In celebration of Brandon's 125th Birthday, the McKee Archives organized the photo exhibit "Wonder City of the Northwest," on display from June 28 until the end of August 2007 in the Curve Gallery, located on the second level of BU's John E. Robbins Library. The photographs in the exhibit marked various passages in the history of Brandon from 1882 to the beginning of the Great War in 1914. A special opening for "Wonder City of the Northwest," sponsored by the President's Office, was held on Thursday, June 28 at 2:00 p.m. in the Curve Gallery.
Custodial History
Contents of the file were created during the process of organizing and curating the Wonder City of the Northwest exhibit.
Scope and Content
File consists of all bids made on the photographic prints in the exhibit, the silent auction form, research gathered for the information boards (including sections of Steen and Boyce's book on Brandon)
Notes
Correspondence and budget records related to the exhibit are held in the annual correspondence and budget files.
Storage Location
RG 6 Brandon University fonds
Series 8: Library Services
8.2 S.J. McKee Archives
The “Act to Incorporate Brandon College” was assented to on June 1, 1900 and specified that the Board of Directors would consist of 21 members. The Board was to control all financial matters of the College, though all decisions had to meet the approval of the Baptist Convention.
The first officers of the Board were a Chairman, a Treasurer and a Secretary. The minutes also refer to a “President,” separate from the Principal, but does not define the President’s duties. The Principal was a member ex-officio of the Board. The first duty of the Board was to create an executive consisting of all Brandon members of the Board. The main function of the executive was the operation of the College and transaction of all business arising between Board meetings.
In pursuit of a separate university charter, the Board reorganized its affairs in 1910, appointing an investment committee, a Bursar and a Registrar. The Principal was renamed “President,” and was appointed Chairman of the Executive. The university charter was denied, leading the Board to seek affiliation with McMaster University. The Board of Directors during this time was forced to take a more active role in directing college affairs. In November 1910, the Board moved: ...that the officers of the Board be authorized to make such application for such amendments to the Charter as seem necessary and advisable.
This decision led the Board to draw up the Act to Amend An Act to Incorporate Brandon College which, by 1915, granted the Board authority over all College affairs, following the stated direction of the Baptist Convention.
On May 5, 1916 a nominating committee was struck to name the persons and mandate of all new committees.
During the existence of the Board prior to 1967 the following committees were created:
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
In 1918, the Board defined the functions of the Executive Committee as:
The Board of Brandon College shall at its organization meeting each year appoint from among its members an Executive of not less than seven in number. The Executive shall be responsible to the Board and shall exercise all the powers usually incidental to an Executive other than those delegated to the Finance Committee and Endowment Fund Committee, which two Committees shall also be responsible to the Board direct.
FINANCE COMMITTEE, 1918-1926
The Finance Committee was to consist of no fewer than seven members which:
...shall be responsible to the Board and shall under the Board have the general oversight and control of the financial policy of the College insofar as the raising of funds is concerned. The Finance Committee shall not have the power to make any expenditures except such as it may deem necessary to incur in connection with its efforts in raising funds. The Finance Committee shall report to the Board of the College at each meeting of the Board and for the purpose of keeping the Executive in close touch with its activities and of enabling the two committees to work in closest cooperation shall transmit to the Executive a copy of the minutes of each of its meetings to be read at the regular meetings of the Executive and shall give account of the progress made by the Finance Committee and generally of its plans for the future. Members of the Finance Committee shall not all necessarily be members of the Board.
ENDOWMENT FUND COMMITTEE, 1918-1926
The Endowment Fund Committee was created by the following resolution:
The Board of Brandon College shall at its Organization Meeting each year appoint an Endowment Fund Committee which shall under the Board manage the Endowment Fund and direct the re-investment of its principal. The Endowment Fund Committee shall consist of not less than three members who shall not all necessarily be members of the Board.
The creation of the latter two committees was significant because it was the first time that Brandon citizens, not necessarily Baptists, were brought into the administration.
HOUSE AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE, 1923-1926
NEW INSTRUCTORS COMMITTEE, 1923-1936
ADVERTISING COMMITTEE, 1923-1936
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE, 1926-1936
TEACHERS COMMITTEE, 1929-1936
GENERAL PUBLICITY COMMITTEE, 1930-1936
By 1936, however, all Committees were abandoned as Brandon College struggled for its financial survival. After the Baptist Convention withdrew all of its support in 1938, a Provisional Board was established through the Brandon Board of Trade to negotiate with the government for the transfer of Brandon College to the Government of Manitoba. The provisional board succeeded in gathering the needed support for government intervention, and resurrected the College under “An Act to Incorporate Brandon College Incorporated.”
The new Board of Directors was appointed October 11, 1939 during a general shareholders meeting. The officers of the Board were a Chairman, a Secretary and a Treasurer. There were also six new standing committees appointed, with mandates listed under clause 16 of by-law 1:
FINANCE COMMITTEE, 1939-1967
... whose duty it shall be to oversee the finances of the Corporation and make recommendations to the Board as to investments of Monies received for endowment or scholarship purposes, and to prepare and submit the annual budget.
