Fred McGuinness worked with The Medicine Hat News for 10 years, starting in 1955, when he was hired as an assistant to the paper’s publisher. In 1958, he was promoted to publisher of the newspaper. At the same time McGuinness was also appointed vice-president of Southam Company Limited. Based in Toronto, Southam Company Limited was the parent organization that oversaw the Southam Printing Company (Toronto and Montreal) and the publication of a number of weekly newspapers, including The Ottawa Citizen, The Hamilton Spectator, The Winnipeg Tribune, The Calgary Herald, The Edmonton Journal, The Vancouver Province and The Medicine Hat News. In addition to his administrative duties, while with The Medicine Hat News, McGuinness authored a column titled, “The Lighthouse.” In November of 1965, he resigned as publisher and moved with his family to Winnipeg where he was appointed manager of the New Personnel and Information Division with James Richardson and Sons.
In 1988, McGuinness was hired by The Medicine Hat News to write a 20 article feature about his reminisces of Medicine Hat. McGuinness referred to this collection of stories as “Hat Memoirs.”
Custodial History
Accession 1-2015 contains records created and collected over the course of McGuinness’ career as a 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 subseries contains records created and collected by Fred McGuinness during his time as a journalist, editor, and freelance writer for The Medicine Hat News. Records include Medicine Hat News clippings from the 1960s, a scrapbook containing clippings of McGuinness’ Lighthouse column (1961-1964) and drafts of McGuinness’ 1988 Medicine Hat memoirs.
Records in the subseries consist of rough drafts, article proofs, newspaper clippings, a scrapbook, and correspondence.
Notes
Readers’ correspondence pertaining to McGuinness’ time in Medicine Hat may be found in Fred McGuinness’ personal papers, subseries McG 1.2 Correspondence
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
A file level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been re-arranged according to publication period
Ivan Richard Day was born on May 17, 1911 in Dand, MB. He lived and farmed in the Dand area his entire life. Ivan married Wilma Mildred Sutton (1909-2004) on October 1, 1936 in Winnipeg, MB. Together they had three sons: David, Garfield and John. Ivan was very interested in co-operative movements and was active with the local Manitoba Pool Elevator, the Dand Consolidated School, the Harntey Credit Union and Co-op Implements. Ivan Day died on May 5, 1982 in Deloraine Memorial Hospital. He is buried at Deloraine Cemetery.
Custodial History
As part of the Westman Oral History Collection, this collection was accessioned by the McKee Archives in 1998. The original tapes from the Westman Oral History project were deposited in the Brandon Public Library. Copies of these originals were made by Margaret Pollex of the Brandon University Language Lab at the request of Eileen McFadden, University Archivist in the early 1990s. These copies compose the collection held in the McKee Archives.
Scope and Content
Item is an audiocassette tape containing an interview with Ivan Day about recollections of life in the Dand Community during the 20th century. Interviewer is Eva Cassils.
Notes
History/bio information from the records, Dand local history "More golden memories: 1967-1991" and Ivan Day's obituary. Description by Christy Henry.
Language Note
English
Audio Tracks
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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
