News

History at a mouse click

By Alex Frazer-Harrison

The complete history of the University of Calgary will soon be a mouse-click away.

The University Archives has embarked on a 40 th anniversary project to create two web-based exhibits on the background of the U of C — not only since 1966, but going back more than a century.

“Most people are focusing on the history of the U of C since autonomy — 1966 to 2006 — but we realized there was a need to recognize the fact that the university had a history far before 1966,” says Archival Program manager Lisa Atkinson. “The university didn’t just get dropped onto the prairie one day from on high.”

The first exhibit will provide a detailed, year-by-year history of the U of C since it was granted autonomy.

“We started working on this a couple of years ago,” says Atkinson. “We started with the 1966-2006 period, looking at noteworthy events in each of the 40 years, not just on campus but around the world. We want to put the events on campus into a wider context — such as what books won the Pulitzer Prize, or what music people listened to at that time.”

Plans include the creation of a searchable database for this information.

The second exhibit looks at the “prehistory” of the U of C, dating back to 1905.

“We’ve digitized a couple of thousand pages of material, including the yearbooks of the Calgary Normal School, and records pertaining to the first U of C (also known as Calgary College) that existed between 1912 and 1915,” says Atkinson, who adds that people are often surprised to discover there was a university here 50 years before 1966.

“It was an attempt by a small group in Calgary to establish a university. It failed because the provincial government refused to give it the authority to grant degrees.”

Atkinson says she hopes the web exhibits will raise awareness of the early history of the university, not only among staff and current students, but prospective students as well. “This is not as young an institution as it appears to be,” she says. “It comes out of a long tradition of education in Alberta.”

Another objective of the project is to raise awareness of the University Archives itself. “Collecting photos and yearbooks is only a small part of what we do,” Atkinson says. “We are the repository for all records of permanent value created on campus, and are responsible for records management, creating retention rules and for assisting the university in being accountable to the public for its actions and decisions.”

The Archives also has an important and growing collection of private records connected to Western Canadian-based political parties such as the Western Canada Concept and the Reform Party. “The records we’re collecting enable researchers to explore Western Canadian political attitudes,” says Atkinson.

The exhibits are expected to be online later this year. The Archives also offers a selection of anniversary-related research resources at www.ucalgary.ca/celebrate40/archives.html.