Arthur Silver Morton and His Role in the Founding of the Saskatchewan Archives Board

Arthur Silver Morton and his Role in the Founding of the Saskatchewan Archives Board by JOAN CHAMP The division of the Saskatchewan Archives between the Board office at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and the Board office in Regina is a situation unique in Canada. The existence of two repositories for public and private documents in this province-one in the provincial capital and one on the Saskatoon campus of the provincial university-has afforded greater access to original sources. Greater accessibility has in turn stimulated research and facilitated the publication of an impressive number of works on the history of western Canada. This exceptional archival system is the result of the work of Arthur Silver Morton, the western Canadian scholar best known for his monumental work, A History of the Canadian West to 1870-71 (1938). AS. Morton was in fact a leading figure in the early Saskatchewan heritage movement from 1914, when he arrived to teach history at the University of Saskatchewan at age forty-four, until his death in 1945. Born in Trinidad on 16 May 1870 to Canadian missionaries of Scottish Presbyterian descent and educated at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Morton began his career as head of the Department of History and Librarian at the Saskatoon campus just at the outbreak of World War I. Throughout the war years he gave many extension lectures for the university around the province, and his interest in the history of the West was quickened. His travels for university extension made him particularly aware of the urgent need to acquire and preserve material relating to Saskatchewan's heritage before it was lost. From that time forward his energies were directed toward the acquisition and presemation of the textual and artifactual remains of the province's past. His concern for document preservation prompted him to create several local and provincial historical societies which functioned primarily as agencies for the collection of historical materials. Morton was also an enthusiastic explorer of historic sites, and discovered the remains of many fur trading posts in Saskatchewan. His most important and lasting contribution to Saskatchewan heritage, however, was the creation of the province's first archival institution for the preservation of government records. The Historical Public Records Office (HPRO) set up at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon by Morton in 1937 was the precursor of the presentday Saskatchewan Archives Board (SAB), established in March 1945, two months after @ All rights reserved: Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991) 102 ARCHIVARIA 32 Morton's death. The division of the HPRO between Regina and Saskatoon resulted from Morton's conviction that the university-and especially the History Department-had a much greater interest in government archives than did the government departments which had generated them. A public records office on campus would, Morton believed, provide scholars with a "laboratory of research,"' and the documents preserved there would be ". .by far the most important source for all branches of history. .'' In addition, Morton firmly believed that the members of his profession would benefit from involvement in archival organization. Historians, he asserted, had a broader role to play in archives beyond the simple use of the records contained within their walls. Archivists must be historians, Morton once had stated: 'The historian who is studying and writing the history of the province and who knows what material is wanting and where gaps exist in our knowledge, is the best guide for the collecting of the material. .'q The enormous amount of energy that Morton put into the creation, organization and care of Saskatchewan's early archives testifies to his conviction that historians had a wider role to play in society beyond teaching, researching and writing.4 Morton was not the first person interested in the establishment of an archives in Saskatchewan; initial efforts to preserve inactive government records in the province, however, had met with little success. An ordinance creating the Department of the Territorial Secretary in 1897 stated that the Secretary was to keep the archives of the North-West Territories.5 This provision was carried over into later Acts governing the Provincial Secretary's Department after the creation of the province in 1905; this department, however, never became a comprehensive government archives.6 At the University of Saskatchewan, Professor E.H. Oliver began to collect documents relating to the history of the province shortly after he joined the institution in 1909. The following year, Oliver held discussions with Walter Scott, Premier of Saskatchewan from 1905 to 1916, concerning the preservation of publications and records relating to the history of the province in an archival setting. Oliver suggested that both the Legislative Library and the university library should be involved in the acquisition and preservation of archival material.' University of Saskatchewan President Walter Murray backed up Oliver's efforts with a letter to Scott early in 191 1, proposing that the government appoint a commission to examine the question of establishing a provincial archives.8 A motion was actually made in the legislature that year calling for ". .early action. .to collect and preserve historical and other documents relating to the early development of Saskatchewan.'" While the House unanimously agreed that this was a desirable goal, the motion was not acted upon at that time. The Saskatchewan government was busy building for the future during the "boom" years between 1900 and 1913;'O preserving the past was not a high priority. During World War I, provision was finally made for an archives branch of the Legislative Library, and William Trant of Regina was appointed Assistant Librarian and Archivist. Ill-health apparently prevented Trant from accomplishing much in the way of acquisition and preservation, and after his death in 1924 the position of archivist was allowed to lapse.11 In the meantime, the vaults of the Legislature were overflowing with inactive government records that had been accumulating since 1905. Relief for this problem was often found in the fires of the powerhouse located nearby.12 The first statute to deal directly with the retention or disposal of old government records-the Preservation of Public Documents Act of 1920-was used primarily to facilitate the SASKATCHEWAN ARCHIVES BOARD destruction of inactive government records clogging the vaults. This Act remained in effect until 1945. While it was a necessary beginning, the main result of the Act was to allow the legal destruction of large quantities of records by Order in Council. A total of seventy-eight orders were issued for the disposal of records, while only two authorized the transfer of documents to "the archives of the province."'l Unfortunately, no proper repository existed to receive inactive, though permanently valuable records. Lacking such an office, government departments tended to be negligent in their handling of inactive records. Thus, much valuable material was lost. Morton's commitment to the preservation of the public records was a continuation of his earlier heritage activities. Morton had actively collected material of a general historical nature over the years for the University of Saskatchewan library in his effort to lay the foundations for the study of western Canadian history. He had spent many summers throughout the 1920s at the Public Archives of Canada in Ottawa researching the history of the fur trade in the West; this experience further strengthened his belief in the value of primary source material for historical study. He became concerned, however, with the preservation of strictly government records when control of western lands and natural resources was transferred from federal to provincial jurisdiction in 1930. As part of the transfer agreement, a portion of the defunct Department of Interior records relating to land administration was turned over to the three western provinces.14 The acquisition of these documents, Morton stated in a letter to a provincial Department of Natural Resources official, ". .raises in a very immediate and pressing way the question of putting the Provincial Archives on a sound and efficient basis under an Archivist."lj Morton felt that all public records should be carefully preserved, ". .for we cannot know today what is valuable and what is not. The future only can settle that."lh Across Canada, agitation for the preservation of public records was growing, spearheaded by various members of the Canadian historical profession, including Morton's brother-in-law, George Brown, editor of the Canadian Historical Review. Brown had written articles in the September 1934 and March 1935 issues of the journal calling for the more conscientious preservation of archival material across Canada." Brown sent letters to the premiers and archivists of all the provinces, enclosing copies of his articles. He wrote Morton in the fall of 1934, stating, "If there is anything further which the Review could do to promote the interests of the provincial archives, we should be only too pleased to co-operate with you."l8 While attending a Canadian Historical Association meeting in Ottawa in the spring of 1936, Morton was persuaded by a group of fellow history professors to make a personal appeal to the government of Saskatchewan on the need for a provincial archives. On 14 September 1936, Morton addressed his plea for the preservation of inactive government records to J.W. Estey, Minister of Education from 1934 to 1944. Morton outlined the value of archival institutions to the government, to scholars and to the general public: We may take it as certain that future generations will charge us with betraying our trust if we cast away the material without which the history of the Province, of the administration of its several departments, and of the development of its several regions and interests cannot be written.

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