ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007

              Summer 2007
A Liesurely August Row
Image courtesy of the Archives of the
R.C. Archdiocese of St. John’s
page 5
Love, Napoleon.
A large collection of letters written
by Napoleon Bonaparte found in a
Swiss laundry room.
page 11
A New Look for the
ANLA Website
ANLA’s home on the web gets
a new look.
page 6
The Twillingate Sun
Resurfaces
The Twillingate Museum and The
Maritime History digitize the 120
year old Twillingate Sun.
anla A Bulletin for the
Association of Newfoundland
& Labrador Archives
1
2 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
Larry Dohey
Editor
Larry Dohey
President
Jessie Chisholm
Vice-President
Elizabeth Fewer
Director
James Miller
Treasurer
Heather Wareham
Director
Stephanie Harlick
Director
Editor
Executive
Contact
ANLA Office
Colonial Building
Military Road
St. John’s, NL
T: (709) 726 2867
F: (709) 729 7989
anla@nf.aibn.com
Mailing Address:
ANLA Office
P.O. Box
23155
R.P.O. Churchill Square
St. John’s, NL
A1B 4J9
Design
Terry Sutton
ANLA
726-3660
saltcod@gmail.com
About
The Association of Newfoundland and Labrador
Archives (ANLA) is a provincial organization which
represents archives, archivists and individuals
committed to the preservation of archival records.
ANLA promotes professional standards in procedures
and practices through workshops, on-site advisory
services and the deveoplent of curriculum materials.
The ANLA Bulletin is the official publication of ANLA. All submissions
should be accompanied by the sender’s name, address, phone number and
e-mail address. The editor reserves the right to edit submissions for clar-ity
or length. Please send articles, notices and other submissions to:
Larry Dohey, Editor(709) - 726-3660 - ldohey@nf.aibn.com
A Bulletin for the
Association of Newfoundland
& Labrador Archives
Anla Sponsors And Advertisers
In the future sponsors and advertisers will play an
important part in funding the design and printing
of the ANLA Newsletter. We need your help in
identifying potential sponsors and advertisers.
Please think of any likely sponsors and advertisers
and send the company name, contact person,
and contact information - snail mail and e-mail
address to the ANLA Publications Committee.
Larry Dohey @ ldohey@nf.aibn.com
Terry Sutton @ saltcod@gmail.com
Inside
Message from the ANLA President..................................................... 3
Obituaries.................................................................................................. 4
Opening and dedication of the Archives at Girl Guides.................. 5
Napoleon’s Loveletters............................................................................ 5
Colleen Quigley off to Toronto............................................................. 6
The Twillingate Sun Comes to Life....................................................... 6
CBC Host Anne Budgell Retires........................................................... 8
Archives Advisors Unite! ....................................................................... 9
Archival Literature in Review: Reading Archives ............................. 9
A New Look for the ANLA Website..................................................11
New Exhibit for Faculty of Medicine Founders’ Archive...............11
Update from The Rooms, Provincial Archives.................................12
The Vatican Archives and the Local Church....................................14
Matthew Byrne Wins Lieutenant Governor’s Award.....................15
Workshop: Grant Writing for Small Archives..................................16
Summer • 2007
anla
Mary Ellen Wright,
Professional Development Officer
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 3
Message from the ANLA President
As we approach the ANLA Annual AGM to be held
on September 27 –28, 2007 I take this opportunity to
thank all of you who have participated in the many
activities of the Association over the past year. We have
highlighted some of the activities in the pages of this
bulletin and will present a more detailed review in our
next publication tentatively scheduled for November.
In preparing for our Annual AGM I have consulted with the
ANLA Executive members and have concluded from that consul-tation
that as an organization we will have to begin to reconsider
some of our priorities in light of the demands that are being placed
on ANLA Executive members. As it now stands most of the work
of the Standing Committees is being done by the ANLA Executive
or staff. Participation by ANLA members on committees is want-ing.
We have six Standing Committees: the Education Commit-tee
(Stephanie Harlick); the Publication Committee (Larry Dohey);
The I.T. Committee ( Heather Wareham); The Preservation Com-mittee
(Joan Mowbray) The Descriptive Standards Committee
(Jessie Chisholm); and The Social Committee ( Elizabeth Fewer).
We really need other ANLA members to take time to work on
these Committees. Many hands make light work. Please consider
contacting the ANLA Office before the AGM to express you inter-est
in one of these Committees.
This has also been a year of reflection on some staff priori-ties
and directions. The ANLA Executive have reviewed all of the
ANLA contract positions and we are happy to report that we now have in place a procedure that gives ANLA staff a process to
report on their work. This process has allowed our contract workers including Mary Ellen Wright, Miki Lee Colleen Quigley,
Terry Sutton and more recently Catherine Rice an opportunity to outline the particular tasks and responsibilities of their posi-tions.
