Call Number: Mss 151, Pc 158, Tc 103 (A.02-31, A.03-61, A.06-43)

Title: Colleen Helgason Nelson fonds.

Dates: 1932-1996.

Extent: 2.12 m of textual records.-- 257 photographs.--2 collages.--16 negatives color separations.-- 11 audio reels.

Biographical sketch: Colleen Helgason Nelson was born on 30 September 1932 in Bismarck, North Dakota. She entered the University of Minnesota in 1950, graduating summa with a BA in Music (piano) in 1955. The previous year she married Carl Robert Nelson an architect, the couple would have seven children together. After spending a year in Rome, where her husband studied as a Fulbright Scholar, Nelson entered graduate school at the University of Illinois in 1957. She graduated in 1961 with an MSc, her thesis was titled: "Six Sparrows of the Northern Great Plains: Descriptive Ecology." While a graduate student she produced an exhibit for the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis. In 1962 she began research on downy waterfowl at the Delta Waterfowl Research Station, at Delta, Manitoba. The following year she continued her research at the Round Lake Waterfowl Station, in Minnesota. The following year she immigrated to Canada, where her husband took a position with the University of Manitoba. In 1967 she started doing museum and library on downy waterfowl at the Museum of Man and Nature and at a studio-laboratory at home. In the next twenty years she mounted over a dozen exhibitions and wrote several articles on waterfowl. In 1977 she was named a research associate at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature. In 1981 she was named a research associate of National Museum of National Sciences in Ottawa. In 1993 the results of her thirty years of research where published in Downy Waterfowl of North America, by Delta Station Press.

Custodial history: The material was donated to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by Colleen Helgason Nelson in 2002, 2003, and 2006.

Scope and content: The fonds is divided into four series. They include: biographical information, Nelson's articles, research material for Downy Waterfowl of North America and Nelson's research index cards.

Restrictions: There are no restrictions on access to this material.

Accruals: Further accruals to this fonds are expected.

Finding aid: A printed finding aid is available in the Archives reading room and an electronic finding aid is available at the link below: