Articles tagged with: Our Collections

Celebrating Black voices and sharing Black stories

Friday, January 27, 2023 | By Evelyn Smith

This month, we celebrate African Heritage and Black History by bringing a special spotlight to Black voices and Black stories. February’s Featured Collection book display brings you important, thought-provoking works of Black writers across disciplines and perspectives. You can find our “Celebrating Black Voices and Sharing Black Stories” book display both online, and at our print display next to the Ask Us desk on the main floor of the Library.

Interested in the work of Canadian authors? Look out for the books sporting the illustration you see above at our print display.

Two online titles in this month’s Featured Collection deserve a special mention. Brock University Professor Tamari Kitossa’s Appealing Because He is Appalling: Black Masculinities, Colonialism, and Erotic Racism highlights the contradictions of Black men as objects of sexual desire. Those interested in a local focus to Black History can dig into dann J. Broyld’s Borderland Blacks: Two Cities in the Niagara Region During the Final Decades of Slavery. Broyld spent a semester at Brock researching in the Archives & Special Collections for this book.

The Brock community is celebrating Black History Month and African Heritage Month with a full calendar of events and programming. See what’s going on and join in the celebrations on ExperienceBU.

Tags: African Heritage Month, Black History Month, display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons
Resources for a mindful new year

Tuesday, January 10, 2023 | By Evelyn Smith
Mindfulness and wellness practices invite us to nurture ourselves, and cultivate self-compassion. Some of the easily accessible resources for the Brock community to live mindfully include:
- Taking a walk through the forest. The Bruce Trail runs behind the Brock campus.
- Jotting down what you are thankful for, concerned about.
- Curling up with a good book and a hot beverage.
- Taking a Library Yoga session in the comfort of your own room. The playlist is at bit.ly/LibraryYoga
- Thinking of others, helping when you can.
- Nurturing a new houseplant.
This month, our print book display and e-book collections are full of strategies and inspiration to help you be the best version of yourself.

Browse the featured titles now, and note the special sub-collections on the topics of Yoga, Breath, and Movement Practice, Inspiration and Reflection, and Mindfulness for Stress and Anxiety.
Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons
December thematic book (and film) collections focus on visible and invisible disabilities

Thursday, December 01, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith

On Dec. 3, 2022, we recognize International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a day that was first launched by the United Nations in 1992 “to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.”

One way we can learn more about disabilities is to read a book! Check out our selection of titles at our print book display, and online in Omni. A sub-collection of films is also available. These titles feature works by and about people with visible and invisible disabilities.

On December 7, join the University community for ‘Engaging and Celebrating with Disability Communities’. This event will take place from noon to 2 p.m. in Pond Inlet, and will feature a presentation by Nathan Shipley, a disability self-advocate, activist and public speaker, as well as interactive roundtable experiences with disability community members.

The event is organized in collaboration with the Office of Human Rights and Equity, the Brock-Niagara Centre of Excellence in Inclusive and Adaptive Physical Activity, and the Anti-Ableism and Mental Health (AAMH) Committee, which is a working group of the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity and Decolonization.

Tags: Book Display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons
Brock collections from World Wars help Niagara remember

Tuesday, November 08, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith
This article written by Jocelyn Titone, Marketing and Communications Officer, was originally published in The Brock News.

As Remembrance Day approaches, Brock University’s archival collections bring history to the forefront.

The Brock University Library’s Archives and Special Collections houses some of the most unique and valuable records representing all aspects of Niagara’s history, including a wide range of historical items related to the First and Second World Wars.

David Sharron, Head of Archives and Special Collections, said although each collection is significant in its own way, the records that cover the World Wars and other modern conflicts evoke a different reaction.

“There is an immediate reverence for both the individuals who fought the battles and those who supported the war effort from home,” he said. “These records remind us of a time when people and organizations made sacrifices and pitched in to do their part. It was difficult and often tragic, but as a community, Niagara made it through.”

