George F. MacDowell was born in 1913, in Prince Edward Island. He studied at Dalhousie University from 1930 to 1933, but did not complete a degree. During WWII, MacDowell served in Canada and Europe as a member of the Royal Canadian Signals Corps. After the war, he returned to Dalhousie University, graduating with a B.A. in 1947. Subsequently, he graduated with a Masters Degree in Economics from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. George McDowell taught at both Mount Allison University and the University of Alberta before coming to Brandon in 1957 to teach at Brandon College. He remained as a professor in the Economic Department until his retirement in 1979.
MacDowell's work was published in the Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science. In 1971, McClelland & Stewart published his account of the Brandon Packers strike of 1960 titled "The Brandon Packer's Strike: A Tragedy of Errors." In Brandon, MacDowell maintained a relationship with the local Association of Fire Fighters, aiding them with collective bargaining procedures. He also served as Chairman for the MacKenzie Seeds Board, and was a member of the Manitoba Development Corporation Board.
MacDowell never married and had no known children. He passed away on February 26th, 1986.
Custodial History
This collection was in the possesion of George MacDowell until his death. It was then held by the Brandon University Department of Economics until 1997, at which time it was transferred to the McKee Archives at Brandon University.
Scope and Content
The bulk of this fonds falls into five main categories:
1. Records dealing with the Brandon Packers Strike of 1960 and the subsequent legal actions against the owners, including all 2215 pages of the Brandon Packers Strike Commission;
2. Records dealing with the Commission of Inquiry into The Pas Forestry and Industrial Complex, including the complete transcript of the inquiry measuring approximately 5m. This Commission dealt with the conduct of Churchill Forest Industries, a company owned by a Swiss financial firm, which, in the 1960's, was given approximately 93 million dollars by the Roblin Provincial Government to develop The Pas Forestry and Industrial Complex. Churchill Forest Industries and its parent company subsequently came under suspicion of fraud and accused of fradulently transfering The Pas Forestry funds into other foreign business interests;
3. Records dealing with business loans awarded by the Manitoba Development Corporation during the 1970's and 1980's to businesses primarily within Manitoba;
4. Records dealing with McKenzie Seeds, and McKenzie Steele-Briggs Seeds during the early 1980's when George MacDowell was a board member of McKenzie Seeds;
5. Records dealing with Professor MacDowell's career as a Professor at Brandon University, including records relating to his courses and to administrative activities.
To a lesser extent, this collection includes records dealing with the University of Saskatchewan College of Commerce, the publication the "Manitoba New Democrat," issues associated with politics, labor and union in the prairie provinces from the 1960's to the 1980's, articles from various economic periodicals including "Economica" and "Public Finance," a variety of government reports from 1941 to 1981, and records dealing with George MacDowells' relationship with the Brandon Firefighters Association.
Notes
File level inventory available. Description written by Mike White (2002).
See RG 6 Brandon University fonds, Series 7 Faculties and Schools, Sub-series 7.1 Faculty of Arts, Sub sub series 7.1.1 Dean of Arts for biographical information for Michael Blanar.
Custodial History
Collection was in the possession of Dr. Michael Blanar until he donated the records to the S.J. McKee Archives in May 2002.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of textual records and five microfilm reels related to Dr. Blanar’s post-graduate research. It is assumed that the records were collected during the course of Blanar’s research for his dissertation entitled “Early British Travellers in French Canada (1960).”
Textual records include three Dominion of Canada notebooks containing handwritten Saulteaux verbs, and animate nouns. Included is a dark red booklet titled “Ojibwe.” The book contains Ojibwa translations of English words. The book comes from St. Peter Clavers Industrial School in Spanish, Ontario, and may have acted as an instructional book as it also contains French and English. Collection also contains a transcript of an Ojibwa dictionary and three file folders titled “Manuscripts,’ “John Long Research,” and “Maps” which contain additional research material. Contents of “Manuscript” folder are original typed manuscripts. “John Long” and “Maps” file folders contain copies of materials held at Library and Archives Canada, as well as hand drawn documents and hand written documents detailing contents of folders.
In addition to the textual records there are five microfilm reels. Three microfilm cases are labeled “The British Reference Division,” one case labeled “Public Archives Canada, central microfilm operations,” and the last case is from an unidentified source labeled “Longs voyages and travels”. Four of the five microfilm cases are also numbered. The British Reference Division microfilm case numbered “1346 i 43” contains a copy of a book titled “The Cacique of Ontario.” British Reference Division microfilm case numbered “104706640” contains a copy of a book titled “The Four Kings of Canada.” British Reference Division microfilm case numbered “9073279” contains a copy of a book titled “The Indians.” The Public Archives Canada microfilm case numbered “c-3006” contains copies of original documents in French and English. Documents include letters, diary pages, maps, and business ledgers. Microfilm case labeled “Longs voyages and travels” contains a copy of a book written by John Long titled “Voyages and Travels of Indian Interpreter and Trader.”
Notes
Description by Aaron McKay (October 2013). The Ojibwa language dictionary and notebook make references to Fredric Baraga (1797-1868), a missionary priest from Slovenia who recorded the Lake Superior Ojibwa language dialect. Baraga’s findings were published into an Ojibwa language dictionary.
