The Nipp Collection: Rethinking Approaches to the Diasporic Photographic Archive

The Nipp collection is a seminal example of a vernacular photographic collection depicting a minority diasporic community; its contents depict a story familiar to all Chinese Canadians requiring historic contextualization to preserve the depth and detail it can provide to our shared history. This thesis functions in two parts: first, it examines three Canadian cultural institutions and their relationships with underrepresented minority collections, and second it studies the practical application of preparing a minority diasporic vernacular family collection for acquisition at a small cultural institution – in this case the Multicultural Historical Society of Ontario. The outcomes include a brief history of changing institutional approaches to diasporic photographic collections and a finding aid for the Nipp collection created around the oral history of the Nipp family members as provenance.