Marshall Blanchard Dean was an early physician in Fort William; his son Marshall Macdougall Dean had a career with the Canadian Coast Guard and a lifelong interest in history and genealogy. Collection includes correspondence, photographs, and research materials.
William Fitzgerald Langworthy collection
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.
Photographs and documents from the Silver Islet Mine and Silver Islet Store, including ledgers and a chart.
A rich deposit of silver was discovered on Silver Islet in 1868. A small island at the tip of the Sibley Peninsula, the mine was built deep below the waterline, and relied on breakwaters and pumps. Silver Islet was mined until 1884, when pumps failed, and the mine was flooded. The small community built on shore to support the mine is still inhabited.
Canadian Regional Wealth Micro-Data Collection
This collection consists of data on over 12,000 probated decedents in Ontario and Manitoba for 1872 to 1927. The historical probate wealth data was collected for four regional areas: Wentworth County, Ontario (1872-1927), Thunder Bay District, Ontario (1885-1927), Ontario (1892, 1902) and Manitoba (1873-1927). The data is in the form of hard copy survey sheets (paper records) and compiled spreadsheets (electronic records.)
A full description of the project and data can be read here: https://libguides.lakeheadu.ca/ld.php?content_id=36498994
Letters, minutes, reports, and other documents regarding schools at the Lakehead: early Port Arthur, Fort William, and the region.
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:
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.
The fonds consists of 357 file folders of Mel Bartley’s personal files. The files range from mining reports, publications, and claims. There is also an index for the reports, and a mining publications index.
The entire fonds is arranged alphabetically, as one series.
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
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.
Records were created, held, or gathered by Cairine Budner over the course of her association with the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society, and other local heritage organizations and sports organizations.
The fonds includes
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
Claude Garton was a teacher and botanist. He amassed a collection of over 10,000 plant specimens, which were donated to form the Herbarium at Lakehead University. These records relate largely to his plant observations and collections.
This time capsule reflects the intentions of the builders of the Labour Temple at the start of construction. It demonstrates an awareness of posterity and their hopes for the cultural significance of the building. The documents clearly reflect the socialist beliefs of the builders.
Canadan Teollisuusunionistinen Kannatus Liitto (CTKL) fonds
The CTKL fonds receives its title from Canadan Teollisuusunionistinen Kannatus Liitto, the Finnish organization which translates to the Canadian Industrial Union Support Circle. This organization was the majority shareholder of the Labour Temple at 314 Bay Street in Port Arthur from 1925 to 1972 and was disbanded in 1979. Prior to 1926, the central administration of the CTKL was in Sudbury after which it relocated to Port Arthur.
The CTKL was made up of supporters of industrial unionism who formed associations in their own local communities and observed rules and regulations as established by an executive committee. This executive committee, the Toimeenpanevakomitea (TPK), was comprised of members of the CTKL elected annually from the central administration and from the local associations. This committee managed the affairs of the league and supported industrial unionism through agitation by engaging speakers, supporting workers in their union activities, and through monetary assistance, as well as writing, publishing, and distributing written materials.
Significant cultural and social events at the Labour Temple and at other branches were supported by the CTKL during the peak years of labour organization.
The records contain minutes of meetings, correspondence, financial records, publications, and miscellaneous items. The fonds has been divided into series as follows:
A - Finnish Building Company
B - Hoito Restaurant
C - One Big Union
D - CTKL
E - Industrial Workers of the World
F - Lumber Workers Industrial Union #120
G - Canadian News Service
H - Miscellaneous
Journals, writings, and photographs describing the work of railway construction in the early 1900s.
Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario
Records include meeting minutes, financial information, and some personal/member information of branches and districts of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario. The records relate to work at the branch and district level of the organization, with the majority being within the Thunder Bay district.
Most of the records are minute books that also include financial information; they also contain newspaper clippings related to organization. There are also reports and convention information pamphlets.
Area: Northwestern Ontario
District: Thunder Bay
Branches: Port Arthur; Beardmore; Raith; Finnish Branch; Murillo.
Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö fonds
Records of the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö [Finnish Organization of Canada], Vapaus Publishing Company (responsible for publishing Vapaus and Liekki and other publications), Suomalais-Canadalaisen Amatoori Urheiluliiton [Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation], co-operatives, and more.