This is an era of accountability and the process that we have in place allows for staff to more easily report on the progress
of their work.
We are excited about the progress on a number of projects but we are particularly excited about the revamping of the
ANLA website that will be unveiled at the AGM.
These processes involved a rebranding with a new, modern design, colour scheme, graphics, etc. A brand manual will be
produced as soon as the second edition of the bullein has been completed and the brochures have been approved by the ANLA
executive. This step will ensure that ANLA will have a consistent visual presence throughout the coming years.
Also, the website has been brought up to modern standards and now has the capacity to be quickly updated by any mem-ber
of the Executive. There is also now a resource area that brings together a wealth of the online exhibits, how-to’s, and other
resources.
We know that communication within any organization is important and as the Editor of the ANLA Bulletin I am cogni-zant
that I play an important role in insuring that members across the province are aware of the activities in our association. I
have enjoyed working with you as the Editor of our Bulletin and look forward to working with you during the coming year. You
will find the submission deadline dates for our next three publications on the publishers page.
We have enjoyed working with all of you who have contributed articles for publication and we invite more archivists to
write about their work and special projects.
We do want to make our bulletin representative of the archival community in the whole of this province, in order to do
this, we need your submissions. We would also like you to consider sending photographs and graphics that fit with the articles
that you write. We want to bring more life to each page.
We look forward working with you in the future and welcome any suggestions that you might have.
Looking forward to seeing you at the AGM .
From the President
anla
Summer • 2007
Bulletin for the Association of
Newfoundland & Labrador Archives
Larry Dohey
President
4 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
News
Obituaries
Brother Augustus Fidelis BRENNAN
Brother Augustus Fidelis BRENNAN, the Archivist
for the Congregation of Christian Brothers, passed
away suddenly at Mount St. Francis Monastery,
Merrymeeting Road, St. John’s, NL on Saturday,
November 25, 2006, he was 84 years,.
Brother Brennan was often described as a “life
long leaner”. In 2005 he was appointed by the Con-gregation
of Christian Brother’s to take responsibil-ity
for the substantial and historic archival collection
of the Congregation in the province. On October 13,
2006 he represented the Congregation at ANLA’s
Annual Conference and Workshops “determined to
meet archival colleagues working in the province
and to learn about the archival process.”
A prominent Newfoundland and Labrador edu-cator,
Brother Brennan was a former superintendent
of Catholic schools in the Diocese of St. John’s and
Corner Brook, and served as president of the New-foundland
and Labrador Teacher’s Association, and
the Canadian Teacher’s Federation.
John Francis O’MARA
John Francis
O’MARA, 63, passed
peacefully away after a
short battle with can-cer
on Sunday, August
26, 2007 at the L.A.
Miller Centre, Pallia-tive
Care.
O’Mara began his
career with the CBC
as an announcer in
Corner Brook in 1964
and later moved to St.
John’s. After 20 years
in the business, O’Mara worked his way to the top
job at CBC Radio in Newfoundland and Labrador,
serving as director of radio for nine years.
During his time with CBC, he hosted many
programs and specials for both radio and television,
including On the Go, Newfoundland and Labrador’s
weekday afternoon radio current events program,
from 1973 to 1975, Weekend Arts Magazine from
1976 to 1978, and the popular Fisheries Broadcast,
from 1978 to 1979.
Since his retirement he had been very active in
volunteering in the community and dedicated much
of his time to various aspects of Newfoundland and
Labrador history.
John was well established in the archival com-munity.
He was the official archivist for the Royal St.
John’s Regatta and was active in the archival pro-gram
for Scouts Canada in the province.
His love of Newfoundland history is reflected
in his extensive research forays in archives through-out
the country and throughout the world. He was
a well established researcher at the Archives atThe
Rooms and at the Library and Archives of Canada in
Ottawa. While traveling internationally he could not
resist the temptation to visit archives to pursue his
research interests.
In addition to his research in history related
to the Royal St. John’s Regatta he was considered
the final authority on medical archives research in
particular 18th century physicians that worked in
the province. He also did extensive research on the
history Government House.
He also immersed himself in researching Irish
Catholic history in Newfoundland and his own fam-ily
connections to that Irish history. He was respon-sible
for a number of exhibits documenting Catho-lic
history in exhibits sponsored by the Basilica
Museum Historical Committee and the Benevolent
Irish Society. In 2006 he was an active member of
the Basilica Cathedral 150th Anniversary Commit-tee
working on various projects including exhibits
and publications celebrating the significant Anni-versary.
He edited with Brother J. B. Darcy Volume
II of Bishop M.F. Howley’s, Ecclesiastical History of
Newfoundland in 2006.
Mass of Christian Burial took place on Wednes-day,
August 29, 2007 from the historic Basilica of St.
John the Baptist.
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 5
News
Opening and dedication of the
Archives at Girl Guides
(St. John’s) The official opening and dedication of
the Archives at Girl Guides Headquarters in Pleas-antville,
St. John’s took place on December 8, 2006.
