The Northwestern Ontario Regional Day Care Committee / Child Care Committee operated from the 1970s to the 1990s. The Committee was a grassroots organization made up of child care workers, administrators, parents, and others concerned with the provision of child care in the region. The Committee was engaged in advocacy work, as well as supporting the work of child care centres and professionals.

Records of the Committee include minutes, membership lists, newsletters, correspondence, and other records associated with the advocacy activities of the organisation. Includes correspondence with governments and partner organizations.

The 1978 Young Canada Works "Herstory" project's aim was to compile material on women pioneers in Northwestern Ontario with the intention of using the material to write a book on the same theme. The hope was to illustrate the lives and achievements of Northwestern Ontario women and stimulate further interest in women's contribution to Northwestern Ontario history.

The material here was collected through interviews with over 100 women around Northwestern Ontario. Records include 70 audio cassettes with taped interviews, recorded largely in 1975, and mostly accompanied by transcripts. The records also contain research notes, news articles and photographs, related to Northwestern Ontario communities and fields of activity relating to women's history. They also include correspondence, reports, financial and other administrative records of the project leaders and workers.

The project work did not continue through to the writing of a book. These records were held but largely untouched until a project review in 1993.

In the Decade Council's 1993 report, three objectives were listed: To validate women’s contributions within the context of NWO; to restore and catalogue the records of women’s lives in NWO; and to create a resource that would provide a perspective on women’s Herstory in NWO. A detailed summary of those interviewed, their location and details on whether there is a transcript or release form were created. This report concluded with multiple recommendations with the aim of preserving the tapes and collected materials for eventual public use. This project was not continued, and the material was stored in various locations until its donation in 2024.

The correspondence, government employment program material, reports, and minutes for Paul McRae's years as Liberal MP for Fort William and then Thunder Bay-Atikokan. The records cover both national and local issues.

McRae was first elected in 1972, and served four terms in Parliament until 1984.

Correspondence and papers of the Pigeon River Lumber Company, primarily in the 1930s and 1940s. Includes the original Letters Patent. Many of the records relate to lands in the Township of Pardee.

Note that file 82A also includes a partial Port Arthur voters' list, used as scrap paper.

This fond consists of master tapes and related materials from Kuvakulma, the monthly Thunder Bay-produced Finnish-language television programme.

Kuvakulma was produced between 1990 and 1998 by Pirjo Hirvonen and a team of volunteers, working at the McLean Hunter television station. The programme was an hour long, and focused on Finnish community happenings in Thunder Bay and Canada. Many episodes also featured segments from Finland, and brief English-language segments.

Pirjo Hirvonen was born in Finland, and moved to Thunder Bay in the 1980s. She has worked in multiple Finnish-language media in Canada, including writing for Canadan Uutiset, producing Kuvakulma and the Finnish-language religious programme Tiimalasi for television, and the weekly radio programme Ulkonainen for Lakehead University Campus Radio (CILU).

Documents, correspondence, and collective agreements with the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, in Port Arthur / Thunder Bay.

A set of posters created or kept by Pride Central on the Thunder Bay Lakehead campus: demonstrating a variety of LGBTQ+ events on and off campus.

Records relate to research carried out by Viitala and colleagues at Lakehead University as part of the Acidic Precipitation In Ontario Study. Field research was done at Hawkeye Lake northwest of Thunder Bay, and at Pukaskwa National Park. The records include data, photographs, reports and research papers. Some records also relate specifically to the International Symposium on Acidic Precipitation held at Muskoka on September 15-20, 1985.

Records date primarily 1980-1988, with some additional documents from 2018 and 2022.

Viljo Rosvall and Janne Voutilainen, while working to organize lumber workers with the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada (LWIUC) at Onion Lake, disappeared in November 1929 and were later found dead. These deaths have been contested: many believe that they were killed for their work in the labour movement, while the official inquest stated their deaths were accidental and due to drowning.

This collection of records includes academic and popular articles related to the deaths of Rosvall and Voutilainen, and materials related to their grave site and memorials. The most significant item here is an affidavit made by Arthur Alanko to Ernie Epp and Paul Pugh: he states that while visiting Finland in 1990 he was given information about men who had killed Rosvall and Voutilainen and then returned to Finland. This information is new to the story as generally understood and told as part of Thunder Bay's popularly understood history.

