Archiving the Queen's University Archives

In an October 11, 1968 Whig article, the Queen's University Archives are profiled. Housed at the time in the Douglas Library, the Archivist at the time was John H. Archer and his assistant, Ian Wilson. Along with Wilson, Rose Mary Gibson is pictured with archival documents. At that time, the Archives had been preserving documents for 100 years, with their first acquisition - Fort Niagara's 1812-1813 Orderly Book!

By 1968, the Archives' main areas of preservation were University archives, as well as those of business, political, religious and literary spheres. And a 'mountain of material' had already been amassed. Those are some hoary-looking books (right). They're captioned as 'old record books' in the article! Even at this time, it was known that 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 50% humidity and acid-free containers were optimal for archival storage.

The 'young archivist' is shown examining the Queen's University Charter, and when interviewed, hoped that the archives would become a depository for Kingston-area businesses' records. Not only would the Archives preserve documents for posterity, they would alleviate the strain on the companies of retaining files. Interestingly, it was Ian Wilson who found himself in the loft of an ancient storage shed on Ontario Street in the summer of 1968, just a few months before this article was published. There, he sorted through several tons of poorly-preserved Kingston Shipyards records. At that time, the shipyards were closing. The result was R2246, the Kingston Shipyards Collection - a useful supplement to the main records of the company that resided in Collingwood, ON. 

A debt of gratitude should go to these behind-the-scenes preservationists. It is through their efforts that modern-day researchers can step back into the past.