In the spring of 1990, in a rare moment in Trent history, husband and wife team Dr. Kenneth and Martha Kidd (née Maurer) received simultaneous honorary doctorates recognizing their long-standing contributions to Trent and the community. Dr. Kenneth Kidd passed away in 1994, and this past summer, Dr. Martha Kidd passed away at the age of 94 leaving behind an academic, personal and financial legacy that will enrich the University for years to come.

Dr. Martha Kidd’s gift to the University will both build on her husband’s gift before her, which was used to establish the Kenneth Kidd Memorial fund, as well as open possibilities for the Indigenous Studies Program’s new Gilbert Monture Oral History Lab. The lab itself is the result of legacy gift from the Monture family in memory of their father and Trent board member, Gilbert Monture. Dr. Martha Kidd’s gift will be used to fund the inaugural project of the lab, which will focus on the preservation of local Indigenous place names.

“The new technology will bring the past and present together, says Dr. David Newhouse, chair of Indigenous Studies at Trent. “Recording local place names in nishnaabewmowin (Ojibway) will help to create a sense of a continuous, lived Indigenous history in this area.

“Oral history, story-telling and the verbal transmission of knowledge rests at the heart of Indigenous learning approaches,” says Professor Newhouse. “We have always incorporated this aspect of Indigenous knowledge into our courses. These legacy gifts will enable us to create a digital story-telling lab that can be used in a variety of ways to record local histories and stories and to help students build skills in recording and preparing stories.”

For Sherry Booth, senior development officer for Trent, the significance of legacy giving is more about the possibilities they engender than about the numbers. “The nice thing about gifts like this is that they empower ideas. Philanthropy of this nature means that ideas and dreams that had potential, but no funding, can now become a reality,” she says.

Dr. Kenneth Kidd joined Trent as founding professor of the Anthropology Department, and the following year he established and chaired the Indigenous Studies Program, the first of its kind in Canada. He retired from Trent University in 1972, and in 1973, Professor Kidd was named Professor Emeritus of Anthropology. Upon his death, memorial gifts provided to the University were used to start the Kenneth Kidd Memorial fund. The fund is used for the annual K.E. Kidd Award, given to the student graduating with the highest standing from the Indigenous Studies Program, and the annual Kenneth Kidd lecture series. According to close friend of the Kidd’s Trent Professor Emeritus Dr. Elwood Jones, the lectures are excellent and wide-ranging. “Martha attended every lecture without fail. The Trent department has a marvellous reputation in North American archaeology,” he adds, “with only a handful of departments ever mentioned in the same breath.”

The Kidd’s partnership was a long and productive one; married in 1943, the pair shared a passion for archaeology, and the Indigenous history of the region. In the years prior to his joining Trent, Dr. Kenneth Kidd’s research projects were wide and varied, but Martha was always an active participant. According to Dr. Jones, “Martha was a partner in all these projects, and was recognized rather late in the day for her work in the classification of beads which was recognized as being more her work than Ken's."

After 1968, Dr. Martha Kidd’s work focussed on regional history and over the years her work led her to become known as one of Peterborough’s foremost historians. Her interest in the preservation of local heritage led her to become co-founder and long-time member of both the Peterborough Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (PACAC) and the Trent Valley Archives (TVA). In her early years, she wrote for the Peterborough Examiner and the Peterborough New Paper. Over the years, her preservation work and research led to two definitive publications, notably Historical Sketches of Peterborough, Broadview Press, 1988, and a 1978 book cataloguing Peterborough’s Architectural Heritage up to that time that has become a local classic.

The archival records of both her husband’s and her research were also generously donated to both the University and TVA. There are five collections in the University archives related to the Kidd’s, who were both active supporters of the archives and the Bata Library. According to Jodi Aoki, the University’s Archivist, the Kidd’s archival holdings are valued in excess of $16,000, and comprise approximately 18 linear metres of material. At the TVA, the Martha Ann Kidd collection is one of the most consulted and important collections with more than 15 linear metres of material related primarily to architectural heritage in the region.

Three days before her death, Dr. Martha Kidd hosted the monthly board meeting of the TVA at her heritage home in East City, surrounded by friends and doing what she loved most. She was an active and passionate researcher, academic and community member to the very end, and with her endowment, will continue to impact both the University and the community she cared so much about, long into the future.

For inquiries about our Legacy Campaign or if you have included Trent in your estate plans, please contact Sherry Booth, Senior Development Officer at 705-748-1011 ext. 7593 or sbooth@trentu.ca .