Historical Unsung Heroes: McGill Bicentennial Celebrations

McGill Employees from the Past: Community Builders for McGill and Beyond

This exhibit was created by Adjunct Professor Gordon Burr with the aid of three talented Archival Outreach practicum students in the School of Information Studies, Gabrielle Machnick-Kekesi, Kiana Lemay and Julia Fekete. Their hard work, enthusiasm shown to help engage the public with archives and desire to provide narratives of these employees to fill the gaps or address the silences in historical acknowledgement of this McGill community was remarkable.

The exhibit’s title refers to the fact that McGill employees often toil behind the scenes but are the backbone of the success of the institution and can have an impact as community leaders outside of the University milieu as well.

Of note was the role that McGill employees played in creating memories for marginalised communities, for example, Roy Sates in the black community through a library and as an activist historian, Jackie Hayami-Stevens for Japanese Canadians through a local community archives and Idola St. Jean through the advancement of women’s rights in Quebec.

See https://200.mcgill.ca/staff-recognition/historical-unsung-heroes/ to learn more.