Special Collections & Archives collects material in several major thematic areas. Many collections fall into one or more areas. Note that this list is not exhaustive, and some collections do not fall into any of these categories. Please consult the to view all collections.
SCA supports research, teaching and learning in the broad fields of architecture and planning with a variety of primary sources. Included are the personal papers and drawings of architects and architectural historians such as , , , , and . The department maintains collections focused on conservation efforts to preserve Ontario’s built environment, including the records of the and the , which also includes records documenting the development of Guildwood Village in Scarborough, Ontario.
Also available are collections focused on the development of the Region of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ including maps and fire insurance plans, the , a city engineer who work with local cities and townships, and the , an urban planner who worked extensively in the Region and served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ in the School of Urban and Regional Planning. These collections are supplemented by several acquisitions featuring plans and drawings of local buildings and homes, and a selection of rare books on architecture and design.
SCA maintains collections that document the experiences of students, faculty, and staff at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. This includes print runs of , , and , and .ÌýThe department holds a selection of and general ephemera, as well as the (FAUW) and . SCA is also home toÌý and a variety of .
SCA maintains print and archival collections relating to the environment, specifically issues of climate change, water, tourism, biology, zoology, conservation, limnology, Arctic sovereignty, and natural resources management in Ontario in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Archival collections include those of individual activists and scholars such as ,Ìý , , and . In addition, the department holds archival collections of advocacy and community organizations such as the , , , and the .
SCA is home to rare books and special collections that document innovation through the creative process, and the steps undertaken when generating new and original ideas, concepts, or artistic expressions. Collections include a selection of papers from twentieth-century Canadian artists and authors of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama such as the papers and other outputs of , , , , , as well as and . SCA also maintains collections related to Robert Southey, an English poet of the Romantic school, and romantic poetry.
Combined, the collections document all stages of the creative arts process including handwritten manuscripts, typescripts, computer outputs, drafts, revisions and proofs, sketchbooks, idea books, original illustrations, and artworks. Many of these collections also include photographs, correspondence, diaries, ephemera, and other material that reveal additional insight into the artistic creative process.
SCA holds a growing collection of faculty papers that document exceptional pedagogical practices, groundbreaking research, and extraordinary community and professional service undertaken at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. The department is home to the personal papers ofÌý, ,Ìý, , , and . SCA also maintains collections related to former presidents of the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ including and , as well as À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ’s first Chancellor, .
SCA maintains a variety of print and archival collections regarding the history of mathematics, particularly in relation to geometry and computer science. The department holds 45 editions of Euclid’sÌýElements of GeometryÌýand 110 nineteenth-century mathematic rare books. In addition, the department holds a , a copy of , and v. Moreover, the department retains the papers of some À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ faculty members who left their mark in STEMM fields including , , , and undergraduate student , who was involved in WATFOR 360.
SCA also maintains collections related to the history of women in STEM, including the work of groundbreaking zoologist , public health advocate , , one of the first women in Canada to receive a medical degree, and , who was the first woman appointed to the science staff at the University of Manchester in 1904, known for eugenics and women’s rights advocacy.
SCA maintains many examples of cultural products and outcomes of the printing era, including artists’ books by authors Palmer & Calvert, William Morris, and David Jones, as well as editions of books, newsletters, magazine, and zines printed by small presses. SCA’s book collection has many rare volumes featuring fine binding, including examples from well-known bookbinders such as Joseph Zaehnsdorf and Sangorski & Sutcliffe. In addition, the department holds rare editions and early printings of books produced by private presses like the Poetry Bookshop, Dolmen Press, and Hogarth Press, hundreds of pulp fiction books in the and the that reflect the genre’s graphic and colorful art. Also available are the organizational thatÌý document the radical roots of Kitchener-À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ’s typesetting shop in the 1970s and 1980s.
SCA supports research on race, racism, and colonization through a range of print material and archival collections. These include a growing number ofÌýcontemporaryÌýÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýÌýfocused on and produced by equity deserving communities both re-claimingÌýand celebratingÌýcultural practices prohibited or lost duringÌýcolonization.
In addition, SCA holds records that reflect multiple perspectives on the advancement and impact of colonialism including those captured in the , both of whom worked as fur traders for the Hudson Bay Company, theÌý, as well as editions of , a newspaper published in Western Canada in the 1970s by members of the Native Youth Movement. Other collections include bestowing lands formerly promised to the Ojibwe and Odawa of Manitoulin Island, and the , a historian who wrote about the history of Indigenous communities in Canada with a focus on the West Coast.
