I have always wondered what kinds of archives the U of M has and what archivists do every time I pass by the Archives and Special Collections on the third floor of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library. To find answers, I spoke with Nicole Aminian, the reference and discovery archivist at the university.
Aminian has worked as an archivist at the university since 2018. Her responsibilities include helping students and faculty navigate the collections, as well as engaging with the public.
“I respond to research requests from students on campus, undergrad and graduate, as well as faculty and staff that have either personal or academic interest in the archives, and sometimes I just help them with basic archival research,” said Aminian.
“I also work with the general public, so people — typically locally because we have mostly local records — people looking for genealogical research,” she explained. “I also teach a lot of classes on campus, undergrad and graduate, of how to use the archives, how to do archival research.”
On Jan. 16, Aminian hosted an online session introducing first time researchers to archives. During the session, she explained that archives are typically unpublished, unique and rare records, unlike common published books and journals found in libraries.
One example she shared was a collection of botanical watercolours painted by Arthur Henry Reginald Buller between 1905 and 1920. Buller, one of the university’s six original professors, likely used the paintings during his lectures. The university’s biological laboratories and campus greenhouse are both named after him.
Aminian emphasized that archives are important for preserving history and have the potential to serve new purposes in the future.
“I just think history in general is just so important. Knowing the university’s history, the history of Winnipeg and Manitoba, for students who are not from Winnipeg, I think it’s important. And then people who are from here, it’s always great to see familiar pictures that you may recognize [and] the changes over time,” she said.
“I think too, over time, researcher interests or societal changes reflect changes in kinds of records that come into the archives or records that people are interested in.
“So, a really good example of this is residential school records. When they were being created and kept by archives, people didn’t see how they would be used in the future,” she said. “I think that’s just so important to have the records and the data here for people to use in new and innovative ways that we didn’t see coming when we took them in.”
When asked about her favourite archive, Aminian shared her fondness for Letters from the Front. “It’s a book compiled of letters from students from the Manitoba Agricultural College, which is now the faculty of agriculture. But during World War One, these students wrote letters back to campus about their experience, and the letters are now bound in the rare book room,” she said.
“I just find it such a fascinating glimpse into these students’ experiences so far away from home, kind of missing that student life […] You know, those students lived a completely different life than I did when I was a student. I can’t imagine what they went through, but that’s one of my favourite records.”
One piece of advice Aminian would give to students doing archival research for the first time is to contact an archivist.
“Reach out to an archivist, and we’d be very happy to help you, and you don’t have to struggle alone with trying to search. We can help you find a lot of different records that are not obvious to a researcher and make those connections and help you with other archives too. So, if you can reach out to us at any point in the research […] we’d always be happy to help.”
The next workshop, “Exploring the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections” will take place on Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. on Zoom. Register for free by visiting lib-umanitoba.libcal.com/event/3863351.
