In 1988, the Council of the City of North Battleford authorized the formation of a Committee to develop and oversee a new entity, the North Battleford City Archives. The first committee was composed of Bob Clipperton (president), John Jansen (recording secretary), Ivor Newsham (treasurer), Anne Marie Hillson, Julie Stroo, Dick Bunce and Connie Wilson. Years later, to better reflect the historic content of its holdings, the archives name changed to become the City of North Battleford Historic Archives.
The archives continuously collects, computer catalogues and maintains historic papers, documents and photographs depicting the developing history of the city of North Battleford. At present the archives holdings' consist of over 400 individual collections donated by citizens and city organizations. These collections contain approximately 8,900 records and a collection of over 7,000 photographs. The processing of these items is supervised by a part-time city archivist assisted by nine volunteer committee members.
The archives provides support for provincial and community celebrations, business conferences, trade shows and classroom history presentations. The archives is actively involved in the City of North Battleford's 2013 centennial celebrations. The archives team used the photographic collection to produce a centennial book, Reflections of North Battleford, commissioned by the City of North Battleford. This photo collection also provided the inspiration for many of the sketches and stories by Julian Sadlowski (1935-2012) in his centennial book, Pictorial History of North Battleford 100 Years 1913-2013, just recently released.
The archives will be celebrating Archives Week in the province Feb. 2-8 by presenting displays of historical significance in our local malls. The viewing public will have an opportunity to visit our displays and talk with committee members about personal collections that could be valuable additions to our present collection.
The City of North Battleford Historic Archives is located in the Don Ross Centre, Room 111, and can be contacted at 306-445-1786 or City Hall 306-445-1719. A link to the archives is found on the city website at www.cityofnb.ca under City Government.
