The little that is known about the original owners of the two albums that make up this collection has been discerned from the album contents. Both of the albums document a period of five to ten years in the life of an unmarried young woman. The older album, dating from ca.1905 - 1915, appears to have belonged to a young woman who attended high school in the vicinity of St.Boniface Cathedral. There are no captions and none of the subjects is identified although there are several shots of what appears to be groups of school friends. The other album dates from ca.1934 -1940 and captions indicate that the young woman creator of the album was a 'Corrigan''who is pictured on several occasions with a couple identified as 'father' and 'mother'.

Hugh Jeffery Gray Allan was born on May 14, 1917 in Cypress River, Manitoba. The Allan family moved frequently when Allan was a child, but he spent most of his adult life in Winnipeg. Allan was a well-respected photographer whose work has been displayed in many publications including: The Winnipeg Tribune, Time magazine, Swedish Press International, Maclean's magazine, and Sports Illustrated. Allan attended Gordon Bell High School and designed the school's crest. In 1947 while Allan was working at the Swift's Plant in St. Boniface, Harold Plant and Art Smales, Swift's news correspondents, knew of Allan's work as an amateur photographer and thought he would be the ideal for taking pictures for the Swift's newspaper. Allan used this as an opportunity to improve his technique and to produce better quality photographs. Over the next few years, Allan began to establish himself as a high quality photographer within the Winnipeg region. Allan was one of the first photographers to perfect the panoramic shot and to use bouncing light to conquer harsh shadows. Allan's big break happened during, the 1950 Manitoba flood disaster where the Winnipeg Tribune hired him to help their photo staff cover the flood. By October 1950, the Winnipeg Tribune hired him as a full time staff photographer. Allan became a well-respected photographer within the Tribune for over twenty years but decided to leave and form his own free lance business in 1970. During Allan's long career, he had the opportunity to cover many exciting events, sports and people such as: the Winnipeg Centennial celebrations, royal visits, the last steam locomotive passenger train, John F. Kennedy in Grand Forks, ND, the 1967 Pan Am games, the Bobby Hull signing at Portage and Main, the Winnipeg Jets, the Blue Bombers, the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series, and visits to Winnipeg by Gypsy Rose Lee, Harry Belafonte, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Gordie Howe and many more.</p>
Allan's love of sports was evident by his participation and his photographic coverage of sports. Allan especially enjoyed golf and curling. Allan was a founding member of the Grey Owl Tournament and was five times skip champion at the newsmen bonspiel tournament. Allan was also one of eight media journalists to begin the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, (M.S.S.A.) and in 1956, they inaugurated the annual dinner and awards ceremony for Manitoba Athlete of the Year. Allan covered many sport including golf, curling, the Blue Bombers, the Winnipeg Jets, and M.S.S.A atheles of the year.
Allan accumulated awards and honours based on hi swork and contributions to photojournalism which include: the Floyd Davis Memorial Award for substantially contributing to the preservation of the bonspiel (1973), he was inducted to the Media Roll of Honour from the M.S.S.A. (1989), and he was inducted to the Winnipeg Blue Bomber Media Roll of Honour (2002). Hugh Allan passed away on May 30th, 2004.

Allen Mills was born in 1945. His academic achievements include graduating with Honours from Trinity College at Dublin University in 1967; receiving an MA from York University in Toronto in 1968; and earning a PhD from University of Western Ontario in 1976. Mills has written articles focusing on Canadian Socialism, the Canadian Forum, early Winnipeg Radicalism, J.S. Woodsworth, Frank Scott, Ernest Gellner, and media in post-Communist Czechoslovakia. He was a visiting fellow at Edinburgh University in 1992 and that same year was a visiting lecturer at Charles University of Prague.

From 1971 until his retirement in 2018, Mills taught Political Science at the University of Winnipeg, where he was head of the department from 2000-2005 and from 2014-2016. For his long and distinguished career, Mills was awarded the title of Senior Scholar. An accomplished academic author, his publications include Fool For Christ: The Political Thought of J.S. Woodsworth in 1991 by the University of Toronto Press, and Citizen Trudeau: An Intellectual Biography 1944-1965 in 2016 by Oxford University Press. He was also the editor of the government and politics entries for the Encyclopedia of Manitoba from 2004 to 2007, which was published in November 2007. His research interests include Canadian politics, Canadian socialism and liberalism, eastern Europe and the thought of Trudeau, Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka.

Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame & Museum Honoured Member 1994, Builder in Disabled Skiing. Founding member of the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiers, involved with the Canadian Federation of Sport Organizations, volunteer with the 2nd Winter Olympic Games for the Disables in Geilo, Norway, and Chef de Mission at the 3rd Games in Innsburck, Austria, member of the Order of Canada in 1986, and president of the Manitoba Ski Club in teh 1950s.

Frank Allen was born in Meductic, New Brunswick in 1874. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1902 and joined the University of Manitoba as Professor of Physics in 1904. He was one of the original six professors at the University of Manitoba. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1909. Allen was awarded an L.L.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1924 and from the University of New Brunswick in 1944. In 1944 he retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of Manitoba. During his esteemed career, he published sixty articles and two critically acclaimed books.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1904, Lillian Allen was the only daughter of Sarah Estelle ("Sadie") Harper and Frank Allen (1874-1965), who was the first Professor of Physics at the University of Manitoba. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba in 1926 and her Master of Science degree from Syracuse University in 1947. Allen began teaching in the Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics of the University of Manitoba in 1934 and retired as Associate Professor in 1971. Her professional interest pertained to art in relation to daily living and the beauty of natural structure. After retirement she furthered her reputation as a nature photographer.

Education: BA1924, MD(Man)1929, LMCC1929, MRCP(Lond)1931, FACP1949, FRCP(C)

Positions: Unknown

Education: MD(Man)1937

Positions: Unkown

Alma United Church existed in the Manitoba community of Alma, in the Rural Municipality of Strathcona, from 1925 to 1960. It was previously a Presbyterian congregation with services held in the local schoolhouse. Alma United Church was linked with Belmont beginning at Union in 1925 with Rev. H. Wallace presiding, and was later joined by Hilton. Services were discontinued in 1960, and it no longer appears in the records after 1968. It is presumed that the congregation transferred its membership tothe Belmont United Church. The Alma United Church Women continued, however, as a branch of Belmont United church until the 1970s.