Report 3 of the Public ^Archives for the Years 1953-1954 REPORT OF THE PUBLIC ARCHIVES 63766—1 CANADA REPORT of the PUBLIC ARCHIVES FOR THE YEARS 1953-1954 EDMOND CLOUTIER, C.M.G., OA., D.S.P. QUEEN'S PRINTER AND CONTROLLER OF STATIONERY OTTAWA, 1956 Price 25 cents OTTAWA, August 1, 1955. The Honourable J. W. PICKERSGILL, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Ottawa. Sir,—I have the honour to submit herewith the Report of the Public Archives for the years 1953 and 1954. Extensive additions have been made to the collections, and arrangements have been completed that should make it possible for the Archives to function soon as a public record office for Canada. Details of these and other developments are given in the pages that follow. Respectfully submitted, WM. KAYE LAMB, Dominion Archivist. 63765—2 Report of the Public Archives: 1953 and 1954 Developments of great importance to the Public Archives took place in this two-year period. An agreement was concluded under the terms of which the personal papers of the late Rt. Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King will become the property of the nation; other notable additions were made to the department's collec­ tion of post-Confederation political papers; the Archives, in association with the Brome County Historical Society, carried out an experiment in the cataloguing and microfilming of manu­ scripts; large shipments of microfilm copies of documents were received from London and Paris; and, lastly, the contract was let for the construction of a large new Records Centre at Tunney's Pasture, in Ottawa West. MANUSCRIPT DIVISION The Mackenzie King Papers The importance of Mr. Mackenzie King's papers requires no emphasis here. They form by far the largest collection of cor­ respondence, memoranda, etc., ever assembled by any political leader in this country, and they document in a quite extra­ ordinary and detailed way Mr. King's long career in public life. The papers proper, not including a mass of supplementary mate­ rial, consist of over one and a half million documents. They will be a major source for historians and political scientists for many years to come. In his will Mr. King gave his Literary Executors powers to deposit his papers in the Public Archives. With this end in view an agreement was concluded on June 7, 1954, between Her Majesty the Queen, represented by the Rt. Hon. Louis S. St. Laurent, Prime Minister of Canada, and the Literary Executors. Under its provisions the papers were placed immediately in the custody of the Dominion Archivist, but they will continue to be the property of the Executors until July 22, 1975, the twenty- fifth anniversary of Mr. King's death. Until January 1, 1964, access to the papers will be controlled directly by the Literary Executors; between that date and July 22, 1975, access will be 63765—21 8 PUBLIC ARCHIVES subject to conditions laid down by the Executors. On the latter day "all right, title and interest in and to the documents . shall vest in Her Majesty absolutely." In accordance with the provisions of Mr. King's will, his diaries are specifically excluded from the papers to be transferred to the Crown. Owing to the great size of the collection many of the less important papers and much of the supplementary material have not yet been sorted. Amongst them will be found many items of no historical value that should be discarded, and provi­ sion for this is made in the agreement. As the sorting proceeds the Literary Executors may withdraw material that appears to them to be useless, but no document is to be destroyed without the consent of the Dominion Archivist. The cataloguing of the more important papers is now well advanced, and I should like to take this opportunity of acknowl­ edging the most generous assistance given in this work by the Rockefeller Foundation. It will be recalled that the Foundation made a grant to assist Mr. King in the preparation of his memoir» This project was not carried very far, and after Mr. King's death the balance outstanding and a further grant were made available to enable the Literary Executors to commission a life of the late Prime Minister. The staff engaged to assist the biog­ rapher has done a great amount of sorting and cataloguing, and;; the Archives will eventually fall heir to the results of their labours. Other Post-Confederation Political Papers Important political papers continue to reach the Archives in a steady flow, and the volume of material available is growing in a most satisfactory way. Collections received in 1953-5Ï included the following: Foster Papers. Sir George E. Foster (1847-1931) had a long and distinguished career in public life. He was Minister of Marine and Fisheries (1885-88) and Minis­ ter of