This collection consists of memorabilia kept by Edith Laycock. A large part of the collection consists of programs from plays that Laycock performed in or directed during the 1950's and 1960's. There are also numerous newspaper clippings about Laycock's plays including reviews, pictures, and advertisements. This collection also includes a folder of programs from the Brandon Little Theatre productions in the 1950's, as well as clippings about the Little Theatre. There are also numerous articles about miscellaneous drama and art events throughout Brandon, Manitoba, and Canada. The collection also includes Laycock's daybook from 1962, and travel notes from Laycock's 1952 trip to Great Britain and Europe. The latter contains a passenger list for the Empress of Scotland, August 5, 1952. The collection further includes Canadian Pacific Railway passes dating from 1947-1963 and a copy of the Canadian Pacific Pension Plan. Fonds also contains material from the various organizations that Laycock was involved with including the Brandon Council of Women and Beta Sigma Phi. Fonds includes 12 photos that appear to be family photos from Laycock's childhood. Finally, the fonds contains various copies of plays that Laycock performed in or directed.

This fonds includes documents relating to the membership, both male and female, of the Wingham branch of the United Farmers of Manitoba and the United Farm Women of Manitoba. Documents dealing with the position of the branch on prohibition c. 1922, discussion within the branch of the "wheat pool" movement, annual reports for the organization, newsletters, correspondence on matters political and agrarian, and records relating to the activities of the branch as a cooperative buying agency are also included. Fonds also contains minutes of the provincial convention of the UFM and correspondence from the central office of the UFM.

This collection consists of twelve of the thirteen issues of the Unemployed Worker, published in Brandon in the 1930's. The Unemployed Worker was the organ of the Brandon Unemployed Workers' Council. This Council, like its counterparts in other communities, was created by Canadian Communist Party militants. The Unemployed Worker covered the activities of the Unemployed Workers' Council, the plight of Brandon's unemployed, efforts by the city's unemployed to improve their lives, and City Council decisions, specifically those regarding relief policy. Collection also contains extensive clippings from Canadian Communist Party publications The Worker and the Daily Clarion from the years 1930-1939; 21 personal and family photographs (b/w 3x5) of the Forkin family of Brandon many of whom were active in the Canadian Communist Party; various historical photographs (b/w 8x10) related to the history of labour in Brandon, Manitoba; personal files containing correspondence, letters and opinion pieces to various newspaper, course outlines, research materials and draft publications, arbitration awards and documents related to Mr. Black?s involvement with the Manitoba Organization of faculty Associations (MOFA). Collection also contains extensive correspondence from former Brandon University Economic Professor Don Wheeler to Errol Black. In addition an important body of correspondence received by Professor Black from Taimi Davis written by Pat Forkin and his wife Phoebe Forkin to family members in Canada during the years 1936-1939 while Pat was Moscow based correspondent for the Canadian Communist Party Clarion. Fonds also contains personal correspondence of Errol Black dating from c. 1970, drafts of papers, newspaper clippings, pamphlets related to labour and labour political matters. Two publications of note: Labour in Brandon published by the Brandon and District Labour Council and a student guide to labour law written by George MacDowell. Collection also includes several documents related to Professor Black's involvement in the provincial Industrial Adjustment Committee.

Fonds consists of newspaper clippings, recital programmes, concert programmes, and commencement programmes. As well, there are dance cards, invitations, tickets, and the programme for the annual Graduation Banquet for several years. There are Track and Field programmes and a ribbon. Fonds also includes Alumni Luncheon programmes for a few years. There is an issue of "The Western Baptist" from 1926, and the programmes for the installation of Dr. John E. Robbins as President of Brandon College in 1960 and the opening of the Arts and Library building and the J.R.C. Evans Lecture Theatre in 1960. There is also a letter from William L. Wright, director of the music department at Brandon College.

