2023 marked 50 years since Nellie’s first opened its doors. Throughout that year, we marked this incredible milestone with stories from 50 years of Nellie’s, including interviews with former board members, volunteers, staff members, and more. We also hired Jennifer Burns, a library and information specialist, to research and archive Nellie’s history.
The project began with a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Nellie’s put together by an unknown Nellie’s staffer. The clippings dated from 1973 to 1987 and were contained in a three-ring photo album. The original plan was for Jennifer to remove the clippings from the album to preserve them individually for posterity, but after reviewing the binder, she soon realized that removing the now old and brittle clippings would likely damage them — so she moved to archiving the entire binder as an artifact.
“The first clippings were from 1973, and then they steadily documented Nellie’s evolution through the 1970s,” explains Jennifer. She worked through reviewing the entire contents of the album, documenting what she found. After the 1970s there started to be more gaps in documentation, so Jennifer completed further research both online and through the City of Toronto archives, to try to fill in those spaces as much as possible.
To Jennifer, there were two parts of the project: the first revolved around the scrapbook, to describe the contents, to create an archival record for it, and to preserve the scrapbook itself. The second part was to tell the history of Nellie’s and recount the main events that happened over its first 50 years. Although Jennifer set out to complete a full 50-year chronicle, she ended up reaching 1992 before her contract ran out. “The first 20 years took up so much time because there was so much that happened at Nellie’s,” explains Jennifer. “Those first 20 years really shaped Nellie’s into what it is today, and I think I’ve filled in a lot of gaps and discovered so much.”
The final version of the archiving project consists of the original photo album of clippings (now housed in an acid-free box to preserve it), PDF copies of the clippings with complete bibliographic information, a PDF of Nellie’s history from 1973 through 1992, and a collection of electronic articles about Nellie’s. The electronic articles were found by Jennifer through her research, and while they mainly cover key events at Nellie’s such as anniversaries and fundraising events, some also help to give the social context of what was going on in Toronto during this time in terms of women’s rights and violence against women. The final version of the archiving project now lives together safely at the Nellie’s offices. For her part, Jennifer would relish the opportunity to continue this project one day. “I think there’s definitely enough material for a book in the story of Nellie’s, or maybe even a documentary,” says Jennifer.
Shortly after completing her archiving contract, Jennifer was hired full-time at Nellie’s as a senior development officer, managing our annual giving campaigns, developing opportunities to support our strategic fundraising priorities, and cultivating partnerships with donors. She says that getting the opportunity to dive deep into Nellie’s history really helped to connect her to the organization’s purpose and mission in a powerful way. “It’s so easy to forget these moments of triumph, and the struggles that led to the triumph, when you’re doing the day-to-day work,” explains Jennifer.
“When you can take a look back at the epic story of the organization, it’s very motivational and inspiring as someone working directly on the mission. But it also helps you share that mission with others and invite them to join you to end oppression and violence and homelessness for women and children in Toronto. That’s where the importance in this project and the power lies — that connection to today.”
Thank you, Jennifer, for your incredible time and effort in chronicling Nellie’s history!