Do you remember what life was like before computers? That far away time when, if you wanted to communicate with someone you would call them, or more likely write them a letter? Though it may seem like a lifetime, it wasn’t that long ago that the main form of communication between the City and the public was the written word.
The City of Edmonton Archives is responsible for maintaining the documents created by the City that have permanent value, and many of these are in the form of letters. In fact, one of our most useful collections for researchers is the City Commissioners’ correspondence – a collection known as RG-11. Of the thousands of documents in the collection, some of my favourites come from the 1950 “Put Edmonton on the Map” Campaign, an initiative by Mayor Sidney Parsons which solicited suggestions from citizens to re-brand Edmonton.
When Edmonton became a city in 1904, council adopted a commissioner system to oversee the running of the municipality. According to the Public Works Ordinance of 1900, the Commissioner would have “all the powers, rights, authorities and immunities that might have been exercised or enjoyed by council” and that the council “shall have no authority in respect of such works.” To offset the power of the commissioners, council decided to make the mayor, by virtue of his office, one of the commissioners as well.
Initially, the City of Edmonton appointed three commissioners, Mayor K. W. MacKenzie, was Chairman of the Commission Board, J. H. Hargreave, Commissioner for Public Works, and George J. Kinnaird, Commissioner of Finance. Over the years the number of commissioners would change – ranging from a maximum of five to a minimum of two. The responsibilities of the commissioners remained the same; to oversee the administration of the rapidly growing city of Edmonton. Commissioners, appointed for an indefinite period, signed contracts, hired and fired department heads and city employees and oversaw the spending of annual budgets to a maximum of two hundred million dollars.
In 1983 Mayor Laurence Decore, with the support of Council, replaced the commissioner system with a city manager and deputy manager to oversee the city’s civic administration. Interestingly, the first manager and two deputy managers were the former City Commissioners.
From 1904 until 1983, the City Commissioners were involved in every aspect of municipal operations. As a result, their correspondence files contain an incredibly diverse array of information from all branches of the City. The Archives’ collection of Commissioners’ Correspondence starts in 1906 and goes until 1983. If you were to stack the paper vertically it would be 225 metres high – more than twice as tall as Edmonton’s CN Tower!
The information found in RG-11 is useful for people researching their houses, genealogists, local historians and social historians, and the collection presents a wonderful addition to the holdings at the City of Edmonton Archives. Seventy-three metres of this collection have been indexed to make them more accessible to researchers, and there is an online finding aid available. Check it out – you never know what you’ll find!