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Queen's University Archives Gordon, Diane File
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Wallbridge, Ruth C.

File consists of a recording of Ruth Wallbridge. Topics of the conversation include subject as Queen's student c.1910. Family background: Wallbridge home, farm, tenant houses; raising hops. Parents' early deaths; adoption of subject by aunt, uncle. Education of mother, aunt (Albert College, Belleville); mother's desire for daughter's education. Influence of strong-willed grandmother. Carpenter uncle's farm inheritance, separation from wife unwilling to do farm-wife's work. Accident in family home causing fire: subject rescued by grandmother, goods saved by quick-witted schoolmaster's student rescue­team. Residence in Kingston YWCA. Uncle's offer to pay subject if she would stay home; working fruit business at home for 10 years, finishing degree with extramural courses. Uncle's death; farm rental, division of house with tenants; tenant problems. Subject's poems, literary interests; poem addressed to Flora MacDonald, 'an ideal person that I would certainly like to see as leader of our country'. Elderly people's reading difficulties. Subject's opinion of women's lib movement; personal happiness sharing single life with a female friend; importance of independent role choice; admiration for grandmother as dominant, fulfilled wife and homemaker. Pressure on women to attract men; desirability of bridal state, inability of many women to see farther. Happy inclusion of subject and friend Marie in brother's extended family. Interest in Christian Children's Fund of Canada. Dislike of urban standard-of-living pressures; sympathy for Margaret Trudeau. Interviewer's account of Flora MacDonald. Identification with rural life, rejected option of marrying city lawyer. Opinion that money should be spent on something more meaningful than attractive clothes or furniture.

Wallbridge, Ruth C.

Wight, Dorothy J.

File consists of a recording of Dorothy Wight. Topics of the conversation include family background in northern Canada, transfer from settlement to settlement. Father's government career, current work with North West Territories Housing Corporation. Liking for isolated settlement life, plans to live and work up north; aim to work with government Finance Dept., door to any career she chooses. Definition of northern settlement status, hamlet status: government, population, types of employment. Appalling state of formal education in NWT; subject as sole university student from her settlement, own exceptional education through Ontario correspondence courses; combined correspondence and regular school­ work. Family plans for subject's university attendance, necessary transfer to western Arctic for schooling beyond Grade 8. Poor quality of teaching. Correspondence course (Economics) from Queen's while awaiting personal readiness to move south, encounter Queen's, Kingston. NWT usual pattern of correspondence courses from Alberta, sudden transfer from settlement population (300) to U.of Alberta student population (30,000). Choice of Queen's based on smaller size, vivid praise of former students (especially geologists). Subject's Ontario correspondence-school background. Mother's New Brunswick origins, clerical training, northern marriage. Subject's social ostracization as daughter of government representative; community jealousy of father's status, authority. Self-reliance, enjoyment of north as open country; appreciation of freedom from social pressures, truly spare time. Opinion that those who set good examples in personal lives do most to stimulate positive social change; mistrust of reformist zeal. Hobbies.//Possibility of theatre company tours up north. Social structure in northern communities: established whites; transient whites; religious older generation of Eskimo; confused younger generation of Eskimo, victims of unfortunate schooling system. Influx of government schools in mid-1950s; hiring through Ottawa of unstable, reformist 'border-line crazies', unsuited to gently revolutionize a Stone Age culture. Teachers' attempts to alienate Eskimo children from parents by mocking native customs; breakdown of Eskimo nomadic lifestyle; pressure to prevent children from speaking Eskimo; helpful missionary work instructing children in syllabics. Ignorant Ottawa statement that Eskimo are largely illiterate (i.e. cannot speak English); near-total literacy rate in own language; subject's tentative desire to learn Eskimo (5 basic languages, hundreds of dialects). Influence of southern immigrants on job situation: recent reverse-discrimination system favouring Eskimo over whites, southern whites over local inhabitants; experience of two white northern males, unable to find work till they applied as southerners 'with significant northern experience'. Assurance of work in own field through scarcity of suitable applicants; plans to consider marriage, children, only after establishing career; school system as deterrent to parental aspirations. Provincial government clampdown restricting Ontario correspondence courses to Ontario residents. Need for stable middle-aged teaching population up north; strong bond between children and home settlements, boarding-school as a non-viable alternative. High proportion of drop-outs, professional high school students; monetary support for serious students. Unlikelihood of reversion to simple life, despite problems of social change: lifestyle of original Eskimo simply too grim.

