Head and shoulders image of Nan McKay, assistant librarian, 1915-1959.

Bio/Historical Note: Annie Maude (Nan) McKay was born in 1892 at Fort à la Corne, Northwest Territories, the daughter of Annie Maud Mary Fortescue; her father was Angus McKay, Hudson Bay Company employee, McKay completed high school in Prince Albert and won a scholarship to the University of Saskatchewan, where she took an honours course in English and French. She was awarded a BA in 1915. McKay was active in student affairs, serving on the student council and the executives of the YWCA and Penta Kai Deka, and as the staff artist of The Sheaf. McKay was a member of the women’s hockey team in 1915 and played hockey on university-affiliated teams until well into the 1920s. During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 she worked as a volunteer nurse; her name is painted on the stairwell in the College Building — and she was chosen to unveil the plaque commemorating the undergraduate student who died. Upon graduation in 1915 McKay was hired as assistant librarian of the University Library, and later became the first secretary-treasurer of the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Association (established in 1917). McKay worked at the library for 44 years until her retirement in 1959. McKay died on 27 July 1986 in Saskatoon at age of 93. In 2007 she was chosen one of the University of Saskatchewan’s “100 Alumni of Influence” and was said to be the “first Métis and first Aboriginal woman” to graduate from the University. The holdings of the University of Saskatchewan Archives contain a 1915 photo of McKay shown sharing an embrace and a kiss with a woman named Hope Weir (BA’15) outside a university residence building. The kiss photo was originally found about one-third of the way through a McKay photo album that also included pictures of parties, theatrical performances, camping and other aspects of student life. For a biography on Nan McKay, see: https://library.usask.ca/indigenous/history_essays/nan_mckay.php