See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph is looking southwest from 18th Street and shows Clark Hall and the Brandon College Building with the Citizens' Science Building partially visible on the lefthand side of the photo.
Notes
Writing on the back of the photo reads: "Brandon College and boys' res. is joined to Clark Hall" "from Marion(?)/Marvin(?) McLure(?)"
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph is looking south southeast from the Assiniboine bridge on 18th Street and shows the Brandon cityscape in the background.
Notes
Writing on the back of the photo reads: "Brandon from the Assiniboine bridge. The 2 girls were just local coloring. Don't ask me who they were or are? The College is just off the street on the right away in the background."
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph of five female Brandon Colleg students standing in front of the Brandon College Building steps during freshmen initiation. L-R: McPhail, Meadows, Downing, Hurst(?), McKay.
Notes
Writing on the back of the photo reads: "These are B.C. freshettes. Jean Downing is in the middle. I got them to pose on condition I signed their wuggle cards. Meadows & Downing take Physics and Trig. On the front steps of the College."
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph is looking west down Lorne Avenue towards the Brandon College Building. Clark Hall and the Citzens' Science Building are visible through the trees.
Notes
Writing on the back of the photo reads: "Brandon College from 16th Street and Lorne Ave. Looking up Lorne Ave (i.e. looking west). Laurie is in the foreground taking a picture. My room is behind the top 3 windows of the tower. Laurie's directly below me and Dalton's are the 3 at the extreme right on the same floor. Science building is at the left." Laurie may be a reference to Lawrence H. Cragg who taught Chemistry at Brandon College from 1937-1943. Dalton refers to W.H. Dalton Vernon who taught Philosophy and Psychology at Brandon College from 1938-1940.
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph of four male Brandon College students standing on the steps of the Brandon College Building dressed in their wait staff uniforms. L-R: Rene Boux, Martin Brown, Bob Macintosh, Frank Humphries.
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph of five female Brandon College students in freshmen initiation costumes. The photo appears to have been taken in one of the dorm rooms. Back row: Marion Epton, Ruth Humeston. Front row: Iva Delamater, Locke(?) Volers, Mary Elliott.
Notes
Writing on the back of the photo reads: "Initiation. Droops - the boys were Drips."
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Group photograph labelled "Room Inspection, Brandon College, 1937." Tommy McLeod is in the top right corner. Sarah Persis Darrach (holding a lollypop) is fourth from the right in the back row. E.A. Birkinshaw is standing to her left. Martin Johns is crouched in front of Berkinshaw.
Notes
Writing on the back of the photo reads: "Martin. More lectures!"
See MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration, 1.11 Martin Johns fonds for custodial history.
Scope and Content
Photograph of a groups of students singing in the chapel. W.L. Wright, Head of the Music Department is playing the piano. Gordon Daly (class of 1947) is standing behind Wright.
Margaret Hawley Speers was born on February 18, 1908 in Alexander, MB. She attended Alexander School, Brandon College (Class of 1928), the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Manitoba receiving Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Educaton degrees.
Speers had a lengthy teaching career, first as Principal of schools in Saskatchewan at Ravenscrag and Scotsguard, then in Manitoba at Basswood, Newdale and Miniota. In Winnipeg, she taught at Rupertsland Girls' School, and then in Winnipeg School Distric No. 1 at Cecil Rhodes, River Heights and Kelvin High School.
Following her retirement Speers enjoyed travelling and various forms of volunteer work, including that at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She was also a member of St. Andrew's River Heights United Church.
Margaret Hawley Speers died September 26, 2008 at St. Boniface Hosptial.
Custodial History
Items came from the estate of Margaret Hawley Speers. They were donated to the McKee Archives by her cousin David Speers in July 2009.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of a copy of the 1927-1928 Sickle and a photograph of the Brandon College Arts Class of 1928 taken in 1925.
Notes
Description by Christy Henry. History/Bio information taken from Speers' obituary which appeared in the September 29, 2008 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press.
Storage Location
Photograph: Oversize drawer 5
BUPC 9.102
Sickle: RG 6 Brandon University fonds
Series 14: BUSU
14.5 BUSU publications
14.5.1 The Sickle
14.5.1.2 The Sickle - archival copies
Very good. Some of the letters written in pencil are a little faded.