Collection highlights include a letter from a father serving oversees to his young daughter; a trench helmet and rucksack used in the First World War; documents on the City of St. Catharines’ war preparations and measures; photographs of fundraising parades to support the war; oral histories from the Niagara Mennonite community; and postcards from a military training camp in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Sharron said with some of the wars happening so long ago, many of the people who experienced them are no longer alive to share their story.

“Their history and voices held in these records help us remember,” he said. “It’s why we preserve them and make them available.”

While many of the collections are digitized and available online for anyone to access, including the records Sharron curated below, there are millions of documents and artifacts housed in the physical archives.

“The online collections are just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “There is always more to the story; a fuller history unfolds as you sift through a box of documents or flip through books from that era.”

Brock University’s Archives and Special Collections is open to the Niagara community as well as Brock students and researchers. The public is invited to access the physical collections on the 10th floor of the James A. Gibson Library in Brock University’s Arthur Schmon Tower Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Writing ahead of a visit to archives@brocku.ca is recommended in case a class is occupying the space or the reading room is full. Vaccination and mask protocols are in effect.

Digitized records related to the World Wars

Arthur Albert Schmon
Arthur Albert Schmon, one of Brock University’s founders and the Schmon Tower’s namesake, fought for the United States Army during the First World War before coming to live in St. Catharines.
Laura de Turcynowicz (nee Blackwell)
Laura de Turcynowicz was a famous opera singer from St. Catharines who married a Polish Count and was living in Poland when the First World War began. The Prussian Army occupied her home for several months before she escaped to the U.S. She wrote a book about her ordeal and raised money for the suffering people of Poland. In 1918, de Turcynowicz was instrumental in promoting the training and education of young American women of Polish descent to help with war relief efforts in Poland. The group became known as the Polish Grey Samaritans.
- Laura Blackwell de Turczynowicz (Note the top menu headings that lead to more information)
- Laura de Turczynowicz fonds
Percy Carruthers Band
Percy Carruthers Band was a decorated First World War soldier who earned the Military Cross with two bars and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. He was also the former caretaker of the Brock Library’s Woodruff and Post Office collections. Among other records in this collection are letters from his sweetheart Margaret Woodruff from St. Catharines, photographs, military documents, a trench helmet and rucksack from the First World War, and medals he received for courage and determination.
- Percy Carruthers Band fonds
Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff
The Woodruff family of St. Catharines came to Canada from the U.S. in 1795. They were an integral part of the Village of St. Davids and played an active role in the battles fought in Upper Canada. Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff was killed in action during the First World War as a member of the 116th unit of the Queen’s Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment).
Niagara Camp
Niagara Camp was a military training camp in Niagara-on-the-Lake that was used as a summer training grounds for infantry, cavalry and artillery. Postcards of Niagara Camp were common. This collection features postcards from the early years of the First World War.
- Niagara Camp photos and postcards (Note the top menu headings that lead to more information)
Orville James (Jimmy) Manson
Orville James (Jimmy) Manson was an amateur photographer from Niagara who brought his camera with him while serving for the Canadian Navy during the Second World War.
- Niagara through the lens of Orville (Jimmy) Manson (Note the top menu headings that lead to more information)
- Orville (Jimmy) Manson family fonds
Mennonites of Niagara
Oral history interviews of members of the Mennonite community who came to Niagara from Europe after the upheavals of the First and Second World Wars.
- Mennonites of Niagara: pioneers (sound recording)
- Russian-Mennonite immigrants of the 1920’s (Niagara Peninsula) (sound recording)
Interesting parts included in large, digitized collections:
- The Red Cross parade and fundraising during the Second World War (Anne McPherson family fonds)
- A letter from father at war to his daughter (Anne McPherson family fonds)
- War efforts of the English Electric Company of St. Catharines
- Women and men employed at English Electric Company during the Second World War
- Lake Lodge School of Grimsby during the First World War
- Niagara Parks’ School of Horticulture efforts and projects during the Second World War
- Catharines Photo Album c. 1913-1919 — Includes photos of people in uniform and in training among everyday photos of life
- Several documents related to Estelle Cuffe Hawley — an educator, businesswoman and politician who became the first woman alderman on St. Catharines City Council — including:
  - War letters from her brother Ted:
    
