University of Guelph Library
Lynn Ridley (in honour of Glenn MacGregor)
A U of G donor chose to honour the rural roots of her late uncle Glenn MacGregor by helping expand the collection of rural heritage materials in the Library's archives.
Lynn Ridley made a $10,000 gift to the Library from an inheritance she received upon the death of her uncle in 2004. MacGregor spent most of his life on a farm in Morewood, southeast of Ottawa, where he served on the local municipal council and wrote local history.
The donation paid for a summer student to finish cataloguing almost 2,500 International Harvester photos, making them available to users of the Library's extensive rural heritage collection.
Many of the photos depict farm equipment and machinery made by International Harvester. The collection also includes photos of the firm's dealerships across Canada and of customers using its products in their farms, gardens and homes during the first half of the 20th century.
The library obtained the photo collection from the archives of the former Ontario Agricultural Museum in 1999, two years after the museum closed in Milton.
With this and similar material in the Massey-Harris-Ferguson Collection, "we will attract many more researchers from across Canada," says Lorne Bruce, head of Archival and Special Collections. "It's wonderful that we can build a tremendous national resource and digitize images for the public to use."
Recalling the summers of her youth spent on MacGregor's farm, Ridley said the donation was a fitting memorial: "It seemed like the appropriate thing to do for my uncle."