a file with a sample copy of all the forms used in documenting the project.

University Women's Club of Victoria. Oral History Project
CA UVICARCH AR348 · Fonds · 1999-2000

The fonds consists of educational reports, photographs, and a program for a dinner held March 9, 2000 in conjunction with the Status of Women Action Group.

Women for Women in Afghanistan. Victoria Branch
Barbara Ann Roberts fonds
CA UVICARCH AR342 · Fonds · 1974-1998

The fonds consists of sixteen series: university employment; 1977-1996; university teaching, 1974-1988; grant applications, 1980-1995; publications, 1975-1997; conference papers, 1978-1991; presentations, 1980-1997; unpublished papers, 1975-1995; Gertrude Richardson research, 1985-1996; Leicester Peace Society research, 1992-1993; women's movement, 1983-1996; peace movement, 1986-1997; miscellaneous correspondence, 1979-1998; family correspondence, 1987-1997; illness and death, 1998; photographs, 1986-1993, and Canadian women peace activists oral history interviews, 1987-1989. The university employment series includes curricula vitae, job applications, and self evaluation files which document Roberts employment history and her publications and committee work, etc. The university teaching series includes course outlines, take home exams, and student handouts which shed light on her approach to teaching. The grant applications and publications series together provide an overview of the range and direction of Roberts' research interests. While most of the series are based on record type, the Gertrude Richardson research and Leicester Peace Society Research series are arranged by subject and contain correspondence and grant applications; the Gertrude Richardson Research series also contains conference papers. The Women's movement and Peace movement series both contain correspondence, although some correspondence pertaining to them will be found in the miscellaneous and family correspondence series. While the miscellaneous and family correspondence series consist almost entirely of inward correspondence, both contain a few printouts of e-mail correspondence or letters from Roberts which shed light on her daily life and research projects. The Canadian Women Peace Activists series contains interviews about and with Canadian women who were peace activists before 1960.

Roberts, Barbara Ann
CA UVICARCH AR326 · Fonds · 1985-2000

The fonds consists of correspondence, 1993-99; minutes, 1995-99; articles, 1989-2000; brochures; news clippings, 1985-99; scrap books, 1987-99; songs; newsletters, 1997-99; manuscript "Singing in the Rain," n.d.; oral history interview, n.d.; and photographs, 1987-99.

Raging Grannies of Victoria
Margaret Newton fonds
CA UVICARCH AR271 · Fonds · 1929-1949

The fonds consists of correspondence with international plant pathologists regarding scientific studies, publications, and requests for seeds. Also includes several brief biographies of Newton; a submission by Newton to her student newspaper at the University of Minnesota in 1933; and the Flavell Medal awarded to Newton by the Royal Society of Canada in 1948.

Newton, Margaret
CA UVICARCH AR242 · Fonds · 1999

The collection consists of 1 framed photograph; related issue of the Womyn's Publication Netwerk newspaper, Monday magazine story and letters, and an article on the Burning Man festival.

Women's Centre fonds
CA UVICARCH AR225 · Fonds · 1972-2000

The fonds consists of office files and include budget, minutes, agendas, communication logs, policy files, posters and Women's Centre history. Also included are subject files which entail educational and activist undertakings relating to rallies, eating disorders, date rape, violence against women, women's rights, December 6 memorial vigil and racism.

University of Victoria (B.C.). Women's Centre
CA UVICARCH AR197 · Fonds · 1982-1985

The fonds consists of correspondence, "Bad Trick Sheet" newsletters, reports, clippings, petitions, questionnaires, a "Women as Animals" file depicting women in advertising, and a script for a slide show entitled, "Erotica: A Feminist Exploration." Files arranged in alphabetical order by title.

Women Against Pornography (Victoria, B.C.)
CA UVICARCH AR193 · Fonds · 1957-1995

The fonds consists of four primary series: Michel Butor research files, Jeanne Hyvrard research files, French feminist writings research files, and French lesbian novels research files. The Butor series consists of correspondence, research files, works of Waelti-Walters, and reference material such as articles and clippings. The Hyvrard series consists of Hyvrard manuscripts, correspondence, research files, literary criticism and translations of Hyvrard. The feminist writings and the French lesbian novels series consist of drafts, primary sources, secondary sources, research notes, correspondence, and bibliographies. All the series contains some teaching files and reference material.

Waelti-Walters, Jennifer
CA UVICARCH AR192 · Fonds · 1966-1992

The fonds consists of subject files containing reports, research and clippings; correspondence, 1983-1992; minutes, 1989-1992; and reports, 1984-1987.

British Columbia Voice of Women. Victoria Branch
CA UVICARCH AR191 · Fonds · 1975

The fonds consists of correspondence and workshop handouts relating to the conference, and newspaper clippings and photographs of the 1975 International Women's Day March in Victoria.

Victoria Women's Centre
CA UVICARCH AR190 · Fonds · 1979-1985, 1993-1995

The fonds consists of newsletters, announcements and invitations, constitutions, correspondence, reports, research, VWBS history, and minutes.

Victoria Women's Building Society