Since this was the summer vacation from school, Mum didn’t need to spend the evenings hearing lessons or helping with homework. Tonight, she sat at the kitchen table with a chocolate box of pictures that needed to be put in the album with the black pages. She arranged the snapshots in chronological order and then placed a black triangle sticker on each corner. My job was to wet the sticky part and Cliff would then carefully place the picture on the page. Mum then took a white wooden crayon and wrote a short description. Although there probably were only 30 pictures, it was an all evening task.

Luckily the employees of the Provincial Archives in Fredericton have an easier way to catalogue there 175,000 photographs contained in nearly 300 collections that illustrate the province and its people since the middle of the nineteenth century.

These photographs record daily life, and events both significant and commonplace. Subjects include architecture, natural landscapes, monuments, transportation, military life, celebrations and social occasions, sports and leisure activities, portraits, and people at work, in school and at worship.

The collections are used extensively in publications, exhibitions, lectures and educational programs, and are frequently selected to enhance the interiors of homes, businesses and public buildings.

There is an index and listings of the collections at the archives but it is not on the web at this time. The current price structure is $5.00 for an 5x7, $7.00 for an 8x10. Bigger sizes are also available. Orders can be sent to Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, N.B. Canada, E3B 5H1. Telephone (506) 453-2122. Fax(506) 453-3288.

I suggest you plan to spend a day viewing this wonderful collection at the archives, which is located at Bonar Law - Bennett Building, 23 Dineen Drive, U.N.B. Campus, Fredericton.

There are also holdings of sound and moving images. Footage includes professionally produced documentaries, travelogues and promotional clips, and "home movies". Items range from silent films in black and white, through color productions with sound, and  modern video cassettes. Among the topics covered are lumbering, commercial and sports fishing, public works, war activities, tourism and investment promotion, and election campaigns. Programs deposited by community television stations and the provincial affiliate of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation provide coverage of events, personalities, and special interest items, both past and current.

Visual and sound materials are documents with the same research potential as the more traditional paper format and the Provincial Archives continues to acquire such records. Although not every family photo or home movie contains research value beyond the interest of the family, a remarkable number of events and everyday occurrences have gone undocumented in New Brunswick and it is surprising the number of treasures warranting preservation that arrive at the archives from people's attics and basements each year.
 
 

Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff living in Saint John. Send your queries to her at: 47 Jean St., Saint John, N.B., Canada, E2J 1J8. Or E-mail her at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca.  Include your name and mailing address for the benefit of those who do not have access to E-mail. Please put Family Surname followed by the word 'Query' in the subject line. That is Smith & Jones - Query.