THUNDER BAY — Residents and researchers still need to make the trek to 235 Vickers Street to access materials from the City of Thunder Bay’s archives, but they can now see what the archives hold at the click of a mouse.
The city archives has launched an online portal allowing the public to search its “finding aids,” which list the titles and descriptions of the more than 17 million pages of historical records the archives contain.
Until now, that information could be accessed only at the Harry Kirk Archives and Records Centre on Vickers Street.
“We’re very excited to offer this new search tool to the public,” said city archivist Christina Wakefield. “Our mandate is to promote the city’s history, and now anyone can browse our collection no matter where they are.”
Full records from the archives can be accessed by appointment. More information is available at the city’s website.
In some cases, the finding aids also contain digitized thumbnails of photos from the archives. Work to digitize all of its photos is ongoing, Wakefield said.
The archives’ holdings date back as far as the 1880s, encompassing everything from property records and tax rolls to records of city bylaws and agreements.
Wakefield said the archives are most commonly accessed for land and property issues, but are also used by those interested in genealogy, and for academic and city projects. She hopes the newfound visibility of the documents online will spur further interest.
"A lot of people just haven't had the chance to see what we have, so they haven't even thought of us as a place to go for what they're researching," she said.
City staff have also highlighted the importance of the archives by pointing to its role supplying key evidence in the city’s 2019 legal victory against CN Rail in the James Street Bridge case.
The city is also set to move ahead in 2023 and 2024 with a major physical expansion of the archives, as the current facility approaches capacity.
The online portal can be accessed at: https://www.thunderbay.ca/en/city-hall/search-the-archives.aspx
