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Archival description
Port Arthur (ON)
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Finnpraxis Project

Collected records related to organized labour and the Finnish community in Thunder Bay. Include records related to the Canadan Suomalaisen Jarjesto (Finnish Organization of Canada), Vapaus Publishing Company, Canadan Farmarien Yhteysliitto (Farmers' Unity League of Canada), Lumber & Agricultural Workers Industrial Union of Canada.

Also includes forms and notes related to oral history interviews.

Collections

Original records and research collections arranged by a variety of subjects and creators.

  • Bay Street Project research materials
  • Business & industry
  • Genealogy, people, & families
  • Greeting cards
  • News articles
  • Einar Nordstrom collection (phonographs & transcripts)
  • Organizations (including Suomalainen Osasto (Finnish Association), Finnish Building Company, Canadan Teollisuusunionistinen Kannatus Liitto (CTKL), Canadan Uutistoimisto (CUT), Vapaus Publishing Company, Tyolaisnaisten Liitto, Port Arthur Finnish History Society, Port Arthur Finnish Language School)

Miscellaneous

Articles, clippings, research notes, correspondence, copies of organizational minutes, diaries, and other materials not categorized elsewhere in the TBFCHS collection. Includes materials related to the Finnish Building Company, Otava Male Choir, and a diary of the Finnish Civil War.

Barnett-McQueen Construction Company fonds

  • Fonds
  • 1913 - 1955

The collection consists of architectural plans and drawings for construction projects (primarily grain elevators) in Ontario and Manitoba.

The Finnish Building Company

Account books and minute books of the Finnish Building Company, an organization formed in 1909 to raise funds for the construction of the Finnish Labour Temple (Big Finn Hall) at 314 Bay Street.

R. J. Flatt collection

  • Collection
  • 1874 - 1936

The collection consists of legal files and documents, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and drawings from the legal firm Wink & Cameron (Port Arthur). The collection consists of the following series:

  1. Legal Documents
  2. Drawings

James Whalen collection

  • Collection
  • 1896 - 1990

The collection consists of photo albums, photographs, newspaper clippings, assets, agreements, stocks, bonds, certificates, correspondence, miscellaneous items, and two videos with the same recording. The collection is composed of three sous-fonds:
-James Whalen
-Laurel Conmee and James Conmee
-Thunder Bay Hydro

Prints

Photographs of Bertrand's travels in Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesota, probably 1940s and 1950s. Includes Kakabeka Falls, the Port Arthur Waterfront, and several reproductions of unidentified older portrait photographs.

Most subjects are not identified in any way.

Photographic prints; negatives are also described as #13d.

William Fitzgerald Langworthy collection

  • Collection
  • 1870 - 1949

Photographs and documents, generally collected because they would be of interest regarding the history of Port Arthur and Fort William. Includes rail and CPR, ships, fishing, and social and sporting groups.

General Archives collection

  • Collection

Many individual items and small collections have been described as part of the General Archives.

Amerikan Laulajat fonds

  • Fonds
  • 1956 - 2002

An umbrella organization for Finnish male choruses in North America.

The records relate to the organization's administration and finances, and to major events including nine performing tours of Finland and performances in North America.

Member choirs have included:
Chicago: Sibelius Male Chorus
Detroit: Finlandia Male Chorus
Florida: Male Singers of Florida
Los Angeles: Finnish Male Chorus
New York: New Yorkin Laulumiehet
Sault Ste Marie: Sault Finnish Male Chorus "Kaleva"
Sudbury: Sudburyn Laulumiehet
Thunder Bay: Mieskuoro Otava Male Choir
Toronto: Toronton Mieslaulajat
Vancouver: Vancouverin Mieslaulajat

Kajander Family fonds

  • Fonds
  • 1900 - 1970

Einar and Hilma Kajander were immigrants from Finland, and were active in local organizations. Their son Art was a lawyer, and later Finnish Consul. Grandchild Ann is faculty at Lakehead University.

These photographs depict the Kajander family and their friends, in and about the Port Arthur area, approximately 1900 to 1970. The photographs include studio portraits and candid photographs printed at a variety of sizes. The images primarily depict family life and outdoor recreation.

Einar Kajander (1882-1973) and Hilma (Muhonen) Kajander (1886-1965) met in Canada and married in Port Arthur in 1909. Einar worked as a miner, and later opened a grocery store in Port Arthur. Both were involved with local sports organizations and the Finnish Labour Temple, and Hilma sang in Oras Choir.

Aatto Arthur Kajander (1913-1998) attended university in Toronto, was a lawyer in Thunder Bay for 55 years, and served as Finnish Consul appointed in 1957. He was also heavily involved in music and outdoor activities.

