Annie Maude “Nan” McKay (Métis)

Annie Maude “Nan” McKay (1892–1986) was a Métis librarian, university graduate, student journalist, athlete, and volunteer nurse whose working life was closely associated with the University of Saskatchewan. She earned a BA with Honours in 1915. According to the supplied compilation, she was the third Indigenous Canadian to graduate with a BA (Honours) from a Canadian university, the first Indigenous woman to graduate from a Canadian university, and the University of Saskatchewan’s second Indigenous graduate. 1

Her subsequent career gives substance to these educational milestones. McKay worked in the University of Saskatchewan’s Library for forty-four years, helped sustain campus activities during the First World War, and participated in the creation of an alumni organization. Her photographs and the account of a northern journey also preserve evidence of an independent life shaped by friendship, sport, art, and travel.

Family and northern Saskatchewan upbringing

McKay was born on 10 October 1892 at Fort à la Corne in the North-West Territories, now Saskatchewan. Her parents were Angus McKay and Annie Maud Mary Fortescue. Her mother died in 1907 following complications of appendicitis; Angus remarried in 1910. 2

Angus worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company. The family fonds records his service at Fort à la Corne from 1889 to 1899, followed by postings at Green Lake, Île-à-la-Crosse, and La Ronge. He retired from La Ronge in 1921 after forty-four years with the company. The extended family had connections with business, education, the church, and political life. 3

Nan’s childhood therefore belonged to the northern trading-post world. The family’s successive moves formed part of her early experience, while its connections later helped her reach educational institutions in Prince Albert and Saskatoon. Her biography links these northern communities with the developing university.

Schooling and university education

Initially educated at home by her cousin Mary Traill, McKay subsequently attended St. Alban’s Ladies’ College in Prince Albert. After her mother’s death, her uncle James McKay took responsibility for her schooling. In 1912 she received a $200 entrance scholarship to the University of Saskatchewan. 2

She pursued honours studies in English and French and graduated in 1915. 4 The BA and the associated national and institutional distinctions are the principal academic accomplishments of her early life. 1

University study was accompanied by extensive participation in campus affairs. McKay worked as staff artist for The Sheaf, served on the executive of the Students Representative Council and Pente Kai Deka, and held secretarial responsibilities in the campus YWCA and Literary Society. She also played women’s hockey. 4 These activities show a student whose interests extended across visual art, organization, literature, and sport.

Student journalism and alumni organization

The First World War drew many students away from campus, leaving those who remained to sustain its organizations. In 1916 the Students Representative Council selected McKay, by then a graduate and library employee, as a co-editor of The Sheaf. Ashleigh Mattern’s account identifies this appointment as making her the newspaper’s first female editor. 5

McKay became the first secretary-treasurer of the University of Saskatchewan Graduates’ Association, established in 1917. 3 The role combined administration with maintaining relationships among former students. Her involvement continued the organizational work she had undertaken as an undergraduate.

The university’s archival exhibition on alumni collections dates the association’s formation to 3 May 1917, five years after the institution granted its first earned degrees. 6 McKay helped build an organization at a point when the university’s graduate community was still young. Her work in journalism and alumni administration belongs alongside her library career in an account of how she contributed to campus life.

Building a working university library

After graduation McKay accepted what was initially described as a temporary appointment as assistant librarian. She worked under Arthur Silver Morton, who combined the librarianship with a history professorship. She helped organize the collection through cataloguing and maintained order in the reading room. Apart from two short American courses in cataloguing, she learned librarianship through practice. 7

The temporary post developed into decades of employment. 7

McKay’s contribution lay in the repeated work needed to support teaching and study. Cataloguing made the books findable, while management of the reading room made the collection usable. Her title of assistant librarian did not fully convey the breadth of her responsibilities.

Volunteer nursing in the influenza epidemic

In 1918 McKay volunteered as a nurse during the influenza epidemic while employed at the university. She was among twenty volunteer nurses whose names were recorded in the north stairwell of the building now known as the Peter MacKinnon Building. In 1922 she was chosen to unveil a commemorative plaque for an undergraduate who had died while serving as a fellow volunteer nurse. 4

Travel, friendship, and the northern journey of 1919

In August 1919 McKay and her colleague Christina Henry travelled by wagon, canoe, and train through northern Saskatchewan towards The Pas, Manitoba. Indigenous freighters and guides assisted them; McKay’s family joined them at La Ronge. 2

Henry’s diary and the accompanying photographs were published with historical annotations in Saskatchewan History in 2011. 2 The account records travel through working northern communities and waterways, rather than presenting the region as an empty wilderness. It also documents two salaried women using their holidays for an extended journey through places connected with McKay’s family.

