Thomas (Tom) Nesmith  

Highlights

Influential archival thinker and educator; helped make ACA’s Archivaria a leading archival journal as both contributor and editor; founding professor of the University of Manitoba archival studies master’s program; participated in establishing the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at University of Manitoba as well as the City of Winnipeg Archives; Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Education and Background 

Born in Greenock, Scotland, Tom Nesmith received both a BA (1974) and an MA (1975) in history from Queen’s University, and a PhD in history from Carleton University (1988). 

Professional Career 

Tom Nesmith began his career in 1978 as an archivist at the Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada), working with both private and government-sector records. He was promoted to become a manager of the Natural Resources Records unity in 1988. In 1990 Nesmith left to become the founding professor of the University of Manitoba’s master’s program in archival studies in the Department of History. He continued in this position until 2018, also serving as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts for three years (2001-2004). His leadership of the second degree-granting archival studies program in English Canada solidified acceptance of the idea of graduate archival studies as the foundation of the archival profession’s entry-level practitioners. Nesmith retired in 2018, but continued his association with the University of Manitoba as Professor Emeritus. 

Contributions to the Profession 

Tom Nesmith has made significant contributions to the archival community through his service on the ACA Education Committee, where the successful ACA Institutes were his vision and creation, and on several ACA Conference Program Committees. Most notably, he made significant contributions to ACA’s journal Archivaria, serving multiple terms on the Archivaria Editorial Editorial Board, as Senior Associate Editor, and as General Editor (1984-1986). In addition, he authored numerous Archivaria articles, receiving the W. Kaye Lamb Prize and the Hugh A. Taylor Prize for two of them. Nesmith also had a leading role in establishing the City of Winnipeg Archives, as a member of the Winnipeg City Records Committee (1997-2008), and then in persuading the City of Winnipeg to repair the archives’ building after a 2013 flood that forced the relocation of the archives to a remote warehouse. He served for almost as long on the Saskatchewan Archives Board (2000-09). When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established as part of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, Nesmith was instrumental in bringing its archives to University of Manitoba in the now National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. It opened there in 2015. 

Tom Nesmith has received international recognition for his scholarly writings on archival theory and concepts. His writing has focused on re-conceptualizing provenance, offering a richer and deeper sense of the contextuality surrounding records, their creators, their activities, and their uses. During his career, Nesmith addressed three fundamental challenges to the traditional archival paradigm: postmodernism and the impact of critical theory on archival studies; digital technology and all it empowers and signifies; and historical analysis of “archives” as records, as institutions, as profession, and as societal activity. 

Honours, Awards and Recognition 

• ACA Fellow, 2010 
• Royal Society of Canada Fellow, 2020 
• Association for Manitoba Archives lifetime service award, 2017  
• University of Manitoba outstanding achievement award, 2010 
• Association of Canadian Archivists, Larry Dohey Award, co-recipient, 2023 
• Archivaria, W. Kaye Lamb Prize, 2005  
• Archivaria, Hugh A Taylor Prize, 2016 

 Further Information 

• Jimerson, Randall C. “Tom Nesmith.” In The Encyclopedia of Archival Writers, 1515-2015.Editedby Luciana Duranti and Patricia C. Franks. Lanham, ML: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015.  
• University of Manitoba, Tom Nesmith entry in the faculty webpage: https://umanitoba.ca/arts/tom-nesmith  

Photo source: https://umanitoba.ca/arts/tom-nesmith   

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