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
See collection level description for history/biography information on Frederick George McGuinness.
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
Subseries consists of records created and collected by Fred McGuinness during his years in the Canadian navy, college, federal government (Unemployment Insurance Commission), Saskatchewan government (Saskatchewan Jubilee), and as a journalist, editor, and freelance writer.
The papers and letters include materials from some members of the McGuinness family who assisted McGuinness with his research, as well as reader correspondence and materials from workshop participants. Readers of McGuinness’ columns often reminisced about Brandon’s local history and enclosed newspapers clippings, photographs, and pamphlets with their correspondence. Participants from his memoir writing workshops submitted their personal or family memoirs for McGuinness to review, provide feedback, or add to his collection.
Records in the subseries consist of correspondence (letters, e-mail communications, facsimiles, invitations, telegrams), newspaper clippings, programmes, ticket stubs. There is a Medicine Hat News logo patch located within File 10 1955-1965 Medicine Hat News.
Notes
In the file level inventories, square brackets at end of file names reference the original location of the file in the unprocessed Fred McGuinness collection. The original location is also noted on the front of each file folder.
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
File level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
John Everitt collection
Clarence Hopkin collection
Lawrence Stuckey collection
Jack Stothard collection
William Wallace papers
It is possible research and additional correspondence pertaining to McGuinness’ columns and research materials may be found in Personal papers (McG 1.1), Newspaper career (McG 2), Freelance (McG 3), Broadcasts, talks and workshops (McG 6). Photographs were pulled and added to McGuinness photographic collection (McG 9)
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been re-arranged according to publication period.
Documents
McG 1_2 Fred McGuinness correspondence inventory.pdf
See collection level description for history/biography information on Frederick George McGuinness.
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
Subseries consists of records related to the business workings of Fred McGuinness Ltd. It includes financial statements prepared for Fred McGuinness Ltd. and information on insurance coverage.
Notes
In the file level inventories, square brackets at end of file names reference the original location of the file in the unprocessed Fred McGuinness collection. The original location is also noted on the front of each file folder
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
File level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
Statements on royalty earnings for McGuinness’ monograph Manitoba: The Province & The People are located in the Correspondence subseries (McG 1.2). Invoicing for McGuinness’ work on the Chronicle of Canada is located with that monograph subseries (5.7)
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been re-arranged according to publication period.
Documents
McG 1_3 Fred McGuinness Ltd business documents inventory.pdf
Generally good. Some tears. Issues located first and last in the folders Lindsay stored them in are missing sections where the page stuck to the folder.
History / Biographical
James Gordon Lindsay was born June 16, 1925 in Minneapolis, Minnesota where his father, James Lindsay, a Brandon pioneer from Northern Ireland, had been working for the Coca Cola Bottling Company. In November 1925, the Lindsay family moved back to Brandon where they lived at 547 16th Street.
Lindsay attended Park School, Earl Oxford Junior High School and Brandon Collegiate. In September 1943, he entered 2nd Year at Brandon College, joining the Class of 1946. Due to past experience in publishing the BCI yearbook, he was drafted into The Board of Publications and named Co-editor of the Quill along with third year student Genevieve Fuloski. Lindsay and Fuloski held their positions for two years. Because of the war, money and supplies were in short supply and the Quill at one point was reduced to mimeographed pages. While Editor Lindsay wrote The eggshell-Slightly Cracked column.
Lindsay was named Senior Stick in 1945 and graduated from Brandon College with a B.Sc. in 1946. He obtained both his MSc (1948) and PhD (1951) in Physical Chemistry from McMaster University.
During his time in Hamilton, Lindsay met Shirley Woolmer and the couple married on September 2, 1950. They moved to Arvida, Quebec in 1951 where Lindsay accepted an offer from Aluminium Laboratories Limited, the research arm of Alcan Aluminium Ltd. The couple remained in Arvida for twenty-two years, during which time they had four children: Sharon, Heather, Geoffrey and David.
