An Inventory of Her Tape Collection at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections

Collection Summary

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Biography of Sheila Rabinovitch

Sheila Rabinovitch attended the University of Manitoba and the University of Toronto. Married with a son and two daughters, she has always been deeply interested in artists and art history in Winnipeg and has been an active supporter of the Winnipeg Art Gallery most of her adult life. She served as chair of the "Winnipeg Show" - one of Canada's largest juried art exhibitions. She has taught painting and other art forms in Winnipeg public schools and was art consultant to the Toronto Dominion Bank for a period of time.

Sheila has also had a life-long interest in writing and broadcasting, working for a period of time with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Fascinated with the history and culture of the Canadian West and of Manitoba particularly, she was awarded first prize by the Media Club of Canada for her free-lance documentary on "Cora Hind--Woman of the West" which was produced and narrated for CBC Radio. Many of her other interviews have also been turned into award-winning broadcast programs including "Ralph Connor--The Man from Glengarry" which was nominated for an Actra Award for documentary excellence. During her career, she produced many documentary profiles of prominent Manitoba personalities which constitute the bulk of the present collection. She produced episodes of series including CBC Tuesday Night, Between Ourselves, Concern Five Nights and This Country in the Morning. She often performed as narrator, reading her own scripts.

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Scope and Contents of the Papers

The Sheila Rabinovitch Tape Collection is the work of one of Winnipeg's better known free lance writer, interviewer and broadcaster. It consists of some 70 interviews and 90 hours of recordings, mostly with Winnipeg residents, conducted between 1970 and 1981. Mrs. Rabinovitch conducted most of these interviews either on her own initiative or by request with the intention of using part or all of them for broadcast on various CBC radio programs of cultural and artistic interest to Canadians. Most of her works were aired on radio. Only three or four of approximately fifteen full-length, completed programs are to be found, however, in their entirety in the collection. The rest are preparatory in nature, offcuts and excerpts of various personalities on a wide range of topics.

As one might expect, there is an uneven quality to the collection. Some of the interviews are the finished product, i.e. comprehensive, insightful, and informative--ready for broadcast. This is particularly so of those on John W. Dafoe, Ralph Connor, John MacAulay, and Judge Lewis St. George Stubbs. Some of these have won awards for their excellence.

Many of the rest tend to be short excerpts, disjointed and relatively undeveloped. The very range of Mrs. Rabinovitch's interests makes for a somewhat eclectic collection, broader than it is deep. All of her own recordings are exceptionally clear and easy to listen to. A few of the early voice recordings of various personalities, however, are hard to hear. Thanks to recently-announced funding from the John W. Dafoe Foundation, many of the tapes of pertaining to John W. Dafoe will soon be transcribed. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the interviews will not be transcribed for the foreseeable future. (At the time of preparing this register, a grant application was being made for funds to transcribe the John W. Dafoe tapes.)

The interviews were originally recorded onto 5" or 7" reel-to-reel tapes. A few were produced on 10" broadcast tapes. The entire collection of these original recordings has been preserved and is listed and described herein under the call # 74A. Most, but not all, of these tapes were duplicated onto cassette tape recordings for ease of use and preservation purposes. Stored separately from the reel-to-reel parent collection, the cassettes are under the call # 74. Each individual interview is described later in this register whether reel-to-reel or cassette. Missing from her original collections are #s 11, 29, 34, 38, 46, 48, 49, 50 and 52.

The collection is a rare and unique oral presentation, if not oral history, of many of the personalities and events that figured prominently in the history of Winnipeg. Since radio stations and broadcast corporations seldom keep such programs for archival purposes, this collection takes on more than passing interest. To a Department that already houses the papers of John W. Dafoe, Ralph Connor (Rev. William Gordon), and Judge Stubbs, the work of Mrs. Rabinovitch takes on special value.

Those interviewed or discussed are, on the whole, prominent western Canadians in the fields of agriculture, literature, journalism, education, the law and, above all, the arts. The development of art, education, journalism, and literature are all well detailed. There is also much of interest here to the student of women's literature and art and of the expanding role of women, generally, in modern Canadian society.

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Organization of the Papers

This collection is organized into 2 series

• Audiocassettes
• Reel-to-Reel Tapes

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Restrictions on Access

There are no restrictions on access to this collection.

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Restrictions on Use

The stipulations laid out in the deed of gift and agreed to between the donor, Sheila Rabinovitch, and the University of Manitoba, are as follows:

1. Access to the collection is to be granted to all who exercise proper care of the material and who abide by departmental restrictions on use. Access may be denied anyone who disregards departmental policies protecting and safeguarding its collections.

2. To the extent possible under law, copyright to the entire collection belongs to the donor or her heirs and assigns. As with all collections, it is the responsibility of the user to abide by all copyright laws and regulations as passed by Parliament from time-to-time.

3. Any excerpts or quotations from the completed programs, unedited tapes, offcuts, scripts and transcripts of the recorded material must not be used without acknowledgement and attribution to the source.

4. The material is not to be used for broadcast without the written consent of the copyright holder and the donor.

5. Unless permission is otherwise granted, for ease of use and to preserve the originals, patrons will have access to the audio cassette recordings rather than to the original reel-to-reel tapes.

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Custodial History

Archives & Special Collections first became interested in the works of Sheila Rabinovitch in the spring of 1987. Thereupon, after several on-site visits and consultations conducted by the Head Archivist, Dr. Richard E. Bennett, her extensive collection of some 70 reel-to-reel tape recordings (approximately 90 hours) of her free-lance interviews (and some completed programs) was transferred to the University of Manitoba in three instalments. The first and by far the largest portion of the collection arrived May 6th of that same year followed by two other, much smaller transfers on May 19th and the 4th of July. The formal deed of gift, which legally transferred ownership of the tapes from the donor to the University, was signed December 21st, 1987.

The collection was then appraised by members of the National Archival Appraisal Board for possible income tax deduction purposes by the donor on 12 January 1988. Two months later, on 30 March 1988, it was certified as Cultural Property ("Gift to Canada") by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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