The City of North Battleford Historic Archives celebrated their eighth annual Archives Week at the Discovery Co-op Territorial Place Mall in North Battleford Feb. 4 and Feb. 6.
The display was entitled “Aerial Views” of the Battlefords and surrounding area. There were approximately 123 photographs that had been labelled and highlighted showing areas in North Battleford, Battleford, Saskatchewan Hospital, Government Ridge, Cochin, Turtleford, Edam, Loon Lake, Hamelin and rural areas along Highway 16. These photographs were chosen out of a group of negatives that we had recently discovered in the Lorne Cooper Collection that was donated to the archives in 1996.
These aerial views have provided a great source of conversation and interest from volunteers and visitors at the archives. We had tried something new this year to give visitors a more hands-on approach as we arranged and enlarged the photographs and adhered them to coroplast so the image could be picked up and viewed.
Many visitors were interested in finding out “where their house was” in the early 1960s to ‘70s and spent time looking at historical landmarks. A PowerPoint with 30 images was also set up and running throughout the course of the day. Finally, we had a computer set up with a research list and help from a volunteer for anyone who was interested in accessing historical records such as census records, land grants, homestead records, historical newspapers, Saskatchewan cemeteries, Saskatchewan settlement records and ancestry search.
This was by far the most successful display we have ever had with approximately 600 people viewing the display over the two days. Comments recorded include statements such as:
“Found our house.”
“Thank you. Very interesting and nice visit.”
“Great display, do this again!”
“Epic.”
“Awesome.”
It must be noted that members from Lorne Cooper’s family were also in attendance. His daughter Wendy Rawlyk travelled to North Battleford to see the display and said, “It is truly an honour to have the Lorne Cooper Collection on display for Archives Week in Saskatchewan. The photographs on display reflect how important Lorne Cooper felt it was to preserve the history of the Battlefords.”
His son, Lorne Cooper Jr. said, “Dad would be extremely proud of this presentation.”
There were members of the community who took this opportunity to bring to the display, historical photographs and documents, to become part of the City of North Battleford Historic Archives permanent collection and we would like to say “thank you” for donating this material.
Community individuals and businesses supported this endeavour, including Discovery Co-op Territorial Place Mall, Andrew Friesen and Ultra Print.
Thank you to everyone who visited the display and a special thank you to the Saskatchewan Council of Archives and Archivists for funding this event. We look forward to next year’s Archives Week with a new and exciting theme.
— submitted by City of North Battleford Historic Archives volunteers Harvey Cashmore, Terry Lumsdon, Larry Kulyk, Ken Sanders, Bill Wells, Leola Macdonald, Val Fitzgerald and Dawne Tokaryk and archivist Tammy Donahue Buziak