The records contain Evan Whidden's reports to family members, in particular to his father and mother, on his experience as a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the years 1917-1919. Records also include correspondence from his mother, Katherine Louise Whidden (née Ganong), to Evan during these years. Evan Whidden records his impressions of military life through his training in Canada and England and his experience of war in Europe with the Canadian Expeditionary Force from 1917-1918. He was involved in the conflict only briefly at the conclusion of the war. His letters provide an account of life in France, Belgium and Germany in 1918. Fonds also contains correspondence dating from the early 1920s from Chester New, a history professor at McMaster, who had previously taught at Brandon College, and from Whidden's father, Howard Primrose Whidden, President of Brandon College 1912-1922 and, from 1922-1949, Chancellor of McMaster University. This correspondence deals principally with the progress of Evan Whidden's education and his choice of a career in the church or the academic world. Fonds contains several publications containing work of Evan Whidden, mostly on religious themes. It also includes newspaper clippings and convocation programs dealing with Dr. Whidden's graduation from Yale and the presentation of honorary degrees to him at Pine Hill and Acadia. Fonds contains newspaper stories on the occasion of the retirement of Howard Primrose Whidden following his lengthy career as Chancellor of McMaster University. Death notices for Dr. H.P. Whidden and his wife are also to be found. Fonds also includes a copy of the Brandon College Quill from the year 1921 and an assortment of photos from Whidden's college days in Brandon,principally c. 1921, as well as other unidentified pictures including a group photograph of three Brandon College Presidents: Dr. A.P.McDiarmid, Dr. H.P.Whidden, and Dr. J.R.C. Evans.

This fonds contains minute books (1922-68), account books (1953-70), account statements (1966-68), one annual report (1967), and documents of insurance and property transfer (1960-70) concerning the Fairfax/Elgin United Church.

The fonds consists of research material including copies of documents drawn from the records of the Kinsmen Club and a variety of research notes and early drafts, particularly chapters five and six. These materials were assembled during the writing of Only in Canada: Kinsmen and Kinettes by Fred McGuiness and Ken Coates. The book was commissioned by the Association of the Kinsmen Clubs of Canada and published in 1987. Fonds also contains six videotapes dealing with Kin activities.

The personal records of Dr. Sweet include sermon notes, newspaper clippings, and church bulletins. Dr. Sweet was a liberal Baptist. His sermons, as well as the clippings contained in the fonds reflex theological trends in North American Baptist thought in the early twentieth century. Approximately fifty sermons are contained in the fonds. Most include the date and place of delivery by Dr. Sweet. These records are an excellent source of information regarding religion, faith, and devotion among liberal Baptists from 1907 to 1924.

The bulk of this collection falls into five main categories: records dealing with the Brandon Packers Strike of 1960 and the subsequent legal actions against the owners, including all 2215 pages of the Brandon Packers Strike Commission; records dealing with the Commission of Inquiry into The Pas Forestry and Industrial Complex, including the complete transcript of the inquiry measuring approximately 5m (This Commission dealt with the conduct of Churchill Forest Industries, a company owned by a Swiss financial firm, which, in the 1960's, was given approximately 93 million dollars by the Roblin Provincial Government to develop The Pas Forestry and Industrial Complex. Churchill Forest Industries and its parent company subsequently came under suspicion of fraud and accused of fradulently transfering The Pas Forestry funds into other foreign business interests); records dealing with business loans awarded by the Manitoba Development Corporation during the 1970's and 1980's to businesses primarily within Manitoba; records dealing with McKenzie Seeds, and McKenzie Steele-Briggs Seeds during the early 1980's when George MacDowell was a board member of McKenzie Seeds; and records dealing with Professor MacDowell's career as a Professor at Brandon University, including records relating to his courses and to administrative activities. To a lesser extent, this collection includes records dealing with the University of Saskatchewan College of Commerce, the publication the Manitoba New Democrat, issues associated with politics, labor and union in the prairie provinces from the 1960's to the 1980's, articles from various economic periodicals including Economica and Public Finance, a variety of government reports from 1941 to 1981, and records dealing with George MacDowells' relationship with the Brandon Firefighters Association.

Collection consists of textbooks covering the subject areas of: Agriculture, Art, Business Education, Economics, Composition, Grammar, Rhetoric, Literature, Plays, Poetry, Prose, Readers, Spelling, Phonics, Stories, Geography, Health, History, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Algebra, Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigonometry, General mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Logic, Psychology, Religion, Research, Methods, Manuals, Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Physics, General science, Zoology, Cooking, and Gardening. Includes two notebooks. The works found in the collection were published primarily between 1875 - 1940, although they range from 1801 - 1967, with an emphasis on History, all areas of Mathematics, Research and topics related to English or Language Arts. There are a number of works published in the nineteenth-century dealing with most of the collection's subject areas. The majority of the collection focuses on public and high school textbooks, particularly in relation to the province of Ontario, with some attention to university education.