Call Number: Mss 13, Pc 109, Tc 2, Tc 24 (A.80-17, A.86-47, A.14-123)
Title: Margaret Stobie fonds.
Dates: 1912-1981.
Extent: 0.24 m of textual records. -- 3 photographs. -- 103 audio recordings: 88 audio-cassettes, 15 audio reels.
Biographical sketch: Dr. Margaret (Peg) Roseborough was born in Vermillion, Alberta on February 26th, 1909. She received a B.A. from the University of Alberta in 1930. She was awarded an Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.) Overseas Fellowship and did an Honours Degree in English at King's College University of London in 1932. She returned to Canada completing an M.A. in 1934 and a Ph.D. in 1937 at the University of Toronto. The following year, she published An Outline of Middle English Grammar with MacMillan's, and taught at Victoria College. In 1938, she married William Stobie. The couple moved to De Pauw University in Indiana in 1938. From there, they moved to Missouri where Stobie returned to teaching at Christian College, a Women's Institution. William and Margaret Stobie taught at Cornell University for two years from 1944 to 1946 before joining the English department at the University of Manitoba. Stobie was forced to retire from teaching with the inception of the nepotism law in 1950. She spent the next several years acting, producing and directing local theatre, as well as working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in various dramatic roles and as a book reviewer on Critically Speaking. In 1958, she took an appointment at United College but resigned in protest over the dismissal of Harry Crowe at the end of the year. In 1959, she was hired by St. John's College. From 1962 to 1965, she was on the executive of the College's Chapter of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (C.A.U.T.). In 1966, she attained the rank of Full Professor. Two years later, she became a member of Senate and, in 1971, she was appointed to the Research Grants Committee and Research Board. Margaret was the first woman appointed to the academic panel of the Canada Council and was a board member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. She wrote two more books, A Critical Study of Frederick Philip Grove (Twayne Publisher, 1973) and The Other Side of the Rebellion (1986). She was appointed to Professor Emeritus in 1975. Margaret Stobie died July 15, 1990. The University of Manitoba holds a lecture in Dr. Stobie's memory.
Custodial history: The fonds was donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by Margaret Stobie in several accessions between 1978 and 1986, originally as an addition to the Frederick Philip Grove fonds.
Scope and content: The fonds contains research material used in writing her book, Frederick Philip Grove (1973). The fonds includes correspondence, interviews (tapes and typescripts), research notes, and news articles. There are also copies of three articles on the Graphic Press plus a paper on Friedrich Hebbel delivered to the English Club in Simcoe, Ontario (1932). The fifteen tapes are designated TC 2. The fonds gives a glimpse of the rural Manitoba towns in which Frederick Philip Grove lived and taught. The private interviews, although based on somewhat vague recollections, reflect the communities' attitudes and feelings toward Grove, especially those of former students, and show a more personal, intimate aspect of Grove's rather unique character and lifestyle. The photograph collection (PC 109) consists of three photographs of Frederick Philip Grove and Catherine Grove at their homestead in Winkler, Manitoba.
The tape collection (TC 24) consists of a description of Margaret Stobie's linguistic study of the Scots-Cree dialect called Bungi, transcriptions of all tapes as made by the Indian History Film Project, and the spectrograms and analysis of Margaret Stobie's dialectal study, as well as the audio recordings of the interviews conducted with Bungi-speaking Aboriginal Peoples.
Restrictions: Some correspondence is restricted.
Accruals: No further accruals are expected.
Related material: Stobie Family fonds (MSS 159, PC 177), Frederick Philip Grove fonds (MSS 2, PC 2, MF 2, MF 3).
Finding aid: Printed finding aids are available in the Archives reading room and on-line finding aids are available at the links below: