Professor John Weldon Grant was born 12 March 1919 in Sunnybrae, Nova Scotia, son of Alec and Linda Grant. He was raised in Sunnybrae and graduated from Pictou Academy in 1937. Prof. Grant entered Pine Hill Divinity School to study Theology. During his ministerial internship, he taught and preached in Rabbit Lake and Biggar, Saskatchewan. He graduated from Pine Hill in 1943 and entered the mission field with the United Church.
Professor Grant moved to Trinidad & Tobago in the 1940s. There he taught in both San Fernando and Siparia, towns located in the southwest tip of the island. Weldon Grant was the first head master off the Iere High School School in Siparia when it opened in 1955. Professor Grant is recalled by Kenneth Ramchand in his _The West Indian Novel And Its Background_ as “his beloved English teacher” reading from an early Sam Selvon novel in a “Saskatchewan version of Trinidad dialect.” That he was teaching Selvon – a West Indian writer - testifies to Grant’s cultural pluralism. See Kenneth Ramchaud, _The West Indian Novel and its bachground_ (London: Faber and Faber, 2001 edition).
Professor Grant and Bernice Emma Moats were married in Gray, Saskatchewan 30 June 1954. They adopted three children in Nova Scotia and returned to Trinidad.
In 1961, the Grants returned to Canada. Weldon taught for one year at Vincent Massey High School and then joined the English Department at Brandon University where he taught in the English department until his retirement on August 31, 1984.
During a sabbatical he spent six months exploring Ireland and the poets that had been inspired by its countryside. He also loved stories of the sea and read many varied authors, both factual and fiction.
Custodial History
Records were collected by Weldon Grant during his teaching career in Trinidad and Canada.
Scope and Content
In the course of his teaching career in Trinidad & Tobego and at Brandon University Professor Grant acquired and retained a number of items with cultural, scholarly and sentimental value. These incude The First Folio of Shakespeare, prepared by Charlton Himan, [Academic ed.]. Imprint New York : W.W. Norton, 1968. xxvii, 928 p. : port. ; 37 cm. Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies. Published according to the true original copies. London, Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623.
The facsimile is described as "an ideal copy in which each page represents the best page selected from one of the 29 most satisfactory copies of the 80 copies in the Folger Shakespeare Library."
1 Self prononcing Holy Bible, Oxford 1910.
1 print 22.4" x 17," "Baking in a Clay Oven," by Trinidad artist David Moore, June 1977 printed in Trinidad by the College Press.
2 water colour paintings 17.5" x 12" by artist "AM." One titled San Fernando (1961) one titled Royal Palm, Trinidad (1960).
1 black and white portrait 10" x 13" of Governor general Roland Michener and his wife (No: A-2) copyright Karsh dated 1970.
1 Asian art work, 12.5" x 18" embroidery on silk.
Notes
Weldon Grant history/bio from Weldon Grant obituary Brandon Daily Sun c. April 14, 1999.
Dr. John Everett Robbins was born 9 October 1903 in Hampton, Ontario the son of John and Gertrude (Brown) Robbins. He married Catherine St. Denis on 11 June 1934 in Ogdens, New York. John Robbins was raised in Darlingford, Manitoba. He attended the University of Manitoba graduating with a B.A. Hon 1928 and M.A.in 1929. Dr. Robbins completed a Ph.D at the University of Ottawa in 1935. From 1936-1951 he was Director of the Education Division, Dominion Bureau of Statistics.
Dr. Robbins helped to found the Canadian Association for Adult Education, the Social Science Research Council of Canada, the Humanities Research Council of Canada, the United Nations Association in Canada, and the Canadian Citizenship Council. In 1942 he became a member of the Board of Directors of Carlton University. Dr. Robbins was active in UNESCO work: he was a member of Canadian Government delegations to foreign conferences, and, in 1951-52, he spent a year as Director of an educational project for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East.
In 1960, while editor-in-chief of the newly compiled “Encyclopedia Canadiana,” Dr. Robbins was asked to become President of Brandon College. From 1960 to 1967, he oversaw construction of the Arts and Library Building and Lecture Theatre, a Men's Residence, a Dining Hall, a Heating Plant, a Ladies’ Residence, a Music Building, a Physical Education Building and an Education Building. After the university charter was granted in 1967, Dr. Robbins was installed as the first President of Brandon University.
After his retirement from Brandon University Dr. Robbins was appointed Canadian Ambassador to the Vatican 1970-73. In the years after his departure from Brandon, he held many positions including President of World Federalists of Canada 1977-79 and President of the Canadian Writers Foundation
1976-78. Dr. Robbins served as Executive Chairman and Treasurer of Amnesty International in Canada 1973-75.
He was the recipient of an honorary LLD from the University of Manitoba (1967), Carleton University ( 1969) and Brandon University (1974). In 1994, the title President Emeritus of Brandon University was conferred on John Robbins by the Board of Governors of the University. Dr. Robbins died in 1995, at the age of 91.
Scope and Content
Dr. Robbins' administrative records are located in the Brandon University fonds.
Notes
Dr. John E. Robbins archival papers are held at the Library and Archives Canada.
This site is situated in a naturally sheltered area with a low rise to the east and south partly encircling a flat area open to the west. Present natural vegetation is an open oak forest with a light understory of saskatoon, hazelnut, poison ivy and sarsaparilla. It is situated on the till plain at the upper end of a ravine leading to Jock’s Creek.
Two test units six meters apart were excavated in 1987 and produced cultural materials which warranted a block excavation, so seven contiguous 1m2 units were then opened. These units proved to be very productive of cultural remains. Subsequent excavations in 1988 increased the number of excavated units to 21. In 1991 a further eight units were excavated for a total of 29 excavations and two test units. Excavations went deeper in this block than in Blocks C or B. Remains from the block included bison bone, bone tools, fire-cracked rock, ceramics, lithics including tools and debitage and a hearth. Another occupation was recovered in 1991 containing a hearth and living floor.
Radiocarbon samples have produced two distinct sets of radiocarbon dates from 1987 and 1988 excavations. There appears to be two or possibly three cultural horizons definable within this block.
An upper cultural horizon, located between 14-21 cm below surface, contains large bison bone and fire-cracked rock dating to 465/100B.P from XU 128.
A lower horizon in the 20-25 cm level contained FCR, bison bone and lithic scatter that was dated to 675/70 B.P. from XU 122 and 715/110 from XU 114.
Scope and Content
Sub-series has been divided into sub sub series including: Lovstrom Block E 1987, Lovstrom Block E 1988 and Lovstrom Block E 1991.
