Have you ever wanted to hear from accomplished writers who have visited Humber College throughout the years such as Carol Shields, Timothy Findlay and others?

Now you can, with a visit to Humber’s Archives.

The Archives recently repatriated a collection of archival material from the University of Toronto Archives, which had collected the material between 2013 and 2017 from Antanas Sileika, an author and instructor for 35 years at the Humber School for Writers.

At that point, Humber lacked the facilities to care for its historical treasures, a trend which has been reversed with the recent creation of an official archive.

Humber Archivist John Yolkowski said those with the University of Toronto Archives were excited to see this material returned to Humber.

Since the material arrived in May, the Archives team has been busy adding it to its collection.

In order to preserve and showcase the collection, the team digitized 77 photographs, brochures and other materials from the collection. It’s a wealth of material that documents many of the writers who have visited Humber over the years.  

Also, the Archives have started to digitize the 78 videocassettes in the collection, a project it aims to finish in early 2023.

After checking out some of the materials the Archives have online, the Humber community is  encouraged to stop by the Archives (located in the North Campus library on the fourth floor of the Learning Resource Commons building) where they can access the entire collection, read Carol Shields’ 1995 lecture to students or check out an amusing anecdote from Timothy Findlay about Margaret Lawrence and a neurosurgeon.  

But, most of all, it’s a chance to see a cultural treasure that has come home to Humber.

For more information about exploring this collection or the Humber Archives in general, reach out to John Yolkowski at archives@humber.ca.