Shirley Spragge

Shirley Spragge (July 27, 1929 – August 11, 1995) was a Canadian archivist and academic who served as the head of the Queen's University Archives from 1992 to 1994.

Shirley Spragge
Born	Shirley Campbell Cox[1] (1929-07-22)July 22, 1929 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	August 11, 1995(1995-08-11) (aged 66)
Academic background
Education	University of Toronto Queen's University
Thesis	Organizing the Wilderness: A Study of a Loyalist Settlement, Augusta Township, Grenville, 1784-1814 (1986[2])

Early life and education

Spragge was born July 22, 1929, in Toronto, Ontario.^[2] She completed a degree in history at the University of Toronto in 1952.^[2] While there she was a member of various clubs including modern history, music and athletics.^[3]: 312 After studying archives administration at Public Archives of Canada, she completed an MA in history at Queen's University in 1974.^[2] Spragge obtained her PhD at Queen's in 1986.^[2]

Career

Spragge worked at the Cornell University Archives in the 1970s.^[2] She joined the Queen's University Archives in 1979, where she worked while completing her PhD.^[4] She was named Queen's University Archivist in 1992, succeeding Anne MacDermaid.^[4]

In addition to her roles at Queen's Spragge served as the diocesan archivist for the Diocese of Ontario of the Anglican Church.^[4][5] She was the Book Review Editor of Archivaria from 1993 to 1995.^[2]

Personal life

Spragge married Godfrey Spragge in November 1953 in Toronto.^[1] Together they had two children.^[5] Her father-in-law, George Warburton Spragge, was the Archivist of Ontario from 1950 to 1963.^[6]

Spragge died August 11, 1995, in Kingston.^[5]

Legacy

In 1998 the Archives Association of Ontario established the Shirley Spragge Fund to support educational pursuits in the archival profession.^[7] Restructured and renamed in 2014, the Shirley Spragge Bursary is awarded annually to assist a successful applicant with annual AAO conference attendance costs.^[7]

Select publications

• Spragge, Shirley (23 October 1995). "The Abdication Crisis: Are Archivists Giving Up Their Cultural Responsibility?". Archivaria: 173–181. ISSN 1923-6409.
• Spragge, Shirley (1 January 1990). ""One Parchment Book at the Charge of the Parish…": A Sample of Anglican Record Keeping". Archivaria. 30. ISSN 1923-6409.
• Spragge, Shirley (1 January 1985). "The "Good Americans" Two Hundred Years Later". Archivaria. 21: 191–197. ISSN 1923-6409.