Frederick O. Robinson fonds

  • Fonds
  • 1937 - 1963

Frederick O. Robinson was born in Port Arthur, Ontario on Aug. 2, 1903. He attended public and high school in Port Arthur and then served his apprenticeship to the machinist trade in the C.N.R. shops. He worked for 25 years as a skilled machinist in the Port Arthur shops of the C.N.R. until his election to the Ontario legislature in 1943. He continued to work as a C.N.R. machinist between sessions of the legislature, and after his election to the office of mayor, he worked in the C.N.R. shops on weekends.

He entered public life in January 1943 when he was elected to the Port Arthur Board of Education. In August of the same year he was elected to the Ontario legislature as C.C.F. member for Port Arthur. He was M.L.A. for Port Arthur until his defeat in 1951. In civic affairs, he remained on the Board of Education until 1946 when he was elected as alderman. In 1949, he became Mayor of Port Arthur; he remained in this post except for 1952 when he was defeated until 1955 when he resigned to become personnel manager for the Public Utilities Commission. He left active political life at this time. He resigned from the Public Utilities Commission in 1966 because of ill health. In July, 1969, he died.

The Frederick O. Robinson fonds comprises 7 feet of correspondence, clippings, pamphlets, articles and other material and is contained in seventeen transfer cases. The folder titles in the main are those designated by Mr. Robinson. Some re-arrangement of the material has been effected in order to comply with the folder titles. Since the folders themselves were in no apparent order when .they were donated to the university, the following arrangement was thought to be most suitable for research purposes:
I. Pre-1943 Period
II. Political Affairs (relating to the C.C.F.)
III. The Ontario Legislature and Provincial Affairs, 1943-51
IV. Provincial and Local Affairs.
V. Local and Municipal Affairs.
VI. General
VII. Miscellaneous

Rev. Toivo Pajala fonds

  • Fonds
  • 1934 - 1985

Records of Reverend Toivo Johannes Pajala (1903-1972), minister of Saalem Pentecostal Church.

Toivo Pajala was born Dec 31, 1903, in Vimpeli, Finland. His family was Lutheran, with some ties to the Pentecostal Church. Pajala migrated to Canada at age 19, and was in Port Arthur at least by 1923. For many years he made a living as a bushworker.

Religion became an important part of Pajala's life: he became Laestadian, then Pentecostal. He attended the Western Bible College in Winnipeg for two years, and then was ordained in 1946 in Toronto. He married his wife Sylvia in 1949 shortly before returning to Port Arthur.

From 1949 to 1963, Pajala was pastor of Saalem Finnish Pentecostal Church in Port Arthur. In 1951, he established a Finnish-language Pentecostal radio program on CKPR, particularly reaching bushworkers and others in rural areas, and people unable to leave their homes. He was also well known for supporting immigrants to the region, and providing funeral services when others would not.

Pajala spent 1963-1967 as a pastor in Waukegan, Illinois. After 1967, he officially retired, and returned to Port Arthur, where he was still active in the church. His death was in 1972.

Most of the records in this fonds relate to either Pajala's religious education in the 1940s (organized by class or by notebook) or the sermons he gave in Finnish or English, in Port Arthur and by radio (organized loosely by theme.)

The last few files of the fonds relate to a project after Pajala’s death: to interview those who knew him and memorialize him. The book “Kansanpappi Toivo Pajala,” written by Tellervo Kähärä and available in the Library, is a result of that work.

J P Bertrand Collection

  • Collection
  • 1878 - 1957

Consists of photographs of particularly mining development in Northwestern Ontario in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the waterfront and shipping, local scenery, and notable figures. Also includes some correspondence; railway construction plans.

Finlandia Club collection

  • Collection
  • 1903 - 1965

Collection is organized into the following series:
I. Hoito Restaurant
II. Port Arthur Workingmen’s Association: Imatra no. 9
III. C.T.K.L. (Canadian Industrial Unions: Port Arthur’s Finnish Association)
IV. C.U.T. (Canadian News Service) and C.T.K.L.
V. Finlandia Club
VI. Finnish Socialist Local no. 6: Port Arthur
VII. Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union of the One Big Union
VIII. New Attempt Temperance Society
IX. Finnish Athletic Club: Nahjus
X. Finnish Building Company
XI. Miscellaneous

Hoito Restaurant

The Hoito Cooperative Restaurant was established in 1918, to serve the needs of Finnish-Canadian workers in Port Arthur, and still operates from the Finnish Labour Temple, 314 Bay Street.

This collection is made up of minute books and account books covering the early years of the restaurant's operations.

Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society collection

  • Collection

A vast and varied collection of records documenting the experiences of Finnish immigrants to Northwestern Ontario. Includes correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, interviews, published material, and ephemera. The photograph collection is extensive and covers a wide range of subjects.

The records are arranged into the following series:
A - Bay Street Project
B - Finnpraxis Project
C - Collections
D - Photographs
E - Miscellaneous
F - Finnish Experience

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