Collection search - Frontier College fonds [multiple media (some electronic)]

Record information – Brief
1
Frontier College fonds [multiple media (some electronic)]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1860-2006.

Reference:

R3584-0-0-E, MG28-I124

Type of material:

Textual material, Objects (including medals and pins), Sound recordings, Photographs, Art, Maps and cartographic material, Moving images

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

100337

Context of this record:

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Frontier College fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

20 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1860-2006.

Place of creation:

Canada

Extent:

102.19 m of textual records.
8457 photographs.
72 audio reels.
28 audio cassettes.
7 videocassettes.
7 drawings : pencil.
6 prints : engraved, photomechanical.
5 posters.
3 audio discs.
3 maps.
228.4 MB of textual records.

Language of material:

English

Accession:

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Frontier College collection [graphic material]

Scope and content:

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The fonds consists of records documenting Frontier College's work to promote literacy and education since its founding in 1899. The records relate primarily to its labourer-teacher program but also document more specialized programs developed since the 1960s. The textual records include correspondence with governments, railways, universities and instructors; annual reports and minutes of annual meetings; instructors' files and registers; financial documents; scrapbooks, clippings, public relations and printed material; records of Frontier College's university phase; office files of principals and presidents; records of the Board of Governors; communications and fundraising documents; program files; administrative records; and transcripts of oral history interviews.

In addition to the textual records, several thousand photographs provide a pictorial record of the College's activities over its history and also reveal something of the living and working conditions prevailing in work camps scattered across the country. There are also sound and video recordings of oral history interviews of former labourer-teachers, employees, principals, and governors of Frontier College, which give an inside view of its work; and dramatizations produced by the National Association of Education Broadcasters. Further documentation is provided by drawings, posters, prints, 75th anniversary medals, and maps used in identifying the location of camps and placing labourer-teachers.

Provenance:

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Frontier College

Additional name(s):

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Canadian Pacific Railway Company

Biography/Administrative history:

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Frontier College : Frontier College was founded in 1899 by Rev. Alfred Fitzpatrick as the "Reading Camp Association". Its name changed in 1913 to Frontier College and it incorporated under that name in 1919. Its original mission was to make education available to the men who worked in remote or isolated mining, lumber, and railway camps across Canada. Students were selected from Canadian and American universities and trained as instructors and then sent to the camps as "labourer-teachers" for the summer months. They worked alongside the men during the day and taught reading and writing, lent reading materials, or advised long-distance students during the evenings. Frontier College depended upon the cooperation of the railway, mining and lumber companies and the financial support of donors to cover its expenses and develop and expand its program.

Frontier College received a charter from the federal government in 1922 conferring on it the power to grant university degrees. Its role as a degree-granting institution was controversial, however, and in 1931 it relinquished this power. Since then Frontier College has concentrated its efforts on promoting and teaching literacy. The emphasis on remote work camps broadened in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to include teaching in northern communities and urban "frontiers". New programs were developed to teach reading and writing in prisons and to ex-convicts, street youth in the inner cities, and others in need. The labourer-teacher program continued however, and farms and other agricultural operations have became a new focus of Frontier College's mission to expand literacy. Subsequent principals and presidents since Fitzpatrick have included Edmund W. Bradwin, Eric W. Robinson, Ian Morrison (the first president), Jack Pearpoint, and John Daniel O'Leary.

Finding aid:

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Textual records: (Paper) The paper finding aid consists of three parts: a file list of volumes 1 to 486; a conversion list for the material reboxed; and a list by year of the instructors' registers held in volumes 119-134, 224-244 and 263. The instructors' list gives the instructor's name, job location, employer and type of work. The conversion list should ONLY be used to convert from an old volume reference, citation or footonote that predates the reboxing of the fonds in 1999 to find the current volume (i.e. the files and volumes listed in the main body of the finding aid are correct). Volumes 487-490 and 493 are not listed in this finding aid but descriptions have been created in the Mikan database for the textual files and photographs (vols. 489-490). An excel spreadsheet file listing was created for volumes 494-534 for uploading to Mikan. MSS0736 (90: Open)

Textual records: (Electronic) Finding aid. MSS0736 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000110.pdf

Medals: (Electronic) Item level descriptions available on-line in Minisis.

Medals: (Paper) Medal inventory numbers. 3853,3856,3855

Maps: (Other) There is no other finding aid to these items.

Sound recordings: (Electronic) See MISACS for item level descriptions.

