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This fonds documents the administrative and teaching duties of Robert Spencer, as a Professor Emeritus of History and a specialist in European history, especially German history in the 19th and 20th centuries. They also document his education and his participation in World War II; his extensive international research, publications and speaking engagements; as well as his involvement with professional associations and organizations such as the University of Toronto Contingent, Canadian Officers Training Corps (COTC), the International Studies Programme and the Graduate Centre for International Studies, Altantik-Brücke, and the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). Included is personal correspondence, correspondence with international organizations, government departments, embassies and consulates; lecture notes; manuscripts and addresses.

Also present are two sous-fonds. The first is the personal papers of his wife, Ruth Margaret Church Spencer, who served with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRENS) during World War II as a base librarian and afterwards as the first professional librarian at Canada House in London. The second consists of files compiled by Ralph Flenley, a specialist in German history and sometime chair of the Department of History: examination questions, student mark books, and drafts of an unpublished manuscript on Anglo-German relations.

This fonds consists of five accessions, described below:

B1972-0020

Correspondence, minutes, memoranda, notes, reports, and press clippings documenting the activities of the Faculty of Arts and Science Constituency of the President's Council of the University of Toronto, as assembled by Professor Robert Spencer while a member of the Council. In addition to Council minutes and related material, there are files on several presidential advisory committees, the Advisory Planning Committee of the Board of Govemors, the University's Master Plan, the School of Hygiene, tenure (Haist Committee), and the Council's Sub-committee on Resource Planning. Included is material documenting the participation of professors C. B. Macpherson and J. B. Conacher.

B1977-0010

Correspondence, memoranda, briefs, minutes, posters, architectural plans, maps, and press clippings documenting Spencer's role in various University administrative bodies including: the Board of Governors Property Committee, 1969 – 1972; the Program Committee of the Commission on University Government, 1969 – 1970; the President's Council, 1969 – 1970; the Committee on Accommodations and Facilities, 1969 – 1972; the Capital Planning Committee, 1971; the Sigmund Samuel Renovation Committee, 1972; Faculty of Arts and Science Library Committee 1967 – 1969; and the Library Council Executive Committee 1965 – 1969. Also includes records of committees relating to stack access issue to the new Robarts Library (the Heyworth Committee), 1971 – 1972, and to the use of the Sigmund Samuel Library 1970 – 1972.

B2010-0024

Personal records of Robert Spencer, Professor Emeritus of History and a specialist in European history (19th and 20th centuries) that document his administrative and teaching duties at the University of Toronto, his research, writings and editing, and addresses, and his involvement with professional associations and organizations such as the COTC (University of Toronto), and the U of T International Studies Programmes, Atlantik-Bruecke, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), the federal government, and German diplomatic bodies and institutions.

B2013-0005

Further personal records of Robert Spencer, Professor Emeritus of History, documenting his education, his military service during World War II; his post-war studies at Trinity College and the University of Oxford; his administrative duties at the University of Toronto, his editorial work, his extensive travels as a researcher and speaker, and his writings, including the history of U of T Contingent, Canadian Officers’ Training Corps (COTC) project.

Also present are two sous-fonds. The first is the personal papers of his wife, Ruth Margaret Church Spencer who served with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRENS) during World War II as a base librarian and afterwards as the first professional librarian at Canada House in London. Includes correspondence, certificates, addresses, diaries, photographs, reports, maps, interviews, and memorabilia. The second consists of files compiled by Ralph Flenley, Professor Emeritus of History: examination questions, student mark books, and drafts of an unpublished manuscript on Anglo-German relations.

The arrangement of this accession closely follows the file listing provided by Professor Spencer, with some rearrangement and addition of information, as deemed necessary.

B2022-0014

This accession includes a Challenge Coin created for Robert Spencer’s 100th birthday and a note that describes its iconography.

This series documents Professor Spencer’s travels, both for pleasure and for academic and other professional purposes. The first of his trips documented here is to New York City in 1946; the last is to Europe in 2011.

The files contain an assortment of flight information, correspondence, itineraries, invitations, notes, postcards, diaries and reports (indicated below where they exist), programmes for a wide variety of events, menus, tickets, passenger lists, booklets, maps, photographs, press clippings, and other memorabilia. The arrangement is chronological by trip. Beginning in April, 1977 and continuing while he was director until his retirement in 1986, a lot of Professor Spencer’s travel was done as an extension of the work of the Centre for International Studies. For the first of these trips, he wrote a detailed report of his activities. The often extensive correspondence in these files ranges from that with Canadian government, consular, and military officials to military officials at NATO and elsewhere in Europe and England, to academic and government personnel in Western Europe. Included are files on Professor Spencer’s involvement with the Atlantic Council of Canada, the Committee on Atlantic Studies, and the Canadian Studies Association.

Some of the folders in this series contain correspondence, postcards, reports, and other items that are well outside the dates of the activities being described.

The photoprints, postcards, and artifacts (pin buttons) have been retained in the relevant files. Files containing receipts only (such as transportation, car rentals, luggage, and accommodation) were not kept and the retention of such material in other files is selective. Fax paper, where present, has been photocopied and the original faxes, most of which had deteriorated badly, have been destroyed.

Additional information about some of these trips can be found in Series 7: Correspondence.