In 1957, Fred McGuinness attended a six-week workshop at the Banff School of Advanced Management. He went on behalf of Southam News Company while he was working with the Medicine Hat News. At the end of the program, the class purchased a gift for the school. McGuinness was charged with obtaining a painting to present on behalf of the class. McGuinness reminisces in his short story "A.Y. Jackson" (Letters from Section 17, Winnipeg: Great Plains Press, 1999) about cold-calling the painter, inquiring if the artist had any paintings to sell. After learning that McGuinness had $800 to contribute towards a painting, A.Y. Jackson agreed to produce a fresh painting which he would ship out to the school by train.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows A.Y. Jackson's painting "Georgian Bay, October" that Fred McGuinness commissioned in 1957. The painting is described as being a "landscape with autumn colours of purple, red, and yellow."
In 1957, Fred McGuinness attended a six-week workshop at the Banff School of Advanced Management. He went on behalf of Southam News Company while he was working with the Medicine Hat News. At the end of the program, the class purchased a gift for the school. McGuinness was charged with obtaining a painting to present on behalf of the class. McGuinness reminisces in his short story "A.Y. Jackson" (Letters from Section 17, Winnipeg: Great Plains Press, 1999) about cold-calling the painter, inquiring if the artist had any paintings to sell. After learning that McGuinness had $800 to contribute towards a painting, A.Y. Jackson agreed to produce a fresh painting which he would ship out to the school by train.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows A.Y. Jackson's painting "Georgian Bay, October" that Fred McGuinness commissioned in 1957. The painting is described as being a "landscape with autumn colours of purple, red, and yellow."
These records were produced between 1984 and 1985, the researching and writing period for the book The Pride of the Land: An Affectionate History of Brandon’s Agricultural Exhibition. Published in 1985 by Peguis Books (Winnipeg), Pride of the Land is a 222-page soft cover book, containing hundreds of pictures, and 50,000 words of text.
BU faculty members Dr. Kenneth “Ken” Stephen Coates, Assistant Professor of History, and Mr. Fred McGuinness, Lecturer in Journalism, authored the book. Assisting the writers was a research team of four BU history students, which were referred to as “The Pride Team”: Diane Fowler, Rob McGarva, Bruce Stafeld, and Byron Williams.
The Pride Team was tasked with collecting and synthesizing exhibition documents and other materials in city, provincial, and federal records spanning 100 years. Many local newspapers and committee minutes were consulted.
The authors cover 103 years of Brandon Fair history, starting with the first fair in 1882 followed by the development of other agricultural fairs and exhibitions in Brandon, specifically The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, The Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, and the Ag-Ex livestock show.
Custodial History
Records were collected and created by McGuinness, Coates, and The Pride Research Team during the process of the creation of the book, The Pride of the Land: An Affectionate History of Brandon’s Agricultural Exhibition. The materials were donated to the SJ McKee Archives by the authors circa 1988. The Archives accessioned the records in 2008.
Scope and Content
The subseries consists of textual records, created and collected during the production of the monograph Pride of the Land. It includes research cards created by the research team, copies of newspaper articles from very early editions of Brandon newspapers (such as the Brandon Sun, Brandon Daily Sun, Western Sun, and The Independent), copies of fair/organizational minutes, photocopies of photographs used in the publication, and chapter drafts. Of particular interest are the detailed summaries of Provincial Exhibition minutes that were specifically produced for each book chapter.
Notes
Information in the history/biography was taken from a Brandon University press release dated June 1985, about the Pride of the Land Project (see file 64)
Description Note: The original accession number is noted on the front of each file folder. The circled number indicates the original file order in the 6-2008 accession
Accruals
Closed
Language Note
Fred McGuinness often uses journalistic jargon to label his files. A “brite” refers to a short, amusing story
Pride of the Land acronyms:
PEM = Provincial Exhibition Association of Manitoba
RCMP = Royal Canadian Mounted Police
WAAA = Western Agricultural & Arts Association
Finding Aid
A file level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
Provincial Exhibition Association of Manitoba fonds
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been arranged according to book chapter. McGuinness often organized his ideas and research materials by potential brite topic
Fred McGuinness’ public speaking and broadcasting career began after he enrolled at St. Paul’s College, which was affiliated with the University of Manitoba. From 1943 to 1946, McGuinness served on the student union’s Public Relations Committee; in 1945, he became chairman of the Radio Subcommittee working as the Director of the University Radio Series where he was responsible (i.e., writing, casting, directing) for a half-hour Saturday afternoon radio programme. That same year, the President of the University of Manitoba recommended McGuinness as a speaker for the War Finance Committee in the Winnipeg Area.