The Archives Room was dedicated to Isabel Temple-ton
who served as Archivist for over 30 years.
Thank you to Isabel for her dedication
and love for preserving our many treasures of
artifacts, books, magazines, photos and uni-forms.
Thank you to Larry Dohey at the Basilica
Museum for the donation of a mannequin.
Doreen and Violet wish to thank ANLA,
CCA and the Department of Tourism, Culture
and Recreation for the allocation of grants which
helped to purchase the necessary materials to
bring the Archives up to recognized standards.
Napoleon’s Loveletters
LONDON (Reuters) - One of the word’s great-est
collections of historical letters, includ-ing
a note written by Napoleon to his lover
Josephine, has been found in a filing cabi-net
tucked away in a Swiss laundry room.
The treasure trove of almost 1,000 docu-ments,
collected over 30 years by a wealthy Aus-trian
banker, includes letters written by Winston
Churchill, Peter the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, Alex-ander
Pushkin, John Donne and Queen Elizabeth I.
One of the rarest and most touching of
the collection is a passionate letter written by
an apologetic Napoleon to his wife to be, Jose-phine,
the morning after a furious argument.
“I send you three kisses -- one on your
heart, one on your mouth and one on your
eyes,” wrote the chastened lover in a spidery
scrawl full of corrections and crossings out.
The letters, which cover more than
500 years and range across art, sci-ence,
literature and philosophy.
The owner, Albin Schram, began amass-ing
the archive in the early 1970s, steadily build-ing
up one of the largest and most comprehen-sive
collections outside a major museum.
Though an inveterate collector, Schram wasn’t
interested in conservation or display -- the letters
were kept in an old metal cabinet in the laundry
room of his villa in Lausanne, Switzerland, ordered
by size rather than author or date. When he died
in 2005, his family barely knew they were there.
Napoleon has a tenuios connection with the
archival community in Newfoundland. It is said
that Newman’s Port that was aged in Newfoundland
was the port that the Officers of the H.M.S. Bellero-phon
may have toasted the surrender of Napoleon
Bonaparte on board the ship on 15 July, 1815. No
port stains were found on the archival documents.
TOP: Left to right - Doreen Walsh, Isabel Templeton and Violet
Moores at the opening of the Isabel Templeton Archives Room.
BOTTOM: a selection of Napoleon’s Letters.
6 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
News
Colleen Quigley off to Toronto
Local teacher, dancer, and
former ANLA employee,
Colleen Quigley, is
heading off to Toronto in
the fall to attend U of T’s
Faculty of Information
Studies. Quigley hopes to
use her Master’s program
training to to begin work
in archiving dance.
Quigley worked with
ANLA in 2006-2007.
New Archive at Bishop Feild
The Bishop Feild Archives Group with the assistance
of The Federal Government through The Canadian
Council of Archives has established an archive in the
school. The archive group consists of Ms. Judy-Gard
Puddester (Principal of BFS), Lorraine Brown, Gertie
Tilley, Florence Winsor and Peter Chalker.
The archive is open every Friday from 9 AM to 1
PM. The archive has over 100 photographs dating
from the late 19th century to the present. Also, it
houses a large collection of the school magazine, The
Feildian, dating from 1893. The is provision made for
research.
Peter Chalker
peter.chalker@gmail.com
The Twillingate Sun Comes to Life
The Maritime History Archive has partnered with
the Twillingate Museum in project to digitize all
of the issues of the Twillingate Sun from for the
entire eighty year run of the newspaper from 1880-
1952. Funding was provided by CEDP and Memo-rial
University for a 10 week project to digitize
the newspaper from the original microfilm. Jay
McGrath, a Memorial student, has been hired and
will work on the project until the scanning has been
completed. Then the scans will be included as one
of the Maritime History Archive’s contribution to
Memorial University’s Digitial Archive Initiative (see
http://collections.mun.ca/index.php). For years the
Twillingate Museum housed the microfilm copies
of the newspaper but they did not have a microfilm
reader so their patrons could not access the paper.
At the end of this project researchers will have
access to this newspaper through the DAI website
and the Museum will also have copies of the paper
available to their researchers on CD-Rom.
Bishop Feild School
Excerpt from the Twillingate Sun, 1869
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 7
News
Archives in Newfoundland and Labrador
Contribute to archivescanada.ca
(St. John’s) Many Canadians are visiting archives
from the comfort of their living rooms and the site
that they are going to on the world wide web is
ARCHIVESCANADA.ca.
Archives Canada is a gateway to archival
resources found in over 800 repositories across
Canada. Larry Dohey, President of the Association
of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives (ANLA)
said that “ArchivesCanada.ca is our your gateway to
Canada’s collective memory.”