Wight, Dorothy J.

Gibbs, Frances Elizabeth, nee Porter

File consists of a recording of Frances Gibbs. Topics of the conversation include forty-year association with Queen's Registrar's Office; Position as clerk in 5-person office, 1924. Death of Registrar Alice King. Pleasant though strictly supervised work under Dr. McNeill: no talking or coffee-breaks. Witty, outspoken characters of Charlotte and Kay Whitton. Subject's background: early death of parents; beloved aunt working with VON; secretarial course at KCVI; support of sister through nursing programme, Ottawa Civic Hospital. Sister's experience with VON in poor section of Ottawa, early position as sole stenographer for Carruthers, Fleming Hall professors. Pre-residence boarding house system for Queen's students, restricted to 'the right side of the tracks'. Hen Coop residence. Mother's boarding house for women only. Estimate of young men of the past as more appreciative, 'home-like'; female practice of taking in male boarders for daughters to marry. Subject's annual evaluation of boarding houses for Queen's students. Family connections with Army. Kingston during WWII; organisation of children's lunch facilities. Subject's opinion that women should work in the home; experience as married cook for 14 BC lumbermen. Friendship with Lorne Greene. Stuart Webster. May Chown. Miriam of Queen's. Responsibility for safety of Queen's early exam papers, printed by Jackson Press. Gap in Queen's career, 1945-58. Work presiding at examinations (some in hospital); reading exams aloud to blind student. Lawrence J. Wilson, entertainer extraordinaire; former Queen's University parades; student raids on the Grand Opera House. Amusement tax during WWI.

Gibbs, Frances Elizabeth

Good, Lin

File consists of a recording of Lin Good. Topics of the conversation include findings of Principal's Committee on Status of Women at Queen's; subject as Chairman, 1973-74. Declining percentage of female enrolment in certain programmes, eclipsed by increase in mass enrolment; ignorance of women's motivations for study, choice of field; female drop-out syndrome. Queen's early, innovative interest in study of women's status on campus. Historical, economic perspectives on North American women: effect of affluence on roles, inhibitions. Subject's Lancashire background; identification with war­ time industrial working women. Removal to Canada; impression of female domesticity. Middle-class female circumscription as reaction against frontier woman's com­ prehensive labour. Exceptional ability of Jean Royce as registrar. Liberating force of subject's mother; voluntary nature of family bonds. Subject's work with Ontario Status of Women Council; 'About Face', pamphlet restoring, promoting positive image of housewife. Freedom of role choice for women. University as necessary stimulus for housewives, students 'as people'; recent limiting conception as career-training institute. Dread of current demand-supply pressures on universities. Abuse of unemployment statistics to discourage married women from paid work. Income disparity between sexes; belief in payment for work done, not according to need. Equality of opportunity at Queen's: report of Principal's Committee on Status of Women at Queen's; recent committee chaired by Marie Surridge. Subject's disagreement with quota hiring system; preference for encouraging women academics' tenacity, confidence, visibility. Experiences, education, as city alderman; political opportunities for women. Importance for women of male support; subject's early encouragement from lifelong male friend.

