In late 2019, we acquired a major collection relating to the history of Canadian sport that was generously donated by Calgarian Bob Blaine after 40 years of collecting. The Blaine Canadian Sports History Collection documents the history of professional, amateur, and varsity sport in Canada, specifically hockey, football, baseball, golf, and rodeo. It contains over 6000 items from the period 1906-2019 including: game programs, photographs, trading cards, tickets, sports magazines, and promotional objects like pins, patches, and pennants.
Several classes have already made use of this fantastic new resource; Health and Physical Education 1010 students analyzed the representation of Indigenous peoples in 1950/60s Calgary Stampede programs, and History 3357 students used the advertisements in programs and magazines as primary sources for a creative assignment on the history of consumer culture.
Like all our holdings, the Blaine Collection is accessible to the public in our reading room when we are able to reopen after pandemic restrictions are eased. For more about this extraordinary collection, please see this story or browse/search the finding aid.
Image: Donor Bob Blaine and Archivist Peter Houston examine the Blaine Collection, February 2020. Photo by MRU Marketing and Communications.
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