Additional information:

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General note:

Library and Archives Canada received the textual records in 1975 and 2001 from Frontier College. The medals were received in 1974 and 1975 from J. C. Pearpoint and Ian Morrison. The sound recordings were received in 1975 from Frontier College and in 1987 and 1990 from Jim Morrison, Saint Mary's University, and Marjorie Zavitz Robinson of Calgary, Alberta. The photographs and art work were received in 1973, 1975, 1987 and 1990 from Marjorie Zavitz Robinson and Frontier College.

Arrangement note:

The textual records were reboxed in 1998 and 1999 as a conservation measure. As a result, the number of volumes was reduced from 300 to 268. The accrual accessioned in 2001 and arranged in 2002 starts at volume 269 and ends at volume 486. Four volumes from the same accrual, 487-490, were added in 2009-2010. Two of these volumes are textual files (487-488) and two are photographs (489-490).

Two volumes of oral history transcripts previously held in the collections files were added to the fonds in 2010. These are Volume 493 and are described in the Oral history interviews project sub-series. The 2014 accrual is held in volumes 494 to 534, including volumes 533 and 534, which are assigned to the digital records. (There are no volumes 491-492 due to a system issue).

Formatted contents note:

[1] Map showing railway mileage in Canada from 1861 to 1921 -- [2] A detailed sketch map, illustrating Section 3, Chapter IV, The Navvy at a Grade Camp, showing location of construction camps in Northern Ontario -- [3] An annotated road map of British Columbia giving the location/addresses of Frontier College representatives.

Availability of other formats note:

Medals: copy negative numbers C-068551, C-068552, C-068553, C-081652, C-081653.
Subject heading:

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Adult education - Finance, 1899-1969

Adult learning, 1905-1969

Labour camps - Canada, 1934-1936

Working class - Education - Canada, 1905-1969

Labour policy - Canada, 1899-1969

Unemployed - Services for - Canada, 1934-1936

Work environment, 1900-1969

Canada - Economic conditions - 1918-1945, 1934-1936

Universities and colleges - Teachers, 1905-1969

Universities and colleges - Administration, 1900-1969

College teaching, 1905-1969

Adult education and state - Canada, 1905-1969

Adult education educators - Canada, 1905-1969

Educational innovations - Canada, 1900-1969

Teachers - Selection and appointment, 1905-1969

Teachers and community, 1905-1969

Railroads - Fares - Special rates, 1899-1969

Student records, 1921-1970

Frontier College - Students, 1921-1970

Quality of life, 1905-1969

Communism, 1900-1962

Agricultural settlement, 1924-1934

Jewish teachers - Canada, [1912-1959]

Americans - Canada, [1912-1959]

Teachers, Foreign - Canada, [1912-1959]

E.W. Bradwin - Diaries, 1897-1936

Agriculture - Canada, Northern, 1924-1934

Degrees, Academic, 1931

Ontario - Politics and government, 1931

E.W. Bradwin - Authorship, [19-]

Alfred Fitzpatrick - Authorship, 1888-1955

School management and organization, 1906-1960

Incorporation, 1922

Teaching - Aids and devices, 1920-1960

Immigrants

Gifts

Ethnicity

Railroads - Employees

Depressions 1929 Canada

Canada
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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(1973-05-28)
103-020008-4
118-060008-8
1971-080 DAP
1973-167 NPC
1974-012 MED
1975-0030 MISA
1975-018 MED
1975-431 NPC
1987-143 NPC
1990-348 DAP
1994-228 DAP
2001-00826-0
2002-0095 VSA
2014-00124-3
90-222
93-329
945-009 CA
Frontier College 945009
MG28-I124

Former archival reference no.:

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MG28-I124
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Access restriction document

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/pdf/pdf001/r000001041.pdf

Textual records

[Consultation96 Restrictions vary]

Finding aid box [FA 736] 72

[Consultation 10 Closed]

Object

[Consultation90 Open]

Sound recordings

[Consultation90 Open]

Audio-visual item no. assigned by LAC [R3584] 20334AV

[Consultation 90 Open]

Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

Cartographic material

[Consultation90 Open]

Textual records: electronic

[Consultation90 Open]

Moving images (video)

[Consultation90 Open]

Audio-visual item no. assigned by LAC [R3584] 20330AV--20333AV

[Consultation 90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Photographs: No restrictions on use. Various or unknown copyrights. Credit: Name of photographer / Library and Archives Canada / Copy negative number.
Drawings and prints: No restrictions on use. Various copyrights. See individual items.
Medals: No restrictions on use. Copyright belongs to Frontier College. Credit: Library and Archives Canada.

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