Finance (1888-91) in the second Macdonald administration, and held the latter portfolio in the succeeding Abbott, Thompson, Bowell and Tupper cabinets (1891-96). In 1911 he joined the Borden government as Minister of Trade and Commerce, and held the same office in the Union Government and the first Meighen cabinet. He was a member of the REPORT FOR THE YEARS 1953-1954 9 Canadian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, and chairman of the Canadian delegation to the First Assembly of the League of Nations. In 1921 he was appointed to the Senate. Foster's extensive and valu­ able papers, which occupy more than 30 feet of shelving, include correspondence, diaries, subject files, note books, etc. Relatively few of the papers are dated earlier than 1900. The collection was acquired by the Archives through the kindness of Dr. W. Stewart Wallace and Dr. George W. Spragge. Sifton Papers. Sir Clifford Sifton (1861-1929), Minister of the Interior and a very influential member of the Laurier Cabinet from 1896 to 1905, was largely res­ ponsible for the vigorous immigration policy that brought great numbers of settlers to the Canadian West at the turn of the century. His papers were presented to the Archives by his son, Lt.-Col. Victor Sifton, C.B.E., of Winnipeg. The collection is exten­ sive, consisting of over 166,000 pages. The period covered is 1889 to 1926, but more than three-quarters of the material relates to the years 1889-1905. Dafoe Papers. John W. Dafoe (1866-1944), editor of the Winnipeg Free Press for over forty years, exercised a major influence on Canadian political life over a long period. His papers were sent to the Archives on loan for microfilming by Lt.-Col. Victor Sifton, after which the original documents were presented to the Univer­ sity of Manitoba Library. Purely personal letters and letters relating to the business affairs of the Free Press axe not included in the microfilm copy. The papers consist of about 8500 pages. Woodsworth Papers. J. S. Woodsworth (1874-1942), social service pioneer and first leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C.C.F.), unfortunately burned most of his papers in 1940, when he moved from his old home in Winnipeg. With the help of members of his family and friends, the Archives is attempting to assemble a collection that will in some measure document his life and work. Six scrapbooks, valuable because they contain cuttings from many journals that have disappeared, came from Woods- worth House, Ottawa; the letters Woodsworth wrote PUBLIC ARCHIVES from Oxford in 1899-1900, a further series written to his mother in the period 1891-1901, and other corre­ spondence and memoranda were presented by his daughters, Mrs. Angus Maclnnis and Mrs. R. S. Staples. Of kindred interest was a group of papers presented by Mr. H. E. Spencer; these consist of memoranda, etc., relating to the United Farmers of Alberta, and to political matters about the time the C.C.F. came into being. Tupper Papers. The main body of the papers of Sir Charles Tupper, Bart. (1821-1915), one of the Fathers of Confederation and Prime Minister of Canada in 1896, was presented to the Archives many years ago. Through the kindness of his grandson, Mr. R. H. Tupper, Q.C., of Vancouver, and the University of British Columbia, about 500 additional letters have been added to the collection. At the same time the Archives catalogued and microfilmed a collection of the papers of Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper; the originals were then returned to the University of British Columbia. The Hibbert Tupper papers relate chiefly to the Bering Sea arbitration, in which he was agent for Great Britain, and to the Provincial Party of B.C., a "third party" that was active in the election of 1924. Magrath Papers. The papers assembled by Charles A. Magrath (1860-1949) while he served as a member of the Newfoundland Royal Commission appointed by the British Government in 1933, have been transferred to the Archives by the Department of External Affairs. After the Commission reported, it was agreed that Mr. Magrath's papers should be deposited with the Cana­ dian Government; but they will not be available for research until records of the period are opened for use by the British Government. Cohan Papers. This small collection, occupying 14 inches of shelf-space, appears to be all that remains of the papers of the Hon. C. H. Cahan (1861-1944), Secretary of State in the Bennett Cabinet, 1930-1935. The papers consist of correspondence, speeches and memo­ randa relating to the years 1933-1939. They include REPORT FOR THE YEARS 1953-1954 11 some interesting letters on proposed amendments to the B.N.A. Act, and memoranda on other constitu­ tional matters and on copyright.