Good, Lin

MacCallum, Elizabeth Pauline

File consists of a recording of Elizabeth MacCallum. Topics of the conversation include birth in Turkey (1895); parents as Congregational missionaries to Turkey, Istanbul. Transfer with family to Kingston; education at KCVI, Queen's University. Teaching in prairie provinces to support education (1915-17); 'glorious' teaching years in Dawson City, Yukon (1919-21). Post­graduate study, Columbia University: political science and history, 1921-22,1924-25. Invitation to join Canadian Dept. of External Affairs during WWII shortage of Officers; status as Principal Clerk, despite Officer's duties; 'just and civilised' conduct of Dept. administrators in permitting temporary war-time staff to sit for Officer's examinations following WWII. Initiation of US Foreign Policy Association Research Dept; employment of subject, recommended by Columbia professors. Political science as a not unusual field for women at Columbia; 'scintillating' quality of women's minds, challenging common room atmosphere. Contrast with Queen's campus during WWI years: then 'we just pushed ourselves through from day to day, doing the things that had to be done.' National Service aspect of prairie teaching assignments; co-operation of teachers in local farm work. Educational programme of Foreign Policy Association: weekly debates of current headline issues by international policy­makers, in participating us cities. Charged atmosphere of debates, precautions taken against violence; attraction for intellectual elite. Participation of Canadian Undersecretary of State Dr. Skelton in debate on Italian fascism. Subject as FPA research writer (1925-31), preparing monographs on current affairs; gratitude for 'ideal' instructions to be un­biased, versed in all points of view. Responsibility for sending monograph draft version to outside readers of opposed convictions for pre-publication criticism; opportunity to help choose, devise topics. FPA open membership, distinguished subscription to monographs, weekly News Bulletin; production of 26 monographs per year by 6-person research staff, highly stimulating 'hard plugging'. Retirement to Uxbridge, Canada (1931); 2-acre market-gardening venture, sustained till exhaustion of funds. Subject's belief that life should be balanced between intellectual and physical activities; alternating pattern of own Iife; invitation from World Peace Foundation (1935) to write Rivalries in Ethiopia. Travelling lectureship based on Ethiopian research; single night's pay ($50) surpassing most lucrative annual market­ gardening income ($40), spent on barrel-sprayer for apples. Dept. of External Affairs work as newspaper-clipping service, research writer (c. WWII). Appreciation of civil servant's protective anonymity: 'It gives you very much greater freedom to do good work if you’re anonymous.' Careers of Dept. associates: educator, diplomat Margaret Meagher (Canada's first woman ambassador);//Dorothy Burwash, 'very very courageous, very very brilliant, very very modest woman'; Agnes Ireland, seriously affected by dust-storm car accident in India. Alison Hardy's article on women's contribution to Dept. of External Affairs (International Perspectives , 1977). Hard-working schedule of Dept. members: retirement habit of dropping in on old colleagues as a form of sabotage, avoided by subject. Subject's posting to Lebanon (1954-56), in charge of opening Canadian legation. Position as technical adviser to Canadian delegations to UN General Assemblies, World Health Assembly; assignment to Canadian Embassy, Athens (1951), writing political dispatches for absent Ambassador. Particulars of Lebanese mission. Diffuse nature of daily work abroad, feeling that matters interrupted each other; preference for concentrated UN activity, where work seems to have immediate bearing. living quarters near University during FPA years, chosen for proximity to International House; Middle Eastern intellectuals' habit of taking coffee with subject before evening study, discussing international affairs. Ideal nature of Dept. of External Affairs work: payment for most desired occupation, permission to specialize in Middle Eastern affairs; all-absorbing intellectual life in contrast with Uxbridge period. Subject's 45-year deaf spell; vital importance of Uxbridge years after constant strain of deafness in New York. Consideration shown by country people to deaf neighbour, not afforded by urban associates. Restoration of hearing by ear operations. Sacrifice of marriage, as strain of conversation would have proved intolerable. Vivid description of deaf conversation as nervous torture, the body 'like a wired grand piano pulled to the utmost " each sound ·like a hammer hitting " everywhere.' Unforgettable 'healing' period in Uxbridge. Improved methods of teaching children to cope with, overcome deafness. Current volunteer service in Ottawa Civic Hospital, preference for geriatric ward; ironic final education in finger-alphabet (for conversation with deaf-mute patient) having omitted to learn it for her own sake. Praise for classmate Charlotte Whitton's able, responsible activity at Queen's and continuing look-out for Queen's women grads in the job market. Subject's current desire to stop writing, start working with people: aim of hospital work to help even old people to realize full potential.

