Mapping the Territory: A Guide to the Archival Holdings, Special Collections, University of Calgary Library

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880-1914.

The University of Calgary has become, thanks to its active acquisitions
policy, a popular and profitable place for Canadian researchers. Its
archival collection, as Apollonia Steele points out, was first “put on
the map” when it acquired the Hugh MacLennan papers in 1973. Since
then the manuscripts and personal papers of many other noted Canadian
writers (Earle Birney, Clarke Blaise, Michael Cook, Harold Horwood, Hugh
Hood, Robert Kroetsch, W.O. Mitchell, Brian Moore, Len Peterson, Leon
Rooke, Mordecai Richler, and Rudy Wiebe, among others) have enhanced the
collection and made it indispensable to Canadian scholars. These
holdings, perhaps, are known to many researchers. Less well-known is the
fact that the collection contains similar archival holdings for several
major Canadian composers, including Violet Archer, Al Fisher, and Jean
Anderson-Wuensch. When one considers the many bits of ephemera (a
letter, say, by A.W. Pollard, or the war memorabilia of William Holmes),
one realizes that this is a considerable and valuable collection—one
certainly well worth publicizing in this fastidious and elegant guide.
Nothing complicated; in no way daunting. Just a straightforward,
alphabetical listing by author, with succinct biblio/biographical
information, and an excellent subject index. Exactly as any good guide
should be.