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Series consists of files containing correspondence and other material related to Nouwen's day to day engagements. Nouwen received dozens of invitations each month to give lectures or talks, lead retreats, preside at religious occasions, and provide spiritual direction. Requests came from a wide range of institutions, organisations and individuals, the majority having some sort of religious affiliation. Invitations from institutions included university divinity schools, seminaries, hospital pastoral departments, churches, and Christian retreat centres. Invitations from organisations included the National Catholic AIDS Network, the Ministry of Money, and the Archdiocese of Toronto. Invitations from individuals included requests for Nouwen to preside over masses, weddings, funerals, baptisms and ordinations, and those interested in personal spiritual direction. Such requests often came from priests, ministers, pastors, and chaplains. The majority of Nouwen's engagements took place in the Northeastern United States, Southern Ontario, and Holland. However, he also attended events in Illinois, Texas, California, British Columbia, Quebec, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Ukraine. After Nouwen's move to L'Arche Daybreak in 1986, files were created to plan and document special events associated with his role as pastor. There are files regarding community meetings, community weekends, assistant workshops, visits to other L'Arche communities and meetings of the International Federation of L'Arche.

The files were created between 1980 and 1996, however, the file titles themselves extend to 1998 because events were often scheduled two or more years in advance. There are no files for January 1982 to April 1985. The files from 1985 contain invitations only from March to August grouped by month. There are no files for June 1987 to May 1990. Approximately 74% of the files in the series are for June 1990 to August 1995. Their are only a small number of files for September 1995 to October 1998, this is likely because Nouwen was on sabbatical from September 1995 to September 1996. The files contain gaps and inconsistencies due to Nouwen's frequent movement between 1982 and 1986 as well as changes in Nouwen's support staff and their differing recordkeeping techniques.

This series provides an excellent overview of Nouwen's schedule of events and specific information regarding his participation at those events. Noteworthy are the handwritten and typed notes used for speaking engagements (some are unpublished) as well as copies of outgoing letters written by Nouwen.

Fonds consists of 15 series:

1. Manuscripts
2. General files
3. Calendar files
4. Personal records
5. Publisher files
6. Financial files
7. Teaching materials
8. Nouwen’s education records and study notes
9. Published works
10. Video recordings of Nouwen
11. Sound recordings
12. Collected materials
13. L'Arche Daybreak administrative files
14. Ephemera and artifacts
15. Photographs

Collection consists of audiovisual materials featuring recordings of events given by and used by members of l'Arche International/Internationale. This material includes 1708 audio cassettes, 37 videocassettes, 8 film reels, and 78 audio reels. Much of the material features recordings created at L'Arche retreats internationally, such as the Covenant Retreat, Renewal Retreat, and Faith and Light Retreat. Prominent speakers include Jean Vanier, Henri Nouwen, Joe Egan, Robert Larouche and Sue Mosteller.

The majority of the audio files feature Jean Vanier, usually speaking at retreats. The film reels are recordings made and collected by L'Arche Daybreak, and feature a CBC film on Daybreak (from 1970), pilgramages and trips made by Faith and Light and Daybreak. There is also a film reel of Jean Vanier.

Collection has been arranged into eight series:

1. Head of House and regional meetings
2. Covenant retreats
3. Faith and Sharing
4. Federation meetings
5. Assistants' retreats and meetings
6. L'Arche Renewals
7. Other events, talks, and speakers
8. Audio reels and film reels

Collection also includes a binder which functioned as a catalogue for many of the cassettes that were housed at l'Arche Daybreak until 2004 and 2006. This binder is located in series 7.

Series consists of colour and black and white photographs (including negatives) accumulated by Nouwen, and colour slides taken by him and others. Photographs not taken by Nouwen were gathered mainly from friends and acquaintances through correspondence, over a period of approximately 30 years. The photographs were stored by Nouwen and his administrative assistant(s) in files, or displayed on one of several large bulletin boards Nouwen used in his office and photograph albums compiled. Some photographs that arrived with correspondence were kept in the General Files series with their letter of origin, while others which were not clearly attached to a letter were separated and added to this series.

Subject matter depicted in the photographs include professional portraits of Nouwen; Nouwen in both his professional and private capacities at: the Yale and Harvard Divinity Schools, and at L'Arche Daybreak (leading church services, at birthdays and Christmas celebrations), religious events (baptisms, first communions, ordinations and weddings); as well as his travels to Peru and Bolivia, the United States, France, and other countries; and with his family in the Netherlands both as a child and as an adult. Photographs also depict Nouwen's friends, their families, and L'Arche Daybreak assistants and core members. In addition, a large number of photographs in this series (approximately one fifth), document Nouwen's time spent in Germany with a flying trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs.

Slides were taken by Nouwen of Martin Luther King, Jr’s civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, AL, in March 1965; of the University of Notre Dame; vacations, including a trip to Greece; and of Nouwen with Rodleigh Stevens of The Flying Rodleighs in 1995.