Through Archives Canada, individuals with
access to the internet can search archival holdings
across Canada, view digitized photographs, maps,
documents and online exhibits developed around
Canada’s history and find contact information for
repositories where these resources are held.
Archives Canada is an official archival portal
maintained by the Canadian Council of Archives
(CCA) and is a joint initiative of CCA, the Provincial
– Territorial Archival Networks, and Library and
Archives Canada.
All archival descriptions and links contained
in the searchable database from Newfoundland and
Labrador are provided by ANLA.
At present there are at this site 55,902 record
descriptions available. These last twelve months have
also seen the addition of 4 new participating institu-tions
to the national database of descriptions from
Newfoundland and Labrador. The participants are
the Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of St. John’s, the Centre for Newfoundland Stud-ies
Archives, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Archives and the Grand Falls Diocesan Archives
from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Other archival collections that can be found
at ArchivesCanada.ca were contributed by other
archives in the province including: Faculty of Medi-cine
Founders’ Archive, Maritime History Archive,
Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and
Language Archive, Newfoundland Historical Society
Archives, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and
Labrador, (The Rooms), Sports Archives of New-foundland
and Labrador and the Trinity Historical
Society Archives.
Statistics
October 2001 — September 2006: since the
first year when 451,369 pages were viewed by 25,569
unique visitors, use has grown to 1,567,794 pages
viewed by 413,238 visitors last year.
French Shore Historical Society Adds New Staff
The French Shore Historical Society welcomed
Delight Byrne into the organization. In the winter
of 2006 the French Shore Historical Society began
work on the Archives at the French Shore Inter-pretation
Centre in Conche, NL. They received a
grant from Canadian Council of Archives to pur-chase
proper shelving for the archives and we also
purchased a software program from MANL. This
program allowed the society to enter all the informa-tion
on a database which made it accessible to all the
museums in Canada through CHIN. Delight com-pleted
the Basic Archives Studies, hosted by ANLA.
Photo: French Shore Historical Society website
8 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
News from Grand Bank Heritage Society.
George C. Harris House
The George C. Harris House - Museum of Local
History has undergone major interior upgrades.
The building has an improved look with a fresh
coat of paint, new shelving, etc. The museum also
has one room designated for the Mariners’ Memo-rial
Exhibit - designed to give information on
Newfoundland & Labrador lost seamen. Thanks to
Service Canada and the Provincial Government ‘s
Community Enhancement Program for partnering
with the Heritage Society to get this work done.
Provincial Mariners’ Memorial
The Provincial Mariners’ Memorial, a project of the
Grand Bank Heritage Society is now completed.
The bronze statue (female figure) was cast by Luben
Boykov The unveiling ceremony for the Provincial
Mariners’ Memorial took place in Grand Bank on
Wednesday, August 8, 2007.
We encourage you to visit Grand Bank to
honour the fishers who were lost at sea while
earning a living for their families and to pay trib-ute
to the thousands who endured their losses.
Contact: 832-1574,
e-mail grbankheritage@nf.aibn.com
CBC Host Anne Budgell Retires
(St. John’s) Anne Budgell retired from the CBC on
April 27 after a distinguished 34-year career in
broadcasting. In her career she performed in almost
every on-air job there is. She was a news reporter,
the first female host/reporter on the legendary radio
program ‘The Fisheries Broadcast’, co-anchor of the
supper hour TV show ‘Here and Now’ and host of
the weekly television show ‘On Camera.’ She also
served for a short
time as executive
producer of radio
news and cur-rent
affairs. In
the archival com-munity,
Budgell
is well known for
her work with
Nigel Markham
on their 1985
film Last Days Of
Okak - address-ing
issues on
Native rights and the management of natural
resources. Budgell and Markham also directed a
film on the effects of the Spanish influenza epi-demic
carried by Moravian missionaries devas-tated
an Inuit settlement in Labrador in 1919.
Budgell is also known in the archival com-munity
for working with CBC Archivist – Chris-tine
Davis featuring a weekly segment that
highlighted archival footage. Often selecting
clips from audio productions and transcription
from significant speeches, the segment became
very popular with Radio Noon listeners.
Sod Turning by Mariners’ Memorial Chair Frank Crews
News
Photo: CBC.ca
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 9
(St. John’s) Many of you will be aware that I am not the
only Professional Development and Outreach Officer in
Canada. Most provinces have someone who educates,
advises and encourages its member archives. Titles
vary, but CCA tends to refer
to us as archives advisors.
This year, many of us
were able to take advantage
of the ACA conference in
St. John’s to arrange a meet-ing
where we could discuss
our common concerns. We
agreed that there were many
things that we could share as
a network. We also decided
that we could focus some of
our efforts on definite goals
to help the archival com-munity
in general. Diane Haglund, Archives Advi-sor
from Manitoba, Anne LeClair, Archives Advisor
from New Brunswick, and Carolyn Bart-Riedstra
volunteered to work with CCA to plan a face-to-face
meeting of all advisors from across Canada.
