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The University of Winnipeg

Special Collections

Special collections are curated to address a specialized research need and can consist of print or digital materials. They may also include rare or hard-to-find items acquired for a particular area of study, or titles that have been donated by someone with a special connection to the University community. They are often organized outside of the main teaching and research collection for ease of access.

On this page:

Archival Collections

The Archives is the steward of the records of the University of Winnipeg and its founding colleges. It also curates publications and special collections that support the teaching, research, and service mandates of the University and its communities, including:

  • The Two-Spirit Archives
  • BIPOC Collections
  • Women's and Gender Studies Collections
  • Urban Studies and Labour History Collections
  • The Western Canada Pictorial Index
  • Rare Books Room

Visit the Archives website for more information.

Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha Collection

Punjabi Scholar Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha Number of Titles: 99 as of Oct. 2022
Primary Audience: Cultural studies, Religious studies
Location: Atrium, Library 5th Floor
Circulating? Yes

Description: The Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha Collection (BKSNC) was initially established by the Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha Foundation Inc in 2013. This special collection is currently located in the front of the Atrium space on the fifth floor of the Library. This is a core collection for supporting interest in Punjabi culture and Sikh religion, with about a quarter of the works in Punjabi.

Browse the Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha Collection Online

Children's Picture Book Collection

Children's Picture Book PosterNumber of Titles: 4,747 as of Oct 31, 2022
Primary Audience: Education, Cultural Studies, English
Location: Main Stacks, Library 5th Floor
Circulating? Yes

Description: Margaret Graham (1909-1992), the dedicated Associate Librarian who served some 40 years from 1933 to 1971, is said to have voluntarily forfeited her salary during the Depression. She and her mother Edith committed their estates toward the establishment of a trust fund for the purchase of materials in history and literature. This ongoing collection of picture books, founded in 1996, is one of the results. It is non-circulating.

Dramatic Works Collection

Drama PosterNumber of Titles: 8,630 as of Oct 2, 2022
Primary Audience: Theatre, English, and Cultural Studies
Location: Main Stacks, Library 5th Floor
Circulating? Yes

Description: The Dramatic Works Collection contains nearly 10,000 plays that have been collocated for easy access. It includes English and non-English plays by individual playwrights, as well as collected works, general anthologies, and monologues. Although works may contain an introduction or introductory criticism, the work is primarily a dramatic manuscript or play text; criticism or other types of works by the playwright (such as novels, short stories, and poetry) are found elsewhere in our collection. This collection was proposed by the Theatre and Film Studies Department in 2017, and new plays that get added to the collection will be located here.

Does not include plays written by William Shakespeare, TV or movie screen plays, or Classic plays in Greek or Latin.

Browse the Dramatic Works Collection Online

East European Genealogical Society Collection

Orthodox Church PosterNumber of Titles: 351 as of Oct. 2022
Primary Audience: History, European History, Ethnography
Location: Atrium, Library 5th Floor
Circulating? No

Description: This ongoing collection was established in an advantageous agreement struck in 1996 with the East European Genealogical Society, Inc, whereby the University agrees to house all materials and the Society covers cataloguing and housing costs. Not strictly devoted to family history, the collection also contains valuable gazetteers, maps, and monographs relating to Slavic, Baltic, and Germanic history and ethnography.

EEGS sheet maps are held in the University of Winnipeg Geography Library. Contact the Geography Library to arrange a visit.

Browse the East European Genealogical Society Collection Online

Wanka Collection

These items concern the fate of Germans who, after World War II, were expelled from what was known as the Sudetenland, located in the northeast part of Czechoslovakia. For Willi Wanka (1910-1992) the Sudeten question never lost its importance, although he became a Canadian citizen in 1946 and came to regard Canada as his home. The Wanka Collection, donated to the University in 1994, is a valuable source of information on the history of the Sudeten Germans, their activities since World War II, and the issues and controversies which have divided them. It consists of two parts, shelved separately:

 

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