MaCallum, Elizabeth Pauline

MacDermaid, Anne, nee Stalker

File consists of a recording of Anne MacDermaid. Topics of the conversation include youthful appointment (1977) as Queen's University Archivist. Farm upbringing, schooling at Napanee CI . Choice of McGill University for undergraduate study (Montreal aunt's offer of free room and board); significance of aunt's generosity before era of magnificent scholarships; parents' moral support, inability to afford costs. Influence of high school teacher Jim Edie in fostering love of history. Undergraduate history major in McGill's newly-opened French­Canadian Studies Institute; history MA (supported by scholar­ ship, residence fellowship) at Carleton University's Institute of Canadian Studies. Specialization in pre-Confederation Canadian history: MA thesis on mutual influence of Church and rebels throughout rebellion in Lower Canada; fascination for conflict of interest suffered by disturbed Bishop Artigue in dealings with rebels (torn between conservative Church attitude and French Canadian sympathies). Fortunate timing of stages in career-marriage development: regular student existence during first year of marriage, seven years' working commitment before bearing first child; confident love of established career, seen as a context for motherhood not as a threat to it; 'natural' growth into senior position through previous Acting Archivist appointments. Sense that younger women now are rejecting careerism, opting for traditional domestic status. Two years' PhD coursework at University of Toronto, abandoned from sense of supersaturation with specialized study ('I could feel my brain starting to dry up'); desire to utilize training in a more vital way, suggestion by Professor Maurice Careless of professional archivism. Fortunate enrolment in archival summer course (co­-sponsored by Ottawa Public Archives, Carleton University, Canadian Historical Association); year's employment in Queen's Political Studies Department, organising Documentation Unit; 8-year position as Queen's Assistant Archivist, eventual appointment as Archivist. Theory that careerwoman profits most when tutored by successful male colleague; 8-year 'intensive internship' under former Archivist Jan Wilson; educational share in management decisions of four-person Archives Council. Factor of male's willingness to share in successful instructional relationship: likelihood of male staff person sharing most with female assistant, seen not as career threat but as stereotype 'hand­maiden'; recent shift among male professionals to sensing women as most threatening competitors. Professional objectivity/subjectivity as a factor of personality and training, not of sex. Employee commitment, loyalty, to Queen's Archives; shared focus on work, satisfaction in Archive successes; personal feeling of rewarding elation when things go well, challenge of problem-solving when trouble threatens. Dual responsibility of Archives to both donors and researchers; stimulating nature of different contacts. Administrative hint from Dr. Deutsch never to pause over a decision once made: work your best, then move on. Queen's as a non-possessive Archives; belief in accessibility of holdings. Comparison of man-to-man and woman-to-woman working relationships: wary mistrustfulness apparent in senior-junior male relationships, frank willingness to instruct common among women. Value of Hidden Voices oral history project; general meeting of Oral History Association of Canada; validity of oral history as complement to (not substitute for) written history. Tendency among teenage women of subject's acquaintance to early matrimony, purely domestic career; contrast of combined career-marriage arrangements of majority of subject's female peers (though employed in traditional female jobs, not necessarily employed at time of marriage). Archivism as development of historians' efforts, not librarians' (Canadian Public Archives predating National Library); dissimilar functions of librarian, archivist (to be good at one is not necessarily to be good at the other). Archivism as a 60% male profession, even today; archival origins in monastic record-keeping; convent record-keeping in Canada; female penchant for keeping diaries; interviewer's speculation how religious male and female record-keeping habits differed, subject's conjectures on role of Church hierarchy in imposing desired record-keeping forms.