Thanks to the generous support from Library
Archives Canada, this meeting took place on Octo-ber
30-31, 2006, following the CCA’s annual gen-eral
meeting. Diane and Carolyn set up an agenda
with the invaluable assistance of Christina Nichols,
Executive Director of CCA and Louise Charle-bois,
Archives Advisor Program Manager. Topics
discussed included a round table on activities and
responsibilities of the advisors as well as an explora-tion
of the similarities and differences of the needs
and activities of each provincial and territorial asso-ciation.
At the end of the two day session we decided
that we would structure the advisors as a working
group under the CCA umbrella.
Some of our goals were:
• to create a terms of reference for the working group
• to provide an overview of the types of statistics each
association is recording and reporting, both to its
council and to CCA
• to create an online toolkit for the archives advisors,
identifying various websites
and other resources that advi-sors
should know about both
for themselves and their clients.
One of the other projects
was to find out who cel-ebrates
Archives Awareness
Week, when they celebrate
it and what activities they
have used to promote it. This
was initiated by a request
from the Bureau of Canadian
Archivists, who would like
the advisors’ group to look at
the feasibility of a coordinated nationally celebrated
Archives Awareness Week event.
Since the October meeting we have had confer-ence
calls each month. Various subcommittees have
been struck to work on the different activities identi-fied
above. Diane and Carolyn are working on the
terms of reference and hope to have the final version
of this document ready by March at the latest.
This has been a wonderful opportunity for the
advisors to get to know each other, share knowledge,
solutions for problems and provide the CCA and
LAC information that will help them identify the
archival services needed throughout Canada.
Archival Literature in Review: Reading Archives
About five years ago I was fortunate enough
to attend the Association of Canadian Archivists
annual Institute. The instructor was Dr. Richard J.
Cox. Dr. Cox, Professor in Library and Information
Science at the University of Pittsburgh, School of
Information Sciences, where he is responsible for
PDO Notes
Notes From Your PDO
Mary Ellen Wright
Archives Advisors Unite!
10 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
the archives concentration. More to the point for this
exercise, he is an omnivorous reader who is able to
assimilate vast quantities of printed material and link
it to the world of archives. In October of 2006 a mes-sage
appeared in my e-mail, announcing the debut
of Dr. Cox’s blog, Reading Archives, at http://read-ingarchives.
blogspot.com/ . Recalling the breadth of
his knowledge, I decided to check the site out – and
I was hooked. It is now on my “favourites” list – I
check it every day and there is almost always some-thing
new.
New Media and Archives
In his introductory note, Cox tells us that he is
planning to offer us his observations on scholarly and
popular literature analyzing the nature of archives
or contributing to our understanding of archives in
society. “Everywhere we look” he remarks there is
something to remind us about archives, as repository
and as documentary assemblage. Newspapers feature
stories about the use, meaning, and value of archives.
School groups visit museum exhibitions featuring
documents, as instructional evidence and memory
device. Self-help manuals tout the importance of
writing life histories or compiling scrapbooks as
therapeutic process and as supplements to personal
archives. Video and computer games often lead us,
in our imaginary role, into archives to discover clues.
Movies pull the hero and villain into an archival
repository to resolve mysteries. And scholars study
archives as foundations for cultural memory and to
resolve or extend debates about particular interpreta-tions
of the past.
Cox does not use this blog to review or com-ment
on basic practice manuals, technical guides,
or best practice reports – he has other venues for
that. What he does here is to explore a wide range of
topics that are relevant to the ways we see, use and
understand the archival record. And the topics are
certainly wide-ranging – a book on the evolution of
the handbag; an essay from the New Yorker about
the use of software to electronically document every
aspect of a person’s life; a popular work on Abraham
Lincoln’s use of the telegraph as an administrative
tool; a collection of essays on the scrapbook in Amer-ican
life. Cox’s point in the essays on this blog are
not so much about how archives work as about what
archives mean and how the essence of the archival
record is entwined with every aspect of society.
The Miners of Wabana
Gail Weir
For seventy-one years, iron
ore was mined at Wabana,
Bell Island: half the out-put
was used in Canada;
the other half was shipped
around the world. When
the mine shut down on
June 30, 1966, it was Can-ada’s
oldest, continuously
operating iron mine.
The miners worked
three miles under the ocean
in Conception Bay, in what was, during its lifetime,
the world’s most extensive submarine iron mine. This
is the story of the miners, of their workday, of the
conditions in the mines, the story of the horses and
the rats, of the fun that relieved the tedium and of the
tragedies. Available through BreakwaterBooks.
In Print
http://readingarchives.blogspot.com
(Continued from previous page)
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 11
It’s spring at last – and, in the familiar tradition of
Newfoundland and Labrador households, it’s time
for a good thorough housecleaning of the ANLA
website. It’s a big job to rework a website. As in
home decor, colours and layouts become dated and
need rethink-ing.