Includes meeting minutes, reports, financial statements, and correspondence related to the operations and administration of these organizations. Also includes a variety of document and pamphlets related to socialism, communism, and the peace movement in Canada and worldwide.
The Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada) is the oldest nationwide Finnish cultural organization in Canada. For over a century the CSJ has been one of the main organizations for Finnish immigrants in Canada with left-wing sympathies and, in particular, those with close ties to the Communist Party of Canada. Through the early to mid 1920s, Finnish-Canadians furnished over half the membership of the Communist Party and some, like A.T. Hill (born Armas Topias Mäkinen), became leading figures in the Party. Beyond support for leftist political causes, the cooperative and labour union movements, many local CSJ branches in both rural and urban centres established halls – some 70 of which were built over the years in communities across Canada – that hosted a range of social and cultural activities including dances, theatre, athletics, music, and lectures. The CSJ is also known for its publishing activities, notably the Vapaus (Liberty) newspaper.
The CSJ underwent several changes in its formative years related to both national and international developments. Founded in October 1911 as the Canadan Suomalainen Sosialisti Järjestö (CSSJ; Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada), the organization served as the Finnish-language affiliate of the Canadian Socialist Federation which soon after transformed into the Social Democratic Party of Canada (SDP). By 1914, the CSSJ had grown to 64 local branches and boasted a majority of the SDP membership with over 3,000 members. One year later the organization added two more local branches but membership had dropped to 1,867 members thanks, in part, to a more restrictive atmosphere due to Canada’s involvement in the First World War and an organizational split that saw the expulsion or resignation of supporters of the Industrial Workers of the World from the CSSJ.
In September 1918, the Canadian federal government passed Order-in-Council PC 2381 and PC 2384 which listed Finnish, along with Russian and Ukrainian, as ”enemy languages” and outlawed the CSSJ along with thirteen other organizations. The CSSJ successfully appealed the ban in December 1918 but dropped ”Socialist” from its name. The organization operated under the name Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö until December 1919. The SDP, however, did not recover from the outlawing of its foreign-language sections, leaving the CSJ without a political home. Stepping into this organizational vacuum was the One Big Union of Canada (OBU), founded in June 1919. The CSJ briefly threw its support behind this new labour union initiative, functioning as an independent ”propaganda organization of the OBU” until internal debates surrounding the structure of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union affiliate and the OBU decision not to join to the Moscow-headquartered Comintern led to its withdrawal shortly thereafter. In 1924, CSSJ activists including A.T. Hill helped to found the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada (LWIUC).
Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution that toppled the Tsarist Russian Empire in November 1917, and following the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) as an underground organization in May 1921, the CSSJ rapidly became an integral part of the nascent Communist movement in Canada. Reflecting this change, in 1922 the organization was renamed the Canadan Työläispuolueen Suomalainen Sosialistilärjestö (FS/WPC; Finnish Socialist Section of the Workers’ Party of Canada) – the Workers’ Party of Canada being the legal front organization of the CPC. In 1923, Finnish-Canadian Communists formed a separate cultural organization, the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada Inc.), to serve as a kind of ”holding company” ensuring that the organization’s considerable properties and assets would be safe from confiscation by the government or capture from rival left-wing groups. With the legalization of the CPC in 1924, the FS/WPC became the Canadan Kommunistipuolueen Suomalainen Järjestö (FS/CP; Finnish section of the Communist Party of Canada). Between 1922 and 1925, membership in the CSJ through its various transitions also doubled as membership in the Communist Party. This arrangement ended in 1925 when the FS/CP was disbanded following the ”bolshevization” directives of the Comintern. These directives demanded that separate ethnic organizations in North America be dissolved in favour of more disciplined and centralized party cells. It was hoped that this reorganization would help attract new members outside of the various Finnish, Ukrainian, and Jewish ethnic enclaves that had furnished the bulk of the CPC dues paying membership in Canada. From this point onwards, the CSJ officially functioned as a cultural organization but maintained a close, albeit sometimes strained, association with the CPC. The 1930s represent the peak of the CSJ size and influence, occuring during the Third Period and Popular Front eras of the international Communist movement. During this period CSJ union organizers assisted in the creation of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union – a unit of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of the American Federation of Labor, successor to the LWIUC – and the reemergence of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Sudbury and Kirkland Lake. CSJ activists also helped to recruit volunteers for the International Brigades that fought against nationalist and fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Finally, in the 1930s some 3,000 CSJ members or sympathizers embarked on the journey from Canada to the Soviet Union to help in the efforts to industrialize the Karelian Autonomous Soviet. Hundreds of Finns in Karelia would later perish in Stalin’s purges.