In 1973, Lindsay was transferred to Alcan's head office in Montreal where he spent the next three years co-ordinating alumina research in Alcan plants around the world. In 1976, he accepted a transfer to Alcan Jamaica as Chief Technical Officer and Manager of Technical Development. He and Shirley spent nearly eight years in Jamaica before returning to Canada in 1984. After a yaer at Alcan's Research Centre in Kingston, ON Lindsay took early retirement.
During their years in Jamaica Lindsay had been introduced to Rotary and he continued his association with the organization in Kingston where for fifteen years he was Bulletin editor of the Kingston-Frontenac Rotary Club. In addition to Rotary, Lindsay (along with his wife) took up genealogy in his retirement and after fifteen years of extensive travel and research he became his Lindsay family's historian and author of The Lindsays of Dundonald.
For three years in the late 1980s Lindsay served as a representative on the Brandon University Alumni Executive for Eastern Canada. Along with his wife he attended two class reunions at Brandon University including his 50th Re-convocation in 1996.
At present (June 2010) Gordon Lindsay continues to live in Kingston, ON with his wife.
Custodial History
Materials remained in Gordon Lindsay's possession from time of creation until he donated them to the Archives on September 4, 2009.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of copies of the Quill, including:
1942-1943: No. 11 (January 26, 1943)
1943-1944: Nos. 2, 12, 14 (October 20, 1943, February 2, 1944, February 16, 1944)
1944-1945: Nos. 1-5 and 7-12
1945-1946: Nos. 1-10 (11 issues as there are two labelled No. 4)
Notes
History/Bio information provided by Gordon Lindsay. Description by Christy Henry.
The Quill was established in 1910, and is the second oldest student newspaper in western Canada. It was also the first student run publication at Brandon College. The December (Vol. I, No. 1) edition states that "the demand for such a paper [had] been steadily increasing until at last some definite steps towards bringing one into existence became absolutely necessary." The first step was the election of a committe by the Literary Society to look into the possibilites of the project and report at a special meeting. Following the acceptance of the committee's favorable report, another committee was appointed to outline a policy and nominate officers and staff.
The inagural staff of the Quill, "having examined the reasons for the discontinuance of the Brandon College Monthly some years ago, [found] that these have been to a large extent removed by the development of the College in the intervening years." They felt that the "student body [had] grown to such an extent that the problem of getting suffiecient material for a paper, as well as the financial difficulty, [had] been appreciably reduced." For them, this development "not only justified but demanded the advent of a College paper." The creation of the Quill was also influenced by the awareness of the students involved that their college was in a state of constant change. They felt that they "[could not] allow this important period of [their] College history to pass away and be forgotten." The newpaper enabled them to record the growth and changes on campus for the benefit of the students and friends of the College.
Originally the publication of three editions of the Quill, i.e. Christmas, Easter and a special graduates' number, were planned; the policy on the limited number of issues was to allow the Quill and its staff time to establish themselves, with the aim of expanding into a monthly paper as soon as it was thought advisable to do so. In 1911, the Quill was printed quarterly, with the first three issues of the school year consisting of student publications and professors writings, as well as containg various columns on campus activities. The final issue of that year, and subsequent years, was called the Commencement Issue, and it contained a brief biographical sketch of each member of the graduating class.
In 1927, the Quill was split into two separate entities. In the April edition (Vol. XVI, No. 11), the editorial staff wrote that the Quill's ". . . function and the efficiency with which it has performed that function in the immediate past are . . . doubtful. The present management realize this and feel that the "Quill" as conducted at present can assume neither the utility of a newspaper nor the intrinsic value of a year-book." Subsequently it was decided to publish a fortnightly, or bi-weekly newspaper, which retained the title of "The Quill," as well as a new publication, named The Sickle, which was to act as a yearbook. This decision was also influenced by the belief that by creating a sepaprate newspaper and yearbook "Brandon College [would] then be on a similar basis in this respect as her sister institutions throughout the Dominion." Although the Quill has occassionally ceased production (for a week or two at most) throughout its history, usually due to a lack of student participation in its production and/or financial troubles, it has continued to be published as as newspaper since 1927.
In 1933, the Quill was presented in an entirely new form. Weekly, for three issues a month, a bulletin was published, with a fourth and more substantial issue at the end of the month. The introduction of the new broadsheet form was an attempt to "reduce stale news" and allow the publication to operate with a "greatly reduced budget." The broadsheet format of the Quill was abandoned in 1934-1935.
Further changes were introduced with the January 15, 1963 (Vol. 53, No. 6) edition of the Quill. In the editorial section of that issue, the staff commented that "the Quill has remained as it is, in size, pattern and almost in content for the last fifty years!" In response, they introduced a weekly Quill (the Quill was first published as a weekly in 1937) and proclaimed that "we find the miserly, pamphlet-sized, shrunken-like Quill no more. In its stead, a fully-grown, broad-shouldered, new Quill has risen." Changes included the creation of the Feature and Intervarsity sections, with their own editors, a definite format in the 'lay-out' of articles, and the 'set-up' of pages, as well as a basic and overall reorganization of the Quill staff.
In September 1969 (Vol. 60, No. 1), Acting Editor Tom Brook and the Quill staff clarified the position and purpose of the Quill as follows: "The primary purpose of the Quill is to bring to the attention of the students of Brandon University the issues and events that have direct implications on the lives of these people. We do and will continue to editorialize in our reporting. It may be not as strong as that seen in the past. But the Quill staff does feel that subjective evaluation of events after the case has been put factually is valid, and this shall be a policy that will be adhered to during the coming year." They also took a moment to point out that the Quill, although a student press, was not a commercial newspaper. Furthermore, they wanted "to see the Quill move closer to the concept of the bourgeois pressbut not so close that it loses its identification with students and the issues that concern them."
By 1971, the Quill had adopted the statement of principle of the Student Press in Canada as outline in the Resolutions of the Canadian University Press. Printed on the front page of the September 24 edition, the Quill stated the following policy: It is ". . . our belief 'that the major role of the student press is to act as an agent of social change, striving to emphasize the rights and responsibilities of the student citizen', and 'that the student press must in fulfilling this role perform both an educative and an active function.'" The policy went on to declare that the Quill, as an alternative press (an alternative to the commercial press), rather than a newspaper, was "limited to presenting news which the commerical press does not handle and to providing news analysis." The democratic nature of the Quill was also clearly stated in the policy.
The structure of the Quill was altered again in 1984, when an editorial board was instated, replacing the previous editor-in-chief system (although in most cases there was more than one editor in any given year). This board was to function as an organizing unit, with the collective electing officers for a one year term. The collective was made up of members, who had to contribute something to the Quill in one out of every three issues, in order to vote. Contributions included actual content for the paper, production, typing, photography work, office clean-up, or anything else that helped the Quill function. The central concern of the Quill, at the time of these changes, was to represent the "wide variety of social issues which interest Brandon University students." (September 27, 1984). The 'wide variety of social issues' was expanded upon in the September 3, 1987 edition of the Quill's editorial section: "A major purpse of THE QUILL is to provide the community with news and information pertaining to local, regional, national and international issues of concern to students."
By 1993, the Editorial Board was comprised of the News Editor, the Co-ordinating Editor and the CUP Editor and was responsible for the direction and content of the newspaper each week. By 1996, the CUP Editor had been replaced by the Business Manager on the Editorial Board. Clarifying its relationship with BUSU in the November 18, 1996 edition, Co-ordinating Editor Stacey Brown quoted the Quill Constitution: "The Quill collective shall determine and regulate editorial content and policy and shall set such perimeters on acceptable advertising as it shall collectively see fit. Debate and reasonable documentation must be given beofre boycotting anything in the newspaper." She went on to state that "final decisions on most issues are made by the Editorial Board. . . " The position of Editor-in-Chief was reintroduced sometime around 2001.
Throughout its history, the Quill has been a quarterly, a bi-weekly and a weekly publication. It has been printed in various formats, by a number of different companies and has been financed primarily through funding from BUSU, and at present, advertising and a student levy. In 1997, the Quill became one of the first student newspapers in Canada to produce the paper in a completely digital format.
The Quill has been located at a number of locations on campus. Its first home was at the base of the Bell Tower in the original Clark Hall. In the 1970s it was produced in a mobile trailer near the gymnasium, before moving to the former Students' Union office in the lower level of the McMaster Building in 1980. Finally in 1991, the Quill was moved to its current location on the second floor of the Knowles-Douglas Student Centre.
At present (January 2007), the Quill continues to be a member of the Canadian University Press (CUP), and as such is provided with feature articles, news, graphics and fieldworker assistance. The Quill adheres to the CUP Statement of Principles. As a democratic collective, the Quill is open to all students and staff at Brandon University. An autonomous corporate entity since 2005, the Quill is a student run publication; the articles, editing, layout and distribution are done by the students.
Custodial History
Editions of the Quill have been acquired by the McKee Archives from BUSU and former Alumni.
Scope and Content
Sub sub series has been divided into three sub sub sub series, including: (1) The Quill editions; (2) The Quill duplicates and microfilm; and (3) The Quill special editions.
Notes
Adminitrative information in the History/Bio field was taken from the "Brandon Collge finding aid" prepared by Karyn Reidel for the McKee Archives in 1998 and various editions of the Quill. Post-1927, a handfull of Quill editions contain Literary Supplements.
See sub sub sub series 14.5.3.2 The Quill duplicates and microfilm for information on copies.
Storage Location
RG 6 Brandon University fonds
Series 14: BUSU
14.5 BUSU publications
Related Material
Editions of the Brandon College/University Sickle are located at RG 6, sub sub series 14.5.1 (The Sickle).
The Quill and Sickle account book for [1939-1941] is located in the Alfred Angus Murray McPherson collection (21-2006) Box 7, File 7.
For History/Bio information see sub sub series RG 6 14.5.3 the Quill.
Custodial History
For Custodial History see sub sub series RG 6 14.5.3 the Quill.
Scope and Content
The Quill editions held by the McKee Archives are as follows:
Box 1: 1910-1911 to 1920-1921 (19.5 cm, Files 1-10)
*1916-1917 and 1917-1918 are in hardback only
*1918-1919 only had 3 editions
Box 2: 1921-1922 to 1926-1927 (13 cm, Files 11-17)
*1923-1924 The hardback copy is mistakenly identified as vol. 12 rather than vol. 14
*1926-1927 only had 3 editions
Box 3: 1927-1928 to 1946-1947 (Files 20-28)
*1933-1934 is a broadsheet
*1932-1933, 1935-1936 are oversized (located on the bottom of the box and not in chronological order)
Box 4: 1947-1948 to 1961-1962 (Files 39-53)
Box 5: 1962-1963 to 1971-1972 (Files 54-64)
Box 6: 1972-1973 to 1981-1982 (Files 65-74)
Box 7: 1982-1983 to 1991-1992 (Files 75-84)
Box 8: 1992-1993 to 2000-2001 (Files 85-93)
Box 9: 2001-2002 to 2006-2007 (Files 94-99)
Box 10: 2007-2008 to 2013-20014 (Files 100-106)
Box 11: 2014-2015 to present (Files 107-?)
Editions of The Quill for September 1930 to March 1972 are only available on microfilm unless special permission is obtained from the Archivist.
Repro Restriction
Copyright provisions apply.
Location Original
S.J. McKee Archives
Storage Location
RG 6 Brandon University fonds
Series 14: BUSU
14.5 BUSU publications
14.5.3 The Quill
Arrangement
Each file is approximately one school year (September to April), although there are some exceptions. File numbers 18 and 19 have been retained for use in the event that additional editions of the Quill from 1910-1927 are accessioned.
Fred McGuinness wrote the syndicated weekly news column “Neighborly News” for 22 years, beginning in 1979. According to McGuinness, the Neighborly News column evolved out of the interest in and the impending cancellation of the CBC Radio broadcast “Neighborly News from the Prairies.” McGuinness credits Eugene Derksen (Steinbach Carillon), Miles Phillips (Boissevain Recorder), and Ian MacKenzie (Portage Graphic) for approaching him about printing/publishing a Neighborly News column. The column initially began with a dozen subscriptions from weeklies and grew to publication in 55 weeklies.
McGuinness described his creative process as follows. McGuinness received weeklies from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, from which he would read the first page and the editorial page. He created thematic files from clippings he accumulated over a period of time. He would then write four columns at a time based on the materials he assembled and had the columns printed at the Brandon Sun plant for camera-ready copy. Other weeklies had to re-type the columns if they did not have the facilities. The weekly columns were written for publication periods beginning every Monday.
McGuinness wrote his last Neighborly News column during the publication week of April 1, 2002. In his final column he confessed that his age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diagnosed in 2001, had become an impediment to his research, writing, and editing abilities. A month later, a Neighborly News retrospective written by McGuinness was published. In that column McGuinness reviewed the history of the Neighborly News broadcast and column and described his writing process.
The successor to McGuinness’ Neighborly News column was Margaret “Peggy” HASEIN, the editor and co-publisher of the Biggar Independent. Hasein was the successful bidder for the column after McGuinness put his column up for sale upon receiving his AMD diagnosis. The Neighborly News column is still in print today (2015).
Custodial History
Records were collected and created by McGuinness during the publication of the syndicated column Neighborly News from 1980 to 2002. The materials were donated to the SJ McKee Archives by the Estate of Fred McGuinness circa 2011. The Archives accessioned the records in 2015.
Scope and Content
The subseries consists of textual records (i.e., typed drafts, camera ready copy, and correspondence) created during the publication period (1980 to 2002) of Fred McGuinness’ syndicated Neighborly News column. The Archives does not have copies of McGuinness’ Neighborly News columns from 1999 to 2002. There is one file folder containing letters of thanks and congratulations upon McGuinness’ retirement in April 2002.
Notes
Information in the history/biography was taken from Neighborly News columns published in the Roblin Review (April 2, 2002, 4), and The Glenboro Gazette (May 7, 2002, 11). In the Glenboro Gazette column, “Looking Back,” McGuinness recalled the history of history Neighborly News radiobroadcast and column. The timeline provided in the article, appears to conflict with the actual dates the radio broadcast was cancelled by CBC and the beginning of the publication of the Neighborly News column. The Archives have used McGuinness’ date in the looking back column but researchers should be aware of the discrepancies in the timeline
The original location of the file (when the Fred McGuinness collection was unprocessed) is noted on the front of each file folder. The first sentence of each column was provided in the file level inventory because weeklies published alternative titles for the same column. The square bracket at the end of each item contains a few keywords for the respective column
Camera-ready proofs are numbered and dated for the weekly publication period beginning on Mondays. Certain columns in this series were mis-numbered and/or mis-dated by McGuinness. McGuinness’ numbers and dates have been retained and the discrepancies noted by the editorial marking [sic]
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
A file level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
Fred McGuinness would write/publish about a topic in a number of forums. For example, when researching and writing the Bootstrap profiles for the provincial government, McGuinness also mentioned these individuals in his Neighborly News or Brandon Sun Diary columns. Therefore, it is possible research materials pertaining to his Neighborly News columns may be found in the subseries: Correspondence (McG 1.2), Clippings (McG 4.2), Local history (McG 4.1), Miscellaneous freelance (McG 3.2) and Reader’s Digest (McG 3.1)
McGuinness details his vision problems and sale of the Neighborly News column in his memoir “Lost in Hotel Beesborough” (see McG 2.2 File 16, and McG 3.2, Misc. Freelance File 53)
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been arranged according to column number/publication period
The series was created by a committee attached to the Board of Directors of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba.
Custodial History
See sous-fonds RG2SF3 for custodial history.
Scope and Content
The series includes the news releases regarding events and competitions of AgEx from 1983 to 1990. The series was more than likely attached to a larger group of administrative files, but before they were transferred to the archives they were removed from the original files, and a new series was created.
Notes
Inventory of documents in the series is available in the printed finding aid.
Storage Location
RG 2 Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba Association fonds
RG2SF3 AgEx