Content,
too, needs to
be reworked
to reflect the
changing priori-ties
of our orga-nization
and
the changing
demands of its
members. New
technology
presents a range
of new possibilities – and a lot of headaches!
ANLA Executive member Heather Wareham of
the Maritime History Archives is spearheading the
website project and admits it was time for ANLA to
have a new presence on the web. “In order to be rele-vant
to our members we needed a new home on the
web as a base for our services,” Wareham said. On
the technical side, Terry Sutton, ANLA’s IT Advisor,
is providing the technical expertise.
Mary Ellen Wright provides the reworked con-tent
– most of you will have heard from her about
your directory entries. The project has also benefited
from the editorial skills of ANLA member Tanya
Saunders of the Maritime History Archives.
Some of the new features of our refurbished
website: fresh colours, new graphics – featuring
images from ANLA member institutions – and a
new, modern feel. There will be more interactive
capacity for things like surveys, advocacy campaigns
and so on. We have plans in the near future for
on-line question-and-answer forums about arrange-ment
and description. You will want to check the site
on a regular basis to get all the latest updates!
The new website can be updated from the
ANLA office, so information on workshops, employ-ment
opportunities and events in the archival com-munity
can be posted as soon as they come in to
the ANLA office. The ANLA Directory can now be
updated direct to the website, ensuring that correct
contact information for institutional members is
always avail-able.
Remember
– this is your
website. Let us
know what you
think of our
new look. Tell
us what you
want to see, or
what you wish
you could do
online.
Faculty of Medicine Founders’ Archive
Set to Launch New Exhibit
(St. John’s) The Faculty of Medicine Founders’
Archive is creating a virtual exhibit called, “The
Early Days of The Medical School at Memorial
University.” The Medical School opened in 1967
with the appointment of its first Dean, and then in
1969 the first students entered the medical program.
The exhibit will contain textual records in the form
of newspaper clippings, Newsletter articles, and
Faculty of Medicine’s section of the first ten years
in the University Calendar. The exhibit will also
feature photographs of the Official Opening of the
Health Sciences Centre and of the construction of
the Health Sciences Centre; and Moving Images,
produced in the early years of the Medical School.
A timeline of events relevant to the Medical School
and medicine in the province of Newfoundland and
Labrador will also be highlighted. The project will be
completed in the Spring, 2007.
Stephanie Harlick,
Archivist, Faculty of Medicine Founders’ Archive
A New Look for the ANLA Website
News
12 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
With the start of another new
year and with the end of the
2006-2007 fiscal year coming to
a close, the staff of The Rooms,
Provincial Archives are busy
with new and existing projects,
exhibits and special initiatives. In
this issue of the Bulletin, I would
like to provide an overview of
some current work areas and key
priorities.
Description
In terms of arrangement and
descriptive projects, Cath-erine
Rice, Elizabeth Fewer
and Beverly Gleeson are busy
working on an ambitious
project to improve access on
the records of the Colonial
Secretary’s Office. Led by
Descriptive Standards Archivist Jessie Chisholm and
Conservator Bev Lambert, this project is making
great progress to improve access to one of the old-est
and most valuable collections at the Archives.
Incredible discoveries and improvements are being
made with this complex collection of records and
although much work remains, researchers can
expect expanded search capacity, improved physi-cal
arrangement and new descriptive tools for these
records in the future.
The ongoing cooperative project between the Pro-vincial
Archives and the International Grenfell Associa-tion
to improve access on the IGA records at the Archives
is also continuing. With Phase 1 of the Colonial Secretary
project scheduled to finish in March, work on the IGA
project will resume shortly afterwards. Stay tuned for
future news of this exciting project.
Exhibits
In terms of exhibits, the Provincial Archives is part-nering
with the Provincial Art Gallery and Provin-cial
Museum to present Rocky Shores and Stormy
Seas (The Atlantic Region): The Peter Winkworth
Collection of Canadiana – an exhibit from Library
and Archives Canada. Guest curator Manfred
Bucheit brings a new exhibit
to our space on the 3rd floor at
The Rooms this summer. It will
feature amazing images selected
from our Still and Moving
Images section created by the
historic Holloway family of
photographers.
New Staff
In terms of staffing and organi-zational
news, two new Archi-vist
positions in our Still and
Moving images section and
Manuscript/Cartographic sec-tion
have been filled. Like the
other divisions of the Rooms
Corporation, the Provincial
Archives will have a new Advi-sory
Committee in place in the
near future. With new terms of reference and new
appointments, it is hoped this committee will offer
advice and guidance to the staff and management
of the Provincial Archives in the future, especially
throughout the ongoing strategic and operational
planning process being undertaken by The Rooms
Corporation.
Government Records
The Rooms, Provincial Archives is also currently
engaged in several important initiatives with the
Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).
Through its Government Services section, Archives
staff are assisting with the Government Records Ini-tiative
project – a project to clear existing backlogs
of government records in government owned build-ings
around the city and province. Led and funded
by the OCIO, this project is ensuring that important
archival material within these collections are find-ing
their way to the Archives, and that non-archival
material is disposed of in an efficient and proper
manner. Other cooperative work with the OCIO
includes participating in committee and working
groups concerned with Information Management
News
Update from The Rooms, Provincial Archives
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 13
News
(St. John’s) The Terra Nova Council (1452) of the
Knights of Columbus in St. John’s, have a new
museum and archive at its clubrooms on St. Clare
Avenue, St. John’s .
Terra Nova Council is the second oldest
Knights of Columbus council in the province, having
been formed in November, 1909.
The museum and archive is the result of a year’s
work on the part of Knights Jim Power and Kevin
Dormody.
The project had its start quite by accident in
June 2005 when then Grand Knight John Power
asked Jim Power to help clean out the main office
and put things in storage in the basement.
“Stored in the basement they discovered a lot of
old material and items pertaining to the Knights of
Columbus and in particular Terra Nova Council. At
that point, Jim approached me to give him a hand in
culling the material to determine what was good and
what was not,” Dormody says.
Following that, Jim Power came up with the
idea of starting an archive so that the old documents
and artifacts could be put on permanent display in
the clubrooms.
The museum/archives also contains many pho-tos
including shots of the original K of C club on St.
Clare Avenue, a photo of Thomas Armstrong, and
pictures of the funeral procession for victims of the
1942 K of C Hostel Fire.
One of the biggest hurdles that faced Jim Power
and Kevin Dormody was trying to identify the many
old photos they found in the basement. In fact, many
of the photos have yet to be identified.
When Jim Power and Kevin Dormody got near
the stage of being ready to put things on display,
they realized they really had no idea of the best way
to proceed.
“We consulted archivist Larry Dohey with the
Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Archives. He in turn
suggested that exhibit designer Catherine Rice could
lend her expertise in developing the actual displays,”
Dormody says.
Rice designed the space by selecting paint, cur-tains,
blinds, and over-saw the hanging of pictures
and arranging of artifacts in display cases.
New Archive for Knights Of Columbus
within the Government of Newfoundland and Lab-rador,
advising on policy documents and guides for
e-mail management, working with departments on
the ongoing management of semi-active government
records, facilitating the operations of the Govern-ment
Records Centre and the Public Records Com-mittee,
etc.
Finally, regular archival operations are continu-ing
to improve and expand. Impressive numbers of
clients and researchers are visiting The Rooms daily,
valuable donations and additions to the Archives
holdings are increasing and we are engaged in
a comprehensive review of existing policies and
procedures around copyright, donations, access,
forms management, etc. – all in an effort to improve
services throughout our areas of archival operations.
With creative & hard working staff and dedicated
volunteers, there is much activity happening at The
Rooms, Provincial Archives. All these projects, plans
and developments are too numerous to mention but
we hope to focus on more specific news and updates
in future issues of the ANLA Bulletin.
Greg Walsh
Director/Provincial Archivist
New Staff at the Rooms
The Archives at the Rooms added two
new staff members this past spring.
Amanda Jamieson has been hired as the
new Manuscript/Cartographic Archivist,
and Blythe Koreen now heads the Still
and Moving Images collections.
(Update - Continued from previous page)
14 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
The Vatican Archives and the Local Church
(St. John’s) The Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese
(ARCASJ) partnered with the Office of the Arch-bishop
of St. John’s on May 24 offering a lecture to
sixty guests on some of the activities and programs
of the church archives. The lecture was presented b y
Monsignor Francis Coady.
In June 2002 Monsignor Coady was appointed
by Pope John Paul 11 as a Consultant to the Pon-tifical
Commission for the Cultural Goods of the
Church, for a term of five years. The Pontifical Com-mission
is responsible for preserving the artistic and
historical heritage of the entire Church, including
the Vatican Archives and the Vatican Library.
Monsignor Coady will focused his talk on the
wealth of documents and artifacts of historic and
artistic significance in the Archdiocese of St. John’s.
During his presentation he pointed out
some statistics about the researchers who use the
resources of the Archdiocesan Archives. In 2006
the Archdiocesan Archives welcomed 529 research
requests.
During the past year the larger proportion
were again genealogists – (260 requests) we had an
increase in the number of public historians, (110)
more demand from the academic community at
Memorial, (80) an increase from students working
on school projects - such as Heritage Fairs, (80) and
an increase of requests from media. (39)
He told his audience that as more researchers
become aware of the archives he anticipates that
more demands will be placed on the resources of the
archives.
St. Bonaventure’s College is one
of the oldest and most recognized
educational facilities in St. John’s,
Newfoundland. Designed by James
Purcell and built by Patrick Keough,
the school opened in 1856 and con-tinues
to prosper today. Graduates of
St. Bon’s have held leading positions
in the educational world, the political
sphere, the business world, and the
literary scene. The alumni also include
eleven Bishops and Archbishops, and
over one hundred priests and Monsi-gnori.
This work tells the story of the
building, the students, the teachers
and the history behind this institution.
Brother Darcy completed exten-sive
research in the Archives of the
Congregation and the Archives of
the R.C. Archdiocese of St. John’s in
the process of writing the book.
The book is available in most
book stores in the province.
Noble To Our View
The Saga of St. Bonaventure’s College
News
Monsignor Francis Coady
ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007 15
Matthew Byrne Wins Lieutenant
Governor’s Award
ANLA wishes to extend congratulations to Matthew
Byrne for his recent Manning award, the Dr. Paul
O’Neill Scholarship. The scholarship, given annually
to students who excel in the area of Newfoundland
Studies, was given to Matthew for his work with the
History department during the past two years of his
undergraduate degree. Matthew has just completed
Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in History, with a minor in
Newfoundland History. His honours paper looked
at the local protest movement in the province in the
early 1960s.
During his studies, Matthew made extensive
use of the records at the Centre for Newfound-land
Studies, and has worked at the Archives of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese in St. John’s. He is
beginning a master’s degree in History this coming
fall.
ANLA Employee Wins Arts and Letter’s Award
Terry Sutton, ANLA’s contract Network Advisor, was
named one of the winners in this year’s Arts and Let-ter’s
Awards.
Beginning in 1951, the awards have showcased
the province’s rich visual, musical, literary, and
performing art. By providing cash prizes, adjudica-tion,
and publication of winning entries, the Awards
have given a creative outlet for both professional and
amateur artists.
Terry’s winning entry was a photograph submit-ted
in the Visual Art category. His still life, Industrial
Eggs, was chosen as one of this year’s fifteen winners.
Provincial Archivist – Saint’s and Birth
(St. John’s) Provincial Archivist, Greg Walsh, and
his wife Karla (Smith) have announced the birth of
their first child a precious baby girl, Shannon Denise,
weighing 8 lbs. 5.5 ozs., arriving safely on Friday,
August 10, 2007.
The date has significance in the archival com-munity
– in the Christian tradition - August 10 is the
feast day of St. Lawrence the Patron Saint of Archi-vists.
He is a third century saint and martyr (died AD
258) who had responsibility for the written archives
and records of the early church.
As librarian and archivist, Lawrence was
thought to have a list of all the members of the early
church, and the locations of all the mythical hid-den
hoards of gold belonging to the Vatican. He was
given only two days to bring all the treasures to the
imperial palace. Lawrence gathered up the all the
diseased, orphaned or crippled Christians on the
appointed day, brought them to the palace, and told
the startled emperor that “These are the treasures of
the church!”
According to tradition, for his presumed impu-dence,
Lawrence was then slowly roasted on a grill on
the site of the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Rome, His
feast day is August 10th, and is usually celebrated by
ABOVE; Matthew Byrne receives his award from Paul O’Neill.
BELOW: Industrial Eggs, 2007 Arts and Letters Awards winner.
Awards
16 ANLA Bulletin, Summer 2007
Application for ANLA Membership
Mail To:
ANLA
PO Box 23155
St. John’s, NF
A1C 4J9
anla@nf.aibn.com
Fax: (709) 729-7989
Membership Fee
Individual or Institutional $25
 Religious
 Municipal
 Folklore/Oral History
 Women’s Archives
 Museum/Archives
 Transportation
 Francophone
 Medical
Archival Interests
Workshop: Grant Writing for Small Archives
September 28, 2007 (9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.)
The Rooms, St. John’s
This workshop is held in conjunction with ANLA’s
Annual General Meeting on September 27, 2007
Fellow archivists, grants adjudicators and other
experts in the language and administration of grants
will lead you through the sometimes arcane world of
funding agencies.
• Find out how to determine if a granting program
is right for your institution
• Match your objectives with those of a granting
program
• Interpret the language of granting agencies
• Think creatively about how to match grant mon-ies
• Discover sources for grants and contributions
Participants will complete and adjudicate mock grant
applications from several agencies to gain hands-on
experience of these bureaucracies.
Instructors: Mary Ellen Wright (Professional Devel-opment
and Outreach Officer, Association of New-foundland
and Labrador Archives) and a panel of
grant experts from the archival community of New-foundland
and Labrador.
Fees: : Members: $50
Non-members: $75
Registration Deadline: September 17
Some financial assistance for transportation costs is
available for members. Please contact the ANLA office
for more information:
Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives
(ANLA)
P.O. Box 23155, St. John’s NL, A1B 4J9
Telephone: 709-726-2867
E-mail: anla@nf.aibn.com
Name
Institutional Affiliation
(if applicable)
Address
Telephone:
E-mail:
Membership