In 1946, McGuinness moved to Port Arthur to work in public relations with the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. That same year he married his wife Christine. In 1947, the couple returned to Winnipeg, when McGuinness took a job as a Public Relations Officer for the National Employment Service’s Unemployment Insurance Commission (UIC). While employed with the UIC, McGuinness travelled the summer fair circuit with displays promoting the UIC and its benefits. During that time, Royal American Shows also hired McGuinness as its Director of Publicity and Exploitation while the show toured with the fairs on the Canadian prairies. McGuinness also sold his first manuscript to the CBC in 1947, recording a 14-minute broadcast titled the “Class A Circuit” about the Royal American tour, after his summer fair schedule concluded.
McGuinness continued his work with Royal American and the UIC until he accepted a position with the Saskatchewan government in 1952 to promote its upcoming 1955 golden jubilee. His experience with the Saskatchewan Jubilee preparations lead to McGuinness being appointed as a provincial representative to the Canadian Centennial Commission in 1963; an appointment that had McGuinness delivering speeches provincially and internationally.
After the jubilee, McGuinness accepted a position with The Medicine Hat News in Medicine Hat, Alberta. During his decade with that newspaper as a journalist and publisher, McGuinness was heavily involved with the Chamber of Commerce and community service organizations. His position within the community had him delivering talks to many local groups.
At the beginning of 1966, McGuinness started his new appointment as manager of the newly formed personnel and information branch for James Richardson and Sons Ltd. whose head offices were in Winnipeg. At that time McGuinness was developing broadcast scripts for the CBC in earnest. McGuinness left Richardson and Sons in the fall of 1966 to become the publisher and vice-president of the Brandon Sun newspaper in Brandon, Manitoba.
In the 1970s, McGuinness was writing copy for CBC’s Radio Noon and Information Radio, as well as producing Ashgrove Farm, a CBC radio drama. By 1980, McGuinness was hosting the CBC Radio broadcast Neighborly News from the Prairies. The radio program was cancelled by the CBC in 1983, but was reincarnated with Altona broadcaster CFAM later that year with McGuinness at the helm. The radio show ended its run in the summer of 1987. McGuinness continued working with the CBC, and is popularly known for his work as the prairie essayist for CBC Radio’s Morningside with Peter Gzowski, a position McGuinness held for 17 years.
During his twenty years with the Sun, McGuinness took an active roll in the community and cultivated his interest in local history. Consequently he was invited to guest speak and chair sessions on local history, rural development, and the economy while providing his personal insights as a newspaper publisher.
In the 1980s and 1990s, McGuinness co-taught an undergraduate journalism class at Brandon University with English Professor John Blaikie. McGuinness also delivered community workshops on memoir writing, a past time he continued until shortly before his death in 2011.
Custodial History
Accession 1-2015 contains records created and collected over the course of McGuinness’ career as a radio broadcaster, newspaper journalist and freelance writer. The Estate of Fred McGuinness donated the materials to the SJ McKee Archives circa 2011. The Archives accessioned the records in 2015.
Scope and Content
The series contains records created and collected by Fred McGuinness during his time as a radio broadcaster, journalist, editor, and freelance writer. Records in the series consist of broadcast scripts, lecture notes, speeches, rough drafts and notes, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other research materials for respective broadcasts, lectures, speeches, and workshops.
The series has been divided into three subseries, including: (1) radio broadcast scripts, (2) BU journalism course, and (3) talks and workshops.
Notes
Information for the history/biography was obtained from documents in McGuinness’ personal papers (see his family papers McG 1.1 and the scrapbook in McG 1.4) and his book Letters from Section 17 (published by Great Plains Publications in 1999)
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
A file level inventory is available for each subseries, see subseries
descriptions
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
Fred McGuinness would write/publish about a topic in a number of forums. Therefore, it is possible materials pertaining to his broadcast and lecture career may be found in other series of the Fred McGuinness collection. A sound recording of one of McGuinness’ UofM broadcasts can be found in McG 7
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Series has been re-arranged according to publication period
McG 6 McGuinness broadcasts, lectures, workshops
McG 6.1 Radio broadcast scripts
McG 6.2 BU Journalism course
McG 6.3 Talks and workshops
