This collection contains material obtained by the Committee on Historical Records, established at the University in the early 1940's to obtain historical documents and reminiscences from individuals throughout the province. Although many responses are brief and contain only suggested names of people to be contacted, some replies provide detailed accounts of early settlement and community development. The fonds also contains brief family histories from a class in 1943.

This fonds consists of records of the Joseph Hinde and Henry Wake families, members of an English Quaker community in Birmingham who immigrated to Canada in 1912. The records reflect their daily lives and the operation of the Hinde family's Valley Springs Ranch near Borden, Saskatchewan. Materials relating to the Horn family farm at Spring Valley Saskatchewan during the Depression comprise the second series of records in this fonds. The types of records included are diaries, correspondence, photographs, financial records, publications, artifacts and clippings.

This diary spans four eventful years of Ms. Priest’s life, touching on her activities as a teacher, her wedding, holiday trips to England and Wales, and early years homesteading in Canada. Personal and philosophical thoughts are also explored within the diary. Many flowers pressed in diary.