    Ted Cuffe to his mother
    
    Ted Cuffe to Estelle Cuffe
    
    Postcard from Ted Cuffe to Estelle Cuffe
  - Cuffe Hawley’s reflections on the First World War
  - Cuffe Hawley’s discharge certificate from the Royal Air Force Civilian Subordinates
Tags: Archives and Special Collections, Digital Exhibits, Our Collections
Categories: Archives, Main
Photography

Tuesday, November 01, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith

Our November book displays (online and in print) are on the topic of photography – a complement to the very special photography exhibit in our Library and Learning Commons display cases. We’ve chosen to include a wide array of sub-topics including the uses of photography to call attention to environmental degradation, to tell the story of child labour, and to bring Victorian history to life. Alongside these socio-historical topics, the collection includes practical handbooks and technical guides for the budding photographer.

Browse this photography collection online and in-person at our book display shelves next to the Ask Us desk.

Tags: Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons
Food and Cookery

Monday, October 03, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith

This month we invite you to work up an appetite and don your aprons. We have amassed a multi-disciplinary collection of books on food history, science and chemistry, culture, and cookery. Our print cookbooks feature cost-saving resources such as Budget Bytes, simple recipe collections like The Best 3-Ingredient Cookbook, and Indigenous recipes from the far North.

In addition to the books in this Omni Collection, we recommend a closer look at the Food and Drink in History database. This primary source collection includes cookbooks, advertisements, and government documents. The collection is global in scope and covers the 16th to 21st centuries. Brock University has access to Module 1.

Browse the October Omni collection now.

Tags: Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons
Resources to learn about the impact of residential schools

Friday, September 23, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith

In acknowledgement of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we are highlighting a selection of books, ebooks and streaming video to help us learn more about the impact of residential schools. We invite you to browse online as well as in person at the print book display adjacent to the Ask Us desk in the Learning Commons.

Additionally, all are invited to drop in to Learning Commons Classroom B on Friday, September 30 for a day-long screening of Indigenous short films. We invite you to watch, listen, learn and reflect.

Tags: Our Collections
Categories: Featured Collections
University Life

Tuesday, August 30, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith
Whether you are a new or returning student, a first-time instructor or long-tenured faculty, this selection of books will have useful insights for you.

Browse this collection of e-books and explore such topics as:
- writing guides
- learning mindfully
- diversity in higher education
- educational administration
- the mechanics of teaching
- supporting student well-being
- career development, and more.
This collection features online and print titles. Find the print book display next to the Ask Us desk on the main floor.
Tags: Our Collections
Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons
It’s all fiction: summer reads

Monday, July 04, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith
The Library’s thematic print and virtual book displays feature recent fiction titles this month. A wide variety of genres should satisfy most readers and include:
- psychological drama, The Winter Wives
- satire, Beforelife
- fantasy, The Björkan Sagas
- historical drama, The Yellow Wife
- darkly comedic Can Con, People Live Here
View the entire It’s All Fiction collection and do stop by to browse the print titles on display next to the Ask Us desk.
Tags: Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
Categories: Featured Collections
Asian Voices

Friday, April 29, 2022 | By Evelyn Smith

May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada. In honour of this, we invite you to hear from Asian Voices, a collection of books, e-books and streaming videos on topics as diverse as spirituality, immigration, cooking, and cultural confusion. This collection includes fiction and non-fiction with several titles exploring the Asian-Canadian experience.

Items are a mix of online and print titles. Stop by the print display next to the Ask Us desk to browse and borrow.

Tags: Our Collections
Categories: Featured Collections