Preserving the past: Archives in our community

For the past 40 years, the third week of February has been recognized by the Province of Ontario as Heritage Week. For most of us, the word heritage conjures up visions of historic buildings and historical figures, of museums and memorials. These are all very visible legacies of our collective heritage, and invariably receive a great deal of attention in the popular imagination.

But what about heritage that is, for reasons of conservation, largely kept out of sight and accessible only by appointment – or by taking advantage of online databases?

Archives – correspondence, photographs, reports, sound recordings, and much more – play an important role in our community. What do they collect, and what should you consider when deciding whether to deposit your or your organization’s records in an archival repository?

Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives

 The privately-run Victoria County Historical Society, which in 2022 renamed itself the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives, has been collecting archival records since 1957. Today, it maintains one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the area, with records pertaining to businesses, individuals, institutions, and organizations among other sources. For a museum, archival collections are also instrumental in curating exhibits and developing educational programming.

Under the leadership of its archivist, Zac Miller (who was not available for comment), KLMA has within the last five years made significant strides in building its archival capacity – particularly in adapting a building that was originally designed as the county jail to one that accommodates archival records.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in the museum’s digitization of more than a century of Lindsay Daily Post newspapers, which are available online through the Internet Archive.

KLMA offers research and reproduction services upon request, but as of this writing does not yet have its finding aids (an important tool used to navigate a collection) publicly available. And as a not-for-profit organization, much of what KLMA is able to do with its archives depends on the availability of funding for, among other things, dedicated archival staff.

Kawartha Lakes Municipal Archives

 Large and impressive though it is, the KLMA is not the only archive in Kawartha Lakes.

Down on Mary Street East, in Lindsay, a large and fairly nondescript building is home to some 3.5 linear kilometres of records collected from across the municipality.

Although the municipal archives primarily collect the records of enduring historic value from local government, it also collects private records from or about the people, businesses, and or institutions of Kawartha Lakes. “It is pretty standard for government archives at local, provincial, and national levels to collect both, and historically our policies account for both public and private records,” explains Angela Fornelli, who has served as manager of corporate records and archival services for Kawartha Lakes since 2020.

“What makes the Municipal Archives of the City of Kawartha Lakes different is we have those amazing government records that can’t be found elsewhere,” Fornelli says. “We have historic land deeds, historic assessment tax books, and school registers going back into the mid 1800s and in one case back to the 1700s. We also have our environmentally controlled records vault where we are able to securely put textual records in conditions optimal for ensuring their longevity.”

While the municipal archives welcomes visitors by appointment, it is also very active in taking its mission and mandate into the wider community.

“Built into my job description was a directive to provide advice and support for those societies and institutions with the City with archival collections,” Fornelli points out. “I have been lucky to be in the position to work with Kirkfield & District Historical Society, Manvers Historical Society,  St. Paul’s Anglican Church, as well as the Kawartha Art Gallery.”

Fornelli also runs free workshops at various points in the year to help individuals care for their own archival records kept at home.

Kawartha Lakes Public Library

 Over on the second floor of the Kawartha Lakes Public Library, Reference Specialist Erin Beach and her colleagues can often be seen fielding research requests for patrons trying to track down an ancestor or locate a family plot in a local cemetery.

“Kawartha Lakes Public Library collects, preserves, and interprets material to make it available for public access,” Beach tells the Advocate. “We frequently work together with the municipal archives and records department and the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives by referring patrons to these institutions when the library’s resources have been exhausted.”

For the public library, collaboration with other repositories only serves to strengthen their offerings. “There are gaps in our current collection regarding the smaller communities, so we are always on the lookout for information to fill those holes,” Beach remarks. “Working with more local museums and historical societies in those communities will hopefully allow the library make that goal a reality.”

Church Archives

 While local museums, the municipal archives, and the public library all offer comprehensive collections covering almost all aspects of our community, some institutions maintain their own, highly specialized archival collections. Given their cultural, social, and historical significance in Kawartha Lakes, it should come as no surprise that churches fall squarely into this category.

“When people think about church archives, access to baptism and marriage registers usually takes the forefront,” says Nicole D’Angela, managing archivist with the Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives, in Toronto. “The reality is that there is such a variety of records collected by churches.”

As churches close, as has been happening at an increasing rate over the last few years, their collections are typically sent to the parent denomination’s national archival repository – though policies vary from one denomination to another. “Currently, the policy for The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives is that records that are property of the church can be put into an external repository as long as the Archives is notified, and a digital/microfilm copy of the material is provided,” says D’Angela. “This is to ensure that a backup is created, and access is maintained by the church.”

Some congregations here in Kawartha Lakes, though, are investing in the resources necessary to keep their records safely housed and, eventually, made accessible to researchers. St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Lindsay is one such example, and over the past year has rehoused more than seven linear metres of archival records. (Full disclosure: the author has been working as an archival consultant at St. Paul’s.)

As with the Kawartha Lakes Municipal Archives, these specialized institutional archives are keen to assist people at the local level. “Outreach and education are an important part to assist congregations manage their collections,” D’Angela notes.

Quite apart from the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives, the Kawartha Lakes Municipal Archives, the Kawartha Lakes Public Library, and various depositories administered by churches, Trent University and Trent Valley Archives in neighbouring Peterborough both house records with provenance in Kawartha Lakes. The papers of author Dr. Rae Fleming, former Premier Leslie Frost, and historian Archie Tolmie can all be found across the municipal border at these institutions.

Residents of Kawartha Lakes are thus spoiled for choice in deciding where to deposit archival collections and access the treasure trove of information these repositories offer up.

Which institution is best equipped to look after your records is an important factor in thinking about where to deposit them, as is the records’ provenance (place of origin), and whether they will be easily accessible to future generations of researchers.

That, after all, is what archives in our community are all about.