Personal photographs and historical interpretation

McKay never married. Her university photograph album contains scenes of parties, performances, travel, camping, and residence life. One image, dating from approximately 1915, shows her embracing and kissing fellow graduate Hope Weir outside a university residence. Valerie J. Korinek used it on the cover of Prairie Fairies, her history of queer communities in western Canada. 8

Korinek reads the image and its surrounding social world as evidence for a queer interpretation of McKay’s life. She also acknowledges that surviving evidence does not establish an identity McKay publicly claimed. The photograph documents affection between the women; it does not supply a complete history of their relationship or McKay’s private life. 8

Shannon Boklaschuk’s discussion of Korinek’s research explains why the album matters: images of women’s same-sex relationships from this period are scarce, and McKay kept the photograph among other valued records of her university years. 9 Her life consequently appears in scholarship on sexuality as well as Métis and university history. This later interpretation should remain distinguishable from her documented appointments, activities, and accomplishments.

Injury, retirement, and final years

A rock slide during a hiking excursion in Banff National Park severely injured McKay’s back in 1944. After an absence of eighteen months, she returned to the library with responsibility for book ordering. Her sister Marian came to live with her after the accident. 7

McKay retired in 1959. She remained in Saskatchewan and enjoyed gardening, reading, bridge, watercolour painting, and birdwatching with Marian. Family recollections describe her humour and enthusiasm for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. 7 These interests connect her later years with the artistic, sporting, and outdoor pursuits visible in her youth.

She died on 27 July 1986, aged ninety-three. 4 In 2007 she was named among the University of Saskatchewan’s 100 Alumni of Influence. 10 Recognition came more than two decades after her death, placing her long service within the institution’s centennial history.

Archival record and legacy

The McKay family fonds contains records assembled principally by Nan and her father. Its description identifies 376 photographs, 319 negatives, sixteen drawings, correspondence, financial material, genealogical information, and notes and sketches for Nan’s talk on birdwatching. The photographs record family members, Hudson’s Bay Company personnel, northern Saskatchewan, and campus life. 3

These materials support a biography extending beyond graduation and employment dates. They preserve a record of the communities, friendships, and interests that accompanied her work. Mattern’s reflection on researching McKay for Herstory: The Canadian Women’s Calendar also acknowledges Spafford’s role in bringing her life to renewed attention. 5

McKay’s university distinctions remain major accomplishments in the history of Indigenous education. 1 Her longer legacy includes the organization of a library, support for student and alumni activities, and service during an epidemic. The surviving record shows a Métis woman contributing to the university’s daily life across several decades while maintaining interests and relationships beyond her professional duties.

References

1. Indigenous Canadian Academic Milestones: A Timeline; https://indigenius-canada.wishartlab.com/pioneers/ (accessed 7 October 2026).
2. Henry C. The amazing adventures of Christina and Nan: Christina Henry’s trip diary, “Northern Saskatchewan Holiday,” with annotations by Duff Spafford, Nadine Charabin, Bonnie Wagner, Christine Charmbury, and Myrna Williams. Saskatchewan History [Internet]. 2011 [cited 2026 Oct 5];63(2):14–33. Available from: https://iportal.usask.ca/sites/iportal.usask.ca/files/content/68033/SKHistory_Vol63_No2.pdf
3. University of Saskatchewan, University Archives and Special Collections. McKay family fonds [archival finding aid on the Internet]. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan; [date unknown] [cited 2026 Oct 5]. MG 385. Available from: https://library.usask.ca/indigenous/holdings/pdf/f385.pdf
4. University of Saskatchewan. May 1915: university’s first female Indigenous graduate. On Campus News [Internet]. 2019 May 10 [cited 2026 Oct 5]:16. Available from: https://news.usask.ca/documents/2019/OCN_MAY2019_web.pdf
5. Mattern A. This week in Herstory: Annie Maude McKay. The Herstory Calendar Blog [Internet]. 2014 Dec 23 [cited 2026 Oct 5]. Available from: https://herstorycalendar.wordpress.com/2014/12/23/this-week-in-herstory-annie-maude-mckay/
6. University of Saskatchewan, University Archives and Special Collections. Alumni collections 2017 [Internet]. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan; 2017 [cited 2026 Oct 5]. Available from: https://library.usask.ca/uasc/exhibitions/2017/alumni-collections-2017.php
7. Spafford D. Annie Maude (Nan) McKay [Internet]. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan Library; 2012 [cited 2026 Oct 5]. Available from: https://library.usask.ca/indigenous/history_essays/nan_mckay.php
8. Korinek VJ. Prairie fairies: a history of queer communities and people in Western Canada, 1930–1985. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; 2018. p. 75–81. (Studies in Gender and History). Digitized text consulted [cited 2026 Oct 5]. Available from: https://dokumen.pub/prairie-fairies-a-history-of-queer-communities-and-people-in-western-canada-1930-1985-9781487518172.html
9. Boklaschuk S. A “queer-eye view” of prairie life. Arts&Science [Internet]. 2019 Jun 7 [cited 2026 Oct 5]. Available from: https://artsandscience.usask.ca/magazine/Spring_2019/archives.php
10. University of Saskatchewan. National Indigenous History Month: USask moments and milestones. On Campus News [Internet]. 2024 Jun [cited 2026 Oct 5]. Available from: https://news.usask.ca/articles/community/2024/national-indigenous-history-month-usask-milestones-and-memories.php