PROPERTY COMMITTEE, 1939-1967
... who shall have general supervision of the real and personal property of the Corporation.
ENROLLMENT COMMITTEE, 1939-1967
... whose duty shall be to obtain a student body for the College, to co-operate with the President and Faculty for such purpose and report to the Board as may be required from time to time.
FACULTY COMMITTEE, 1939-1967
... whose duty shall be to make preliminary arrangements for the engagement of teachers and who shall make recommendations to the Board for consideration in the engagement of such teachers.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE, 1939-1967
... whose duty shall be to maintain the membership of the Corporation and see that proper records of the same are maintained.
ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE, 1939-1967
... whose duty shall be to obtain endowments for the future operation of the College and to obtain gifts for scholarship purposes.
In 1942 the Public Relations and Progress Committee was established and a Public Relations Officer was hired. A Consultant Committee was appointed in 1948 with the sole purpose of overseeing the transfer of McKenzie Seeds to the provincial government for financial support through the McKenzie Foundation.
Scope and Content
Series consists mainly of minutes of meetings and correspondence between various Board members and the College. It is a very detailed and descriptive compilation of the decision-making processes at a higher education institution. There are copies of minutes from the Executive Committee in amongst the general Board Minutes. Series also contains a copy of an appraisment of Brandon College Inc. by the General Appraisal Company Ltd. (Vancouver) completed in 1957.
Storage Location
RG 1 Brandon College fonds
Series 1: Board of Directors
Arrangement
Series has been divided into one sub-series: (1) Minutes of General Board Meetings.
File consists of correspondence, minutes, capital and ongoing budgets for the Day Care Centre for Brandon, a presentation for the City Council of Brandon from the Committee for a Day Care Centre for Brandon.
Storage Location
RG 6 Brandon University fonds
Series 4: Office of the Vice-President
4.2 Office of the Vice-President (Administration & Finance)
Box 7
Artifact catalogue containing records from the excavation units 45 to 55 at Lovstrom Block B.
Scope and Content
Spreadsheet containing information about the artifacts recovered, including: unit, level, artifact number, catalogue number, depth, co-ordinates, entry date, date recovered,count, weight, UTM co-ordinates, notes(excavators initials and comments) and artifact identification.
The program for the McKenzie Centennial Exhibit describes the materials in this sub-series as a "visual collection of artifacts, printed materials and photographs, 1883-1996, celebrating the centennial of A.E. McKenzie Co. Inc."
Created by current employees and based on research by Nancy McLennan, Sandra Head and J. Lasby Lowes, the McKenzie Centennial Exhibit opened on April 25, 1996. It remained open to the public on every Thursday between 2 to 4 p.m. to the end of June, 1996. Some of the furnishings used in the display were contributed by the Daly House Museum. Located in the McKenzie Building, the exhibit was assembled along the corridors of the building. It contained a variety of materials, such as invoices, pay envelopes, blueprints, documents, furniture and photographs from the one hundred years of McKenzie Seeds’ history.
Following the close of the exhibit, a smaller permanent installation was to be constructed at the McKenzie Building.
Custodial History
In the course of preparing the exhibit, Nancy McLennan took documents from the collection, but failed to make a record of where the documents came from. As a result, these materials have been left in the Centennial sub-series. It proved impossible to return them to their original place in the fonds.
See fonds level description of custodial history of A. E. McKenzie Seed Co. Ltd.
Scope and Content
This sub-series includes the individual descriptions of each exhibit printed on small white envelopes, a guide to the exhibit, a photograph listing for photos used in the various displays and the 1973 Directory of Canadian Chartered Accountants. The sub-series also includes intact files for exhibits 1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 39 and 40, Wholesale Sales Literature, Steele Briggs Seed Co., Scrimping and Spending Big Time, Seed Wagon, Mostly Catalogue Inserts, Letterhead, and For Your Reading Pleasure, respectively.
In addition, a number of booklets made by the creators of the exhibit are also contained within the sub-series. These booklets are primarily a combination of original and reproduced sales literature and catalogues, but also may or may not contain some correspondence, seed packets, clippings and history for McKenzie Seeds, Pike Seeds/Robertson Seeds, Acquisitions (Steele Briggs, Canada Seeds, Brett-Young Seeds), and McFayden/McConnell.
In addition to the above booklets, there are also materials dealing with the catalogues and sales literature of McKenzie Seed Co. suppliers, such as Bodger Seeds, H. Keft from Holland, the Denholm Seed Company, and the Vis Brothers. A number of documents, programs and booklets relating to the seed industry in general, such as the "Black Leaf" Bulletin and a number of documents relating to agriculture in Manitoba are also included.
Storage Location
RG 3 A.E. McKenzie Company fonds
McS 6 Miscellaneous
Related Material
Photographs from the Centennial Exhibition of McKenzie Seeds can be found in Series 5 (Photographs), sub-series 5.9 (Centennial Photos).