MacDermaid, Anne

MacLeod, Evelyn M., nee Mactavish

File consists of a recording of Evelyn MacLeod. Topics of the conversation include friendship with Jean Royce; shared character as 'book­ pushers'. Interviewer's recent encounter with Mrs. Elizabeth Wallace. Dr. and Mrs. Wallace's careers, Scottish origins; reasons for coming to Canada; renowned hospitality, friendship with subject's family begun in Edmonton (1929). Elizabeth Wallace's literary interests: memorable address to Queen's Faculty Women's Club; original Christmas card story about holly. Early death of Wallace son; Elspeth Wallace. Queen's Faculty Women's Club (originated by Mrs. Wallace c. 1946); character as pleasant meeting-place (not a support body for male faculty); subject's participation. Portrait of Mrs. Wallace by Grant Macdonald. Crowded housing conditions c.1945: widowed subject and daughter saved from houseless situation by Queen's offer of Wardenship (Roselawn Residence). Charming domestic scene of May Chown, Vibert Douglas, anonymous professor readying the residences. Crowded post-war residence conditions: bunkbeds packed into every room, spartan military folding chairs, collapsible dressers, etc.; tiny Warden's rooms without fridge, stove. Wardenship (1946-51 ), LaSalle Barracks women's residence; large veteran population. Male student accommodation; exploitation by greedy, unscrupulous Kingston landladies.//Veteran appreciation of sudden opportunity to attend university; globe-trotting career of Dept. of Veteran Affairs student Ethel Stewart, who 'never got over the awe and mystery and appreciation of the chance to come to college', OVA students' 'mad enthusiasm', predictable number of failures, drop-outs. Marion Robinson, recipient of lODE, Governor General's awards: scholarship student to the Sorbonne, member of Marty Memorial Committee. Female enlistment during WWII as manifestation of Armed Forces fever; female army occupations. Discipline of veteran students as a positive factor in residence life; women residents' sweetness, enthusiasm; Shrove Tuesday pancake party while subject to goods rationing. Alice King's soft-gloved OVA authority with resident students; prominent career with Steinbergs, Canada Packers. OVA medical graduate Jean Zarfas. Friendship between Dr. Wallace and subject's husband in Edmonton. Subject's origins in Parkhill, Ontario. Toronto art school studies in design, 1911-12.//Art school; subject's pleasure in drawing, printwork; minor talent compared with artist grandson David. Parent's agreeability to studies. Semi­serious desire for degree in English literature. Subject's lithography work (c. 1913), interviewer's copy-writing work (c. 1956), both for Eaton's catalogue. Secretarial course, work for Manufacturer's Life, Toronto. Intense desire to see New York; work in New York and Florida. Marriage in Canada; raising family out west. Retained interest in arts: employment as newspaper proofreader, library worker; pleasure writing up and illustrating significant personal memories for own children (charming, almost Dickensian story of kind shopkeeper's tactful reduction of prices to suit innocent children's present-buying purse on Christmas Eve). Oral history compared with text-book history; interviewer's play, abstracted from tale of Crysler's Farm. Awesome number of years spent by teachers acquiring Queen's degrees at summer school. Subject as Warden, Muir House, summer of 1946; ludicrousness of residence restrictions when applied to veterans; termination of wardenship by Queen's loss of LaSalle Barracks property, 1951. Eight-year stint as hotel matron, Deep River; 3 years in Denmark with daughter Chloe; resumption of Queen's career, 1962; post at Ban Righ, terminated by serious illness, 1967.//High spirits, social life in OVA years. Letting up of residence restrictions during 1960s. Reflections on social trend towards greater individual freedom: lack of considerate self-discipline in otherwise splendid young people. Dislike of social sciences jargon, extremes of personal introspection, speeded-up, dehumanized computer age; gratitude she need only face it at a late stage in life, lack of hope for the future. Sense of personal responsibility fostered by Presbyterian upbringing, lost to present generation. Bastardization of the English language; continuing interest of human life despite all.

MacLeod, Evelyn M.

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