Also of note are editions of , a Brooklyn-based publication from the 1970s documenting the experiences of Black communities at a critical moment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and , documenting the upbringing and day-to-day life of an African American woman from New Jersey between the mid-1940s to the 1980s.ÌýThe department also houses of pulp fiction titles, and a selection of with students, faculty and staff connected to the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ.
SCA holds a variety of local history resources related to development, industry, and settlement in what is today the Region of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. Collections include maps, fire insurance plans, business and city directories, yearbooks from local high schools, government documents outlining local county or village by-laws, and newspapers including restored copies of issues of the for the years 1859-1889. The department is also home to the , which documents local news events, community activities, regional development, and human-interest stories between 1938-2001.
Many of SCA’s local history collections contain the institutional archives of local businesses and organizations such as , , , the , , and the . In addition, the department maintains the papers of numerous notable families including those for the , , , , , and families, among many others. These collections complement several printed genealogies, family histories, and monographs also held by the department.
Combined, topics of note in these collections include cultural and community association development, family planning, mourning and grief as understood through spiritualism, and the lives of early settler families, including those of women and children.
SCA has a selection of print and archival material that document the history of birth control in Canada and the United States, women’s reproductive health, and family planning. Collections include the organizational papers of the , a Kitchener-based clinic for family planning and birth control set up by A.R. Kaufman of the Kaufman Rubber Company in the 1930s, and , the founder of Mother's Clinic for Constructive Birth Control, the world’s first birth control clinic. In addition to documenting the early advancement of reproductive rights, these collections support research regarding eugenics-informed rhetoric used to advance reproductive issues and advocacy and outside of feminist circles. SCA also holds , who was arrested in 1936 for advertising birth control to women in the Eastview neighborhood of Ottawa.
SCA holds print and archival material that document sport, recreation and leisure activities in the Region of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ and beyond. In addition to cookbooks, scrapbooks, women’s knitting and crafting patterns, and ephemera and photographs related to theatre and performance, SCA maintains the records of various organizations including the , the , the , and .
SCA maintains, but no longer actively collects, records and rare books related to the history and performance of dance. These collections contain material describing the history of various types of dance including ancient dance and sport (particularly as performed by the Greeks), Scottish dancing, as well as the cotillion, waltz, minuet, and the quadrille. Additionally, the collections feature a significant amount of material related to ballet including choreography, dance notations, lithographs, engravings, over 150 rare books, and records detailing the scheduling and planning of the Vestris Prize for choreography.
Dance related collections were acquired to support the Department of Dance within the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, and dance courses that began being offered during the 1969-1970 school year, which predated the department’s founding as an independent program in 1972. The Dance Program was closed in 1996.
SCA was founded in 1976 with a significant collection of materials related to women’s history and women’s studies as the cornerstone of the department. Acquired in the 1967 by university librarian Doris Lewis from the National Council of Women of Canada, and the donation included the Council’s library on the history of women in Canada. Present in these collections are the papers of individual women and women’s organizations, as well as an extensive series of reference files, that support the study of women’s history in Canada from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. In general, the collections fall into the following broad categories: birth control and eugenics, broadcasting and journalism, domestic arts, education, medicine and science, organizations, politics, women’s rights and suffrage, and writers.
SCA's ever-growing book and periodical collections have a wide historical and geographical focus, including works on the role and place of women in society from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Of note is the , which consists of some 35,000 issues of British women's magazines published from 1893 to 1977 that cover topics such as cooking, crafts, advice columns, fashion, health, and inspirational topic, along with advertisements illustrating contemporary attitudes and concerns.
In addition, SCA actively collects materials that support the study of gender diversity, sexuality, and social justice, including collections that document intersectional and/or racialized identities. Current collections include , a Canadian playwright and theatre director, best-known for his play, Fortune and Men’s Eyes, and the records of the at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ, the longest running queer and trans student organization in Canada. Additional collections include zines authored by and focused on queer, trans and Two-Spirit people, and a wide selection of paperback books featuring lesbian themes by authors such as Ann Bannon, Artemis Smith, and Randy Salem.
SCA preserves collections related to the First and Second World Wars as well as the interwar and post-war periods. Several collections feature the diaries, photographs, memorabilia, military decorations, correspondence, and scrapbooks of servicemen including , , , , and , among others. In addition, the department holds collections related to and , both of whom were captured as prisoners of war. Other collections include material documenting the lives and activities of the while they lived in Germany during the interwar period, and documenting her work experiences in England during the First World War. The department also holds , many of which were written by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