Despite the CSJ’s active support for the Canadian war effort, the organization was still deemed to be a threat to national security by the federal government and again outlawed in 1940. All FOC properties were seized and closed. The Suomalais Canadalaisten Demokraattien Liitto (SCDL; Finnish-Canadian Democratic League) served as the FOC’s main legal surrogate until the organization was legalized in 1943. The rapid decline of the FOC following this period is apparent from the fact that of the 75 locals in operation in 1936, only 36 remained active in 1950.
Further reading:
Edward W. Laine (edited by Auvo Kostianen), A Century of Strife: The Finnish Organization of Canada, 1901-2001 (Turku: Migration Institute of Finland), 2016.
Arja Pilli, The Finnish-Language Press in Canada, 1901-1939: A Study of Ethnic Journalism (Turku: Institute of Migration), 1982.
William Eklund, Builders of Canada: History of the Finnish Organization of Canada, 1911-1971 (Toronto: Finnish Organization of Canada), 1987.
Barnett-McQueen Construction Company fonds
The collection consists of architectural plans and drawings for construction projects (primarily grain elevators) in Ontario and Manitoba.
Raili Margaret (Virta) Charnesky (1936-2022) was born and raised in Port Arthur to parents Kalle and Impi Virta, both immigrants from Finland. Raili worked in the Mining Recorders Office, Ontario Department of Mines, in Thunder Bay, and became the Mining Recorder for the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in Sudbury and Toronto. She retired in 1993 after 40 years of public service.
These records primarily reflect family relationships, particularly the early death of her brother Olaf in 1951, and the deaths of her parents Kalle (1961) and Impi (1983). Records include family & genealogical information, photographs, memorial books and sympathy cards.
United Steelworkers of America District 6 fonds
Records relate to the United Steelworkers of Amercia's (USWA or U.S.W.A.) District 6, Northwestern Ontario, and industries, sites, and companies where Union members worked.
Files include: collective agreements between the union and various companies, correspondence between various company and mine representatives (notably Henry Gareau), as well as presidents of the local unions and officials at different levels of government.
Photographs of mining and transportation in Northwestern Ontario in the first part of the twentieth century.
Includes:
The fonds consists of notes, correspondence, bird observation data, and the natural history journals of Dr. Allen. The fonds contains the following series:
-Dr. A.E. Allen Bird Observations
-Natural History Notes of A.E. Allen
-Dr. A.E. Allen Ephemera
Lakehead University Library Papers / Chief Librarian’s Office
These are the records of the Chief Librarian (University Librarian) of Lakehead University (Lakehead Technical Institute, Lakehead College of Arts, Science, and Technology.)
The records document the management and administration of the Lakehead University Library, including the construction of the Library building, policies, acquisitions, staffing, and more. Correspondence provides insight into the workings of the library during a period of library and academic expansion, computerization and transition.
The Chief Librarian had a significant role as a member of University administration, and participated on Faculty Council, Senate, and numerous committees. Records here reflect those bodies and their work throughout this time period, including proposed and new programs, enrollment, new construction, governance, and long range planning.
The Library's role in partnership with other organizations provincially, nationally, and internationally is also represented. Many libraries were adopting new technologies at this time, which allowed for more communications and cooperation, on projects including computerized cataloguing and inter-library loan.
The time period covered in these records includes major developments and changes within Lakehead University, and in the cultures and technologies of universities and libraries.
Thunder Bay Co-Operative Dairy Ltd fonds
Records of the Thunder Bay Co-Operative Dairy, Ltd, which operated from 1928 to 1969.
The records include: the Board of Directors' meeting minutes, which provide detailed accounts of the Dairy's management and operation from its founding in 1928 through its eventual liquidation in 1972; a time book listing employee wages and deductions; a financial journal outlining the Co-Op's final years in production; and a folder containing various news clippings and written notes.