Primary Sources : Canada
Newspapers
- The Globe and Mail: Canada's heritage from 1844 This link opens in a new windowOver 1.4 million pages from Canada's national newspaper
- Toronto Star : Pages of the Past This link opens in a new windowContains the fulltext and images of The Toronto Star's newspaper since 1894
- CBC Digital ArchivesOver 13,000 clips focusing primarily on interviews, news and current affairs programs up to 2000
Government Documents
- LEGISInfoResearch tool for finding legislation before Parliament (beginning January 2001)
- Parlimentary InternetProvides detailed current and historical information about the institutions, people and events that have shaped the Parliament of Canada since 1867.
- Historical Debates of the Parliament of CanadaProvides a centralized, streamlined means of accessing historical debates of the Senate and House of Commons, in both official languages... The Debates, or Hansard, contain the transcribed, edited and corrected record of full deliberations of both Houses of Parliament ... Includes reconstituted debates..."--About page.
- Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new windowDocuments concerning English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
Sources for Provincial History
- British Columbia and the Provincial NorthwestThese collections highlight history of the Province of British Columbia and the area generally defined as the Pacific Northwest.
- East Asian and Asian-Canadian CollectionsThese collections highlight materials from East Asia and Asian-Canadians from the UVic Libraries Special Collections and Archives and community partners. It includes Chinese-Canadian Collection, Life in Japan, ca.1910, by Herbert Geddes and Victoria's Chinatown, a gateway to the past and present of Chinese Canadians.
- Victoria and Vancouver IslandThese collections highlight local history of the City of Victoria and Vancouver Island.
- BC Sessional PapersAn annual collection of selected papers tabled in the Legislative Council of British Columbia (2nd to 8th Sessions, 1865-1871) and the Legislative Assembly (1st to 32nd Parliaments, 1872-1982).
- Hamilton Family fondsThe Hamilton Family fonds details Dr. T.G. (Thomas Glendenning) and Lillian Hamilton's investigations of psychic phenomena in their home in Winnipeg, Manitoba between 1918 and 1945. The images detail numerous aspects of spiritualism including telekinesis, teleplasm, trance states and various other psychic phenomena.
Databases of Primary Documents
- Canadiana Online This link opens in a new windowIncludes books, government documents and pamphlets documenting Canadian history from the first European contact to the late 19th century
- Champlain Society Digital Collection101 of the Champlain Society's volumes (almost 50,000 printed pages) dealing with exploration and discovery over three centuries
- In Pursuit of Adventure: The Fur Trade in Canada and the North West CompanyThe full texts of thirty-eight manuscripts known as the Masson Papers (covering the period ca. 1790-1820)
- Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection: Pre-1930 Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book LibraryIncludes subject areas from agriculture and land settlement to politics and government to education, temperance, transportation, natural resources, and the arts
- Eighteenth Century JournalsIndex, Full Text - Articles from British, Irish, Canadian, Caribbean and Indian magazines, journals & newspapers - Covers all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political & literary life: colonial life, provincial / rural affairs, the French and American revolutions.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new windowIndex, abstracts - Comprises 900,000+ records describing journal, newspaper, & magazine articles from international alternative, radical, and left periodicals - provides access to emerging theories & practices of radical social change, socialism and revolution, ecology, democracy, anarchism, feminism, organized labor, indigenous peoples and gays/lesbians. API coverage is both international and interdisciplinary.
- Anarchist ArchiveHoldings include the papers of: British anarchist and art critic Herbert Read; Activist and prison abolitionist Jim Campbell; Keith McHenry, founder of the international activist organization Food Not Bombs; Ann Hansen, author of Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla. Issues relevant to the collection include Indigenous struggles,
Anti-war activism, Ecological militancy, Prison abolition, Decolonization, Feminism, Queer politics, and Radicalism in the arts - Editorial Cartoons CollectionA collection of thousands of original drawings published in Canadian newspapers between 1952 and the present. Cartoonists included are: Bob Bierman, Graham Harrop, Bob Krieger, John Larter, Brent Lynch, Dan Murphy, Len Norris, Roy Peterson, Adrian Raeside, Ingrid Rice, Jim Rimmer, and Edd Uluschak.
- Canadiana - University of AlbertaThis CIHM digital archive begins with pre-1900 non-serial materials and continues forward to 1920. Digitization will be ongoing until completed with new titles added regularly.
Personal Accounts
- Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This link opens in a new windowContains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial to 1950 This link opens in a new windowFull-text database of letters and diaries of women who lived in North America before 1950
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new windowIncludes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information from a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950
- The Canadian Letters and Images ProjectThis is an online archive of the Canadian war experience, from any war, as told through the letters and images of Canadians themselves
Sources for Aboriginal History
Sources on Prime Ministers and other Government Officials
- Private papers of John Buchan: 1st Baron TweedsmuirJohn Buchan was Governor General of Canada from 1935 until his death in 1940.
Web Resources on Environmental History
- CCICED ProjectThe Simon Fraser University Library's China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) collection contains over 100 documents, including Project Task Force Reports, Issue Papers, and recommendations, dating from 1993 and later. Topics included (but not limited to) are: Ecosystem Management and Green Development, Energy, Environment & Development, China's Sustainable Urbanization, and Creation of a Well-Off Society.
Immigration Experience: Web Resources
- Under a Northern StarSeveral collections from LAC on the historical experience of African Canadians.
- 1956 Hungarian Memorial Oral History ProjectThe 1956 Hungarian Memorial Oral History Project celebrates the refugees of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by digitizing 400 hours of oral testimonies collected by second and third generation Hungarian-Canadians.
Canada
Archives and Museums
- Library and Archives CanadaCanadian Archival History dating back to the 1600s
- Canadian War MuseumOnline Exhibitions related to Canadian Military History
- Archives CanadaProvides access to the holdings of archival institutions across Canada. Includes descriptions of the holdings of over 800 participating institutions. Also includes links to virtual archival exhibits.
Historical Maps of Canada
- Historic Cartographic CollectionsIncludes Early BC Maps from the National Archives of England, Early BC Maps from Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Manitoba, Victoria Fire Insurance Plans, and Victoria's Early History: maps.
Sources on Prominent Events in Canadian History
Web Resources on Political and Constitutional History
- G8 Information CentreG7/8 summit and ministerial meeting documents from 1975 to present; G7-related news articles; G7/8-related scholarly articles.
Community Newspapers
- Chinese Times (1915-1919)Browse SFUs Digital Collections for coverage to 1989