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Creator
Winks, Robin W.
Call number
Sc Micro R-5857
Physical description
8.25 linear feet (12 reels, 18 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Blacks in Canada : Robin W. Winks collection, Sc Micro R-5857, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Robin W. Winks, a professor of history at Yale University, wrote The Blacks in Canada: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971). This collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials related to the book, and other articles concerning the history of Blacks in Canada.

Biographical/historical information

Robin W. Winks, a professor of history at Yale University during the major part of his research for The Blacks in Canada: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971) received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1957. His career was spent, for the most part, at Yale University, beginning as an instructor in 1957, through his appointment in 1977 as Master of Berkeley College at Yale. Additionally, Winks was a visiting professor at the University of Malaya (1962-1963) and the University of Sidney (1963), and he was a State Department lecturer in the Middle East (1966) and West Africa (1972). He conducted research in a number of areas besides race relations, including Canadian-American diplomatic and cultural relations, and the role of Australia, New Zealand, and Britain in the Pacific. Among his publications are Failed Federations: Decolonization and the British Empire (1970), Myth of the American Frontier (1971), and The Relevance of Canadian History (1978). He died in 2003.

Scope and arrangement

The Blacks in Canada collection includes the typescript for The Blacks in Canada: A History and two articles on the subject by Winks, "Canadian-West Indian Union: A Forty-Year Minuet" and "The Canadian Negro: An Historical Assessment", both published by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London.

The collection also consists of correspondence and research materials related to the book, and other articles concerning the history of Blacks in Canada.

The Blacks in Canada : Robin W. Winks collection is arranged in three series:

  • Correspondence
    1956-1972, undated

    The letters pertain to Winks' research for, and the pre-and post-publication reaction to The Blacks in Canada. Included in the latter category are letters from historian, John Hope Franklin, and sociologist, Harold Potter.

  • Writings
    1964-1972

    Series consist primarily of the various typed drafts of The Blacks In Canada. In some cases the first typed draft was readily identifiable and was so labeled. Typescripts of additional writings by Winks on the historical presence of Blacks in Canada are also included in this series, as is a mock-up for Slavery: A Comparative Perspective: Readings On Slavery From Ancient Times To The Present (New York University Press, 1972), a work edited by Winks.

  • Research File
    1797-1969

Administrative information

Custodial history

Although Dr. Winks deposited the major portion of his research materials for Blacks in Canada at the Schomburg Center, he retained most of his notes on post-1960 events, the data from the Toronto office of the Human Rights Commission, and virtually all of the materials given to him by, or transcribed from the records of, the Montreal Office of the Canadian Labour Congress' Joint Advisory Committee on Human Relations, due to references to persons still living. Additionally, Winks did not include in his gift to the Schomburg many articles from the standard and readily available journals or copies of secondary sources and primary accounts which appeared in book form.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Robin W. Winks, 1977 and 1985.

Revision History

Finding aid updated by Lauren Stark. (2021 May 7)

Processing information

Processed by Diana Lachatanere, 1982-1985.

Separated material

The item (s) listed below have been sent to the division indicated.

Schomburg Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division:

One tape recording of program titled, "The Negro in Canada" with Robin W. Winks, for the series at WRVR, "United States and Canada".

Schomburg Photographs and Print Division:

1 Photograph of Old Bog School, Charlottetown Island (erected 1868, used until 1898) and 6 Photographs of Blacks in Canada.

Related Material

Blacks in Canada : Robin W. Winks collection (additions), Sc MG 761, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor

Access restrictions

Researchers are restricted to using the microfilm copies.