The City of Edmonton Archives is the last stop for all things historically significant to the City. Located within the beautiful brick walls of the historic Prince of Wales Armouries, the Archives hold the key to the city’s past.
Within its collection you’ll find about 250,000 historical photographs, 19,000 plans and architectural drawings, 100,000 images on slides, and 750 private manuscripts. All these treasures are acquired, organized, and preserved under the watchful eye of new city archivist, Kathryn Ivany.
“People of Edmonton should be proud of all the things that are done – and hopefully the archives are capturing all the individual achievements as well as the City’s successes.”
Kathryn Ivany has been an archivist for 20 years. Two years ago she came to the City Archives as part of the team of archivists preserving and restoring Edmonton’s history. She has now taken over the helm from former archivist, Michael Payne and her first order of business is to make the archives more accessible to the public and to city staff.
“One