{{Short description|Canadian historian (1922–1986)}} {{Infobox person |name = Phyllis Blakeley |honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|size=100%}} |image = |alt = |caption = |birth_name = Phyllis Ruth Blakeley |birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|8|2|df=y}} |birth_place = Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |death_date = {{Death date and age|1986|10|25|1922|8|2|df=y}} |death_place = Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |other_names = |known_for = |occupation = {{hlist|Historian|archivist}} |awards = Member of the Order of Canada | module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office = Provincial Archivist of Nova Scotia | order = | term_start = 1982 | term_end = 1985 | predecessor = Hugh Taylor | successor = Carman V. Carroll }} }} '''Phyllis Ruth Blakeley''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM}} (2 August 1922{{spnd}}25 October 1986) was a Canadian historian, biographer and archivist who served as the Provincial Archivist of Nova Scotia from 1982 to 1985.
==Biography== Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Blakeley received a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Bachelor of Education degree, and a Master of Arts degree from Dalhousie University. In 1945, she became a research assistant at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. She became assistant archivist in 1959 and associate archivist in 1977. In 1982, she was appointed as the provincial archivist for Nova Scotia and was the first woman to hold that position. She retired in 1985.<ref name="Archivaria">{{cite web|last=Kernaghan|first=Lois|url=https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/11407/12348|work=Archivaria|format=PDF|title=Phyllis Ruth Blakeley, 1922-1986|publisher=Association of Canadian Archivists}}</ref>
Her publications include ''Glimpses of Halifax'' (1949),'' Nova Scotia - A Brief History'' (1956), ''The Story of Prince Edward Island'' (1963), and ''Nova Scotia's Two Remarkable Giants: Angus McAskill and Anna Swan'' (1970). She was also a contributor to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, having contributed 31 historical biographies.<ref name="Archivaria"/>
In 1978, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada for having "served her province [Nova Scotia] for well over thirty years" and for "devoting herself particularly to the preservation of its cultural heritage".<ref>{{OCC|1839}}</ref> She received a Doctor of Law degree from Dalhousie University in 1977 and a Doctor of Letters from St. Mary's University in 1983. In 1979, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society.<ref name="Archivaria"/>
Blakeley died in Halifax on 25 October 1986.<ref name="Archivaria"/>
== Legacy == In 1988, the Council of Nova Scotia Archives established the Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for Archival Excellence as a memorial to her contributions to the field and in recognition of current outstanding efforts in the profession. The award is granted to member institutions and organizations in good standing with the Council of Nova Scotia Archives.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.councilofnsarchives.ca/node/212|title=Dr. Phyllis R. Blakeley Award for Archival Excellence. Council of Nova Scotia Archives|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=|access-date=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910214652/http://www.councilofnsarchives.ca/node/212|archive-date=2016-09-10|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last=McKay |first=Ian |author-link=Ian McKay (historian) |date=2020 |title=Race, White Settler Liberalism, and the Nova Scotia Archives, 1931-1976 |journal=Acadiensis |volume=49 |issue=2 |publisher=University of New Brunswick |pages=5-33 |doi= |jstor=26974497}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Milner |editor-first=Philip |date=1979 |title=Nova Scotia Writes: A Descriptive Listing of Contemporary Nova Scotia Writers |url=https://archive.org/details/novascotiawrites0000unse/ |url-access=registration |page=26 |location=Antigonish, N.S. |publisher=Formac Publishing Company |isbn=0-8878-0036-X}}
==External links== * [https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL266906A/Phyllis_R._Blakeley Phyllis R. Blakeley] at Open Library * [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/author/phyllis-r-blakeley Articles] by Phyllis R. Blakeley at ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' * [https://memoryns.ca/phyllis-r-blakeley-fonds Phyllis R. Blakeley fonds] via MemoryNS, Council of Nova Scotia Archives
{{Nova Scotia Archives}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakeley, Phyllis}} Category:1922 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Canadian archivists Category:Women archivists Category:Canadian women biographers Category:20th-century Canadian historians Category:Dalhousie University alumni Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:People from Halifax, Nova Scotia Category:Historians of Atlantic Canada Category:20th-century Canadian biographers Category:Historians from Nova Scotia Category:Fellows of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society Category:20th-century archivists