St. Urho's Day is celebrated on March 16 each year in Thunder Bay, as well as in many Finnish-Canadian and Finnish-American Communities. These records relate to both the wider holiday and to its celebration in Thunder Bay.

St. Urho is a [fictional] Finnish saint, renowned for driving the grasshoppers (or, in early legends, frogs) out of the Finnish vineyards. The story of St. Urho originated in Minnesota in the 1950s, and it has over time become a popular aspect of Finnish-American and Finnish-Canadian culture. People wear purple and green to participate in parades, celebrations, and performances.

Records relating to Steve Mantis's work in injured workers' rights and advocacy, including with: Thunder Bay District Injured Workers Support Group; Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups; and the Worker's Compensation Board (WSIB). Records of research projects. New Directions Speakers' School. Poverty reduction initiatives. Bay Credit Union Social Responsibility Committee. Run for MPP in 2011 Ontario election as NDP candidate for Thunder Bay-Superior North.

While records are divided into series by organization/association, it will be clear to readers that the work of many of these organizations overlaps and interconnects. Mantis's role was often as a connector, building synergy and solidarity between organizations.

These records relate to the activities of the Suomalainen Puistoyhdistys [Finnish Garden Committee] of Thunder Bay, in developing the Finland Monument at the International Friendship Gardens in Thunder Bay.

The International Friendship Garden was developed as a Centennial Project in 1967 by the Soroptimist Club of Fort William and Port Arthur. At the intersection of Victoria Ave and Waterloo St, it includes monuments representing 18 different ethnic groups. The International Friendship Garden project provided designated spaces; each garden was planned, designed and funded by different cultural organizations to represent their country.

The Finnish Garden is one of these eighteen dedicated garden spaces, and was created in two stages. Suomalainen Puistoyhdistys, the Finnish Garden Committee, was founded in November 1971, sponsored by the Central Organization of Finnish Societies. Work began in 1972. A sculpture of two large bronze swans in flight was created in Finland, by Professor Armas Hutri, with the base built locally with granite from Dryden, Ontario. The Whooper Swan is the national bird of Finland. The Immigrants Statue celebrating the Centennial of Finnish settlement in 1876 was unveiled on Juhannus, in June 1976. The Finnish Garden was dedicated on June 24 1979.

These records reflect the development of the garden/monument, and also include photographs, books, and news clippings from the period after the Gardens were established. They appear to have been collected and maintained by Pentti Junni, Chairman of the Finnish Garden Committee.

Card catalogue from the Suomi Koti library.

Suomi Koti of Thunder Bay is a seniors' residence in Thunder Bay. The organization was founded in 1984; the building, consisting of 60 apartment units, was opened in 1988. Suomi Koti was developed to meet the needs of Finnish-Canadian seniors

The library was built from donations and purchases by residents over the years. It held titles in Finnish and in English; the Finnish-language materials were often published in and brought from Finland and were difficult to access through Canadian libraries or booksellers. This library reflected a body of reading material of Finnish-speaking people in Thunder Bay in the later part of the twentieth century.

In 2025, the library collections were weeded significantly to make room for new furniture and better meet the needs of current residents. Some titles were donated to Lakehead University Library at this time. The Finnish-language card catalogue has been acquired by the Archives to preserve a record of the library's former collections and how it reflected the culture of its users.

Material collected related to the creation and publication of the book "Sweating with Finns: Sauna Stories from North America," edited by Kaarina Kailo, Raija Warkentin, and Jorma Halonen, and published 2005 by the Centre for Northern Studies, Lakehead University.

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.

The fonds consists of minutes, membership lists, newsletters, correspondence, a photograph and four negatives, bird census data, and other records associated with the activities of the club. The fonds consists of the following series:

1. Constitution and Bylaws
2. Minutes
3. Treasurer
4. Club History
5. Membership Lists
6. Newsletter
7. Research and Information
8. Lobbying
9. Conferences
10. 50th Anniversary
11. Ephemera

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