Parts of Our Heritage: What I have learned working at the Archives




Sir John A. MacDonald
From: Library and Archives Canada

I have had the pleasure of working two contract roles at Library and Archives Canada.  My first contract was in 2008.  That contract involved textual documents/correspondences from and to Sir John A. MacDonald.  Many of the letters were regarding our National policy and the building of the Grand Trunk Railway.



William Topley
From: Topley Collection
Library and Archives Canada

My second contract and the one I am currently doing is the called the "Portrait Project".  The Archives have taken on the Portrait Gallery of Canada project of digitizing over 100,000 images.  Within this portrait gallery I have handled and seen so much of Canada's past!  I started the project with glass plates.  Glass was the support material used for photographs in the late 1800's.  One of the most prominent photographers of this medium William Topley, who began Topley studios in the nation's capital. He photographed many pictures of political leaders and prominent Canadian families.  The glass plate fond that I got to handle and digitize was that of an aged Queen Victoria.

The most exciting image I got to digitize was a small collection of the original first-ever hockey and lacrosse trading cards from 1910.



Winston Churchill
From: Karsh Collection
Library and Archives Canada

To see some of the work the Digitization team has done please check out the collection at the Library and Archives website. There is all sorts of images from Topley's glass plate fonds to Yosef Karsh to Arnaud Maggs.  Canada's artists are masters at their trades in that they capture our heritage so magnificently.

  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/

Library and Archives

I know it has been a tad too long that I have blogged. In fact, I never really showed any dedication at all to this. However, I have been working two jobs, one of which is with Library and Archives Canada. This job has inspired me to write again. Moreover, it has inpired me to write about what I think is important: Canadian culture and heritage. With the anticipation of the federal budget it is difficult to know which scope heritage in Canada will take. I am nervous that it will not be very prominant in Harper's objectives for this country. ( That is a whole other can of worms, or rather snakes).

In short, I am interested in how other citizens feel about Canada's culture and heritage. Do you value our heritage? Do you think it is important to the nation's development?