Postcard was donated to the McKee Archives by Allen Drysdale, archivist at Beautiful Plains Archives in October 2011. Drysdale received the postcard as part of a larger donation to his archives.
Scope and Content
Item is a colour postcard of the A.E. McKenzie Seed Company in Brandon, MB. The postcard was sent to John Dorset, Elphinstone, MB from his brother Sid (?).
Brandon Hardware Co. Ltd. founded in 1882, making it one of Brandon's earliest mercantiles. It was incorporated in 1902, and their location on Rosser Avenue at the corner of 7th Street was constructed in 1903. For a number of years, J.B. Curran was the managing director. The building was destroyed by fire in 1983.
Custodial History
Katy Singleton was given this photo in her role as Heritage Coordinator for the City of Brandon. She transferred it to the McKee Archives in 2013.
Scope and Content
Item is a photograph of of the interior of the Brandon Hardware Co. Ltd. looking towards the front of the store from the back.
Brandon Hardware Co. Ltd. founded in 1882, making it one of Brandon's earliest mercantiles. It was incorporated in 1902, and their location on Rosser Avenue at the corner of 7th Street was constructed in 1903. For a number of years, J.B. Curran was the managing director. The building was destroyed by fire in 1983.
Custodial History
Katy Singleton was given this photo in her role as Heritage Coordinator for the City of Brandon. She transferred it to the McKee Archives in 2013.
Scope and Content
Item is a photograph of of the interior of the Brandon Hardware Co. Ltd. looking towards the back of the store from the front.
Postcard was sent to Chuck Wilson's aunt, Mrs. W.M. Wilson in Creelman, SK by the McKenzie Seed Company in 1912. Chuck Wilson found the postcard in some of his aunt's papers in 2009 and mailed it to the McKee Archives.
Scope and Content
Item consists of a colour postcard of the McKenzie Seed Company building located on the west side of the 100 block of 9th Street. The card was sent to Mrs. W.M. Wilson of Creelman, SK to acknowledge her order.
Writing on the front of the card reads: A.E. McKenzie Co., Limited, Seedsmen, Brandon, Man
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, which became St. Paul's United Church, and then Central United Church was located at 327 8th Street in Brandon, MB. The original church was destroyed by fire in 1986.
Scope and Content
Photograph shows the interior of the St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Brandon, MB.
Notes
History/Bio information provided by Jim Stettner, Organ Historical Society Database (2022).
View is looking east southeast. Photograph shows the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium (WMCA) under construction. There are two signs in the foreground. One lists the names of the architectural firm, the engineers, contractiors and subcontractors involved with the project. The other reads: Site of Western Manitoba's 100 Centennial Project New Auditorium
The Brandon Armoury was built in 1907. The extension on the southside was built in 1937.
Custodial History
The photograph was donated to the Archives by Cy Kenny in 2005.
Scope and Content
Photograph is looking northwest from the east side of 11th Street. It shows the back and east side of the Brandon Armoury, which is located on the at 1116 Victoria Avenue.
Photograph of spectators gathered to watch the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP) horse barns on fire. The barns were located in the Winter Fair Building on the Fair Grounds.
Photograph shows the Manitoba Agricultural College located at Treesbank, MB. Photograph shows a large barn-like structure comprised of brick and a wooden silo in the side yard. A steam engine is processing a field crop (corn perhaps) that is then being funneled into the silo.
Photograph of the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium (WMCA). View is looking northeast from 20th Street. Victory Tolgesy's "Explorer" in the foreground.
Photograph is a proposed model for a centennial auditorium for western Manitoba prepared by Ward and Macdonald Associates - Architects. View is southeast from the northwest corner of Princess Avenue and 20th Street. The model includes the proposed auditorium as well as a number of buildings on the Brandon College campus.
View is looking east northeast. Photograph shows the front steps, main entrance and west side of the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium (WMCA). Brandon University's Education Building is in the background.
View is looking northeast. Photograph shows the southwest corner of the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium (WMCA). Victor Tolgesy's sculpture Explorer is in the foreground.
Thomas Russell Wilkins was born in Toronto in 1891. He received his B.A. from McMaster University in 1912, and became the Science Master at Woodstock College the following year. In 1916, he and his wife Olive moved to Chicago, where Wilkins was an instructor of Physics at the University of Chicago. The next year he served as a master signal electrician in the U.S. Signal Corps. During World War I, Wilkins completed pioneer research for the United States Navy, which led to the development of pulse sonar devices in the 1920s. He had also been researching the possibilities of a wireless telephone.
Wilkins and his wife moved to Brandon in 1918, where he took up the position of Professor of Physics. During his time at Brandon College, Wilkins introduced the latest technology to classrooms, designed the original Science Building, and along with the Brandon Citizen's Committee, seucured building funds for the Citizen's Science Building.
Receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1921, Wilkins resigned from Brandon College in 1925 to pursue postgraduate study at Cambridge University. In 1926, he began research at the University of Rochester, where he also took up the position of Professor of Physics. From 1930 to 1938, he acted as the Director of the Institute of Optics.
Widely known for his work in the fields of cosmic rays and atomic disintegration, in April 1939, Wilkins announced the perfection of a camera that was able to record the "footprints" of invisible atoms after they collide. In October 1939, he received a medal from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain recognizing his work regarding the use of photographic emulsions in the study of radium. The following year, Wilkins perfected a camera that could determine the energy levels inside the nuclei of stable chemical elements. He received a grant from Sigma Xi, the National Society for the Promotion of Scientific Research, in November of 1940.
Wilkins married twice. The first marriage, to Olive Anges Cross took place on June 17, 1913. Olive Wilkins died suddenly on May 13, 1937, at the age of 45. Wilkins married Susan Gwendolyn Whidden, the daughter of former Brandon College president Dr. H.P. Whidden, in 1938.
Thomas Russell Wilkins died suddenly of a heart attack on December 10, 1940, on his way back to his laboratory after a faculty meeting. He was 49 years old.
Custodial History
Records were accessioned by the McKee Archives in 1998. Prior custodial history is unknown.
Scope and Content
T. Russell Wilkins’ reocrds contain correspondence between himself and Mrs. Wilkins and Dr. Whidden concerning their employment with Brandon College. There are letters between the two men regarding the building of the Science Building in 1920. There is also a copy of the Canadian Baptist. Besides programmes and a picture, there is also correspondence between various people. Dr. Wilkins kept the papers he had written for various classes at McMaster University in the years 1911 and 1912. There is a "toast to the ladies" that he delivered at a banquet of some sort, that gives an interesting view on how Wilkins, and possibly other men of his time, viewed women. There are numerous newspapers clippings, and several pages taken from journals such as Popular Mechanics, Popular Electricity and others. Dr. Wilkins was at the top of his field of study. He was an extremely bright man who managed to create some very useful tools of science. His papers are interesting and informative to read.
Notes
History/Bio information taken from Campus News May 1990