History / Biographical
Ruth Alverda Wade was born born July 11, 1912 in Brandon, MB to James and Etta Alverda. She had two younger siblings: sister Gwen and brother Sherry. The Wade family resided at 1837 Princess Avenue, Brandon, MB. Ruth graduated from Brandon College with the Class of 1933.
During her time at Brandon College Ruth met Archie MacLachlan. Archibald James MacLachlan was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan in 1907. He had four brothers: Howard, Edgar, Bruce, Curly and Stirling. When Archie was quite young the MacLachlan family moved to Alberta. Archie came to Brandon c. 1930 to attend Brandon College. During the summers of his years at Brandon College Archie held pastoral charges in Alberta. The first two summers were spent in the Peace River Country and the second two in Etzikom in Southern Alberta. This is the period during which the letters in the fonds were written.
Ruth Wade married Archie MacLachlan on September 19, 1934 in Brandon, MB. Following the wedding the couple moved to Hamilton, ON. Archie graduated from McMaster University with his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1937. During this period their daughter Joann Ruth was born. After his ordination as a Baptist Minister the family moved to North Bay where Archie was minister for four years. The next six years were spent in Vancouver as Archie worked as minister at Fairview Baptist Church in Vancouver. The couple's sons Archibald James and Lachlan Wade were also born during this period.
At the end of the Second World War Archie decided to go back to school. The family travelled to Brandon, where Ruth and the children remained for part of a year while Archie went ahead to Andover Newton to enroll and find a parish that would support him while he went to school. The family was reunited in Penacook, New Hampshire; they lived there for two years while Archie completed his Masters in Sacred Theology. After a brief additional period of study at Harvard University, the MacLachlan family returned to Canada, settling in Toronto while Archie finished his second Masters degree (Psychology) and held positions as interim minister and then assistant minister at York Minster Church. Following the two years in Toronto they moved to Winnipeg.
Eventually Archie left the church ministry and became Chaplain at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital. He also continuted to train students in Pastoral Education through the courses he had begun at the Divinity College of McMaster University. He remained at the Hospital until his retirement.
During their married life Ruth was kept busy raising the couple's children and with her work as a minister's wife, particularly her work in the community. She sat on a number of community boards, including positions as President of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and a member of the Board of Governors for McMaster University's Divinity School.
Ruth MacLachlan died on October 29, 1983 in Missassauga, ON.
Archie married Kathleen Marie (Green) French (b. January 22, 1908, d. June 1, 1998) on June 20, 1987. Archie MacLachlan died in December 1997.
Custodial History
Records were in the possession of Ruth and Archie MacLachlan until their deaths. At that time the records were inherited by their daughter Joann. Joann MacLachlan donated the records to the McKee Archives on October 24, 2009 at a donation event held as part of Homecoming 2009.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of approximately 197 letters written by Ruth and Archie to each other during the spring and summers of 1932, 1933 and 1934. The letters were written during the courtship of the couple and contain details not only on about their lives in Brandon and Alberta but also more personal information about their relationship, families and future plans. Because Ruth and Archie were students at Brandon College during this period the letters also often reflect on events and personalities related to the College, as well as their own personal studies.
Fonds also contains a scrapbook compiled by Ruth during her Brandon College years. It includes photographs, newspaper clippings, graduation cards, event programs, place cards and other ephemera. There are also a few miscellaneous documents - McMaster University examination papers, handwritten sheet music, postcards - that appear to have belonged to Archie. Fonds also contains a graduation photograph of Ruth.
Notes
Description by Christy Henry. History/Bio information taken from Joann MacLachlan's book Ruth and Archie: Brandon and Brandon College 1932-1934.
Ruth and Archie's daughter Joann edited the letters into a book entitled Ruth and Archie: Brandon and Brandon College 1932-1934. A copy of the book is located in the Rare Book collection of the John E. Robbins Library, Brandon University.
William Ridley Sheridan Wade collection (28-2007)
Arrangement
The letters are arranged in chronological order with all of Archie's letters to Ruth for a particular year grouped together, followed by Ruth's letters to Archie for that same year. For preservation purposes photographs in the scrapbook have been removed and placed in photograph storage, with their corresponding scrapbook page number noted on the back. Because of the fragile condition of the scrapbook a note has been made concerning the original location of many items that have become detached from their original location in the scrapbook. These items remain with the remnants of the scrapbook in one archival housing. Note that Ruth did not place items on every page so the numbering is not sequential for scrapbook items. Some items were loose at the back of the scrapbook and therefore have no corresponding page number.
