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The Archives of United Grain Growers Ltd.

Preface to the Collection

On 17 October 1877, the first shipment of western Canadian wheat destined for an overseas market left Winnipeg by flatboat up the Red River. Precisely one hundred and thirteen years later on 17 October 1990, the United Grain Growers Limited, headquartered in Winnipeg, donated its corporate archives of valuable historical material to the University of Manitoba. Established in 1906 at Sintaluta, Saskatchewan as the Grain Growers Grain Company Limited, the company amalgamated with the Alberta Co-operative Elevator Company Limited in 1917 to form the United Grain Growers Limited. Owned and directed by western farmers, the "UGG" operates hundreds of country elevators throughout the prairie west, maintains grain terminals at the Lakehead and on the west coast, buys and ships farmers' grain, and produces chemicals, fertilizers, seed and other agricultural products and services. United Grain Growers has published various farm-oriented magazines, the most notable of which are the Country Guide and the Canadian Cattlemen.

Now housed and preserved in the Department of Archives and Special Collections on the third floor of the Dafoe Library, the UGG collection is an historical treasure of minute books, correspondence, internal studies and reports, rare and unique pamphlets and other publications on the farmer and the grain trade, a full run of the information-laden Country Guide beginning in 1909, a wide range of photographs and much more. A late added feature, commissioned by the company for its 75th anniversary, is a collection of almost three hundred histories of UGG locals in towns and cities throughout the four western provinces. The collection is open to responsible research and inquiry.

This finding aid is designed to accommodate future accessions of incoming archival material. Additional sheets describing new materials will be prepared, as needed, for insertion in the appropriate section.

Jeffrey M. Long processed the collection according to high archival standards and prepared this excellent research tool. He is to be commended for his fine efforts.

The University of Manitoba wishes to express its thanks to the United Grain Growers Limited for entrusting its valuable archives with the university. It has already become a foundation to the efforts to establish a fine, new research facility--"The Archives of the Agricultural Experience."

Richard E. Bennett, Head
Department of Archives and
Special Collections
October 1992