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.
6 cm. textual records; 1921 Brandon College Quill (Commencement Number); approx. 150 photographs
History / Biographical
Evan McDonald Whidden (1898-1980) was born in Galt, Ontario. He was educated at Brandon College. Following service in the Great War he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from McMaster University (Brandon College) in 1921. He obtained a Master of Arts in history (McMaster [n.d.]) and in 1928, a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale. Whidden married Frances Margaret Billington in 1941. Together they had three children: Howard John (b.1943), Roberta Katherine (b. 1945) and Eric Christopher (b. 1947).
Dr. Whidden served in Baptist churches in Saskatchewan and Manitoba before joining the faculty of Brandon College in 1936. In 1938, he was appointed Thomas J. Armstrong Professor of church history at Acadia University. He became Dean of the School of Theology at Acadia in 1954, and served in that capacity until 1963. He retired from the faculty of Acadia University in 1967. Dr. Whidden has written in the field of church history and education. He was awarded honorary degrees by the Pine Hill Divinity Hall, Halifax, N.S. (1950), McMaster University [n.d.] and Acadia University (1969).
Custodial History
Since his death in 1980, the fonds has been in the custody of his widow, Mrs. Frances Margaret Whidden. The first accession was donated to the McKee Archives in April, 2001; the second in 2003; and the third in May 2005.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of Evan Whidden's reports to family members, in particular to his father and mother, on his experience as a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the years 1917-1919. Records also include correspondence from his mother, Katherine Louise Whidden (nee Ganong), to Evan during these years. In these reports, Whidden records his impressions of military life through his training in Canada and England and his experience of war in Europe with the Canadian Expeditionary Force from 1917-1918. He was involved in the conflict only briefly at the conclusion of the war. His letters provide an account of life in France, Belgium and Germany in 1918.
The fonds also contains correspondence dating from the early 1920s from Chester New, a history professor at McMaster, who had previously taught at Brandon College. Fonds also contains correspondence from Whidden's father, Howard Primrose Whidden, President of Brandon College 1912-1922 and, from 1922-1949, Chancellor of McMaster University. This correspondence deals principally with the progress of Evan Whidden's education and his choice of a career in the church or the academic world.
Fonds contains several publications containing the work of Evan Whidden, mostly on religious themes. It also includes newspaper clippings and convocation programs dealing with Dr. Whidden's graduation from Yale and the presentation of honorary degrees to him at Pine Hill and Acadia. The fonds contains newspaper stories on the occasion of the retirement of Howard Primrose Whidden following his lengthy career as President of McMaster University. Death notices for Dr. H.P. Whidden and his wife are also to be found.
Finally, fonds containts approximately 150 b&w photographs of group portraits, individual portraits and activites at Brandon College and a copy of the 1921 Commencement Issue of the Brandon College Quill.
MG 1 Brandon College Teaching and Administration
1.8 Evan McDonald Whidden
Related Material
Whidden's father, Howard Primrose Whidden served as President of Brandon College 1912-1922. His records are located in RG 1, series 2.2 (Brandon College fonds, Office of the Pesident). Records from Evan Whidden's time as College Dean are located in RG 1, series 6 (Brandon College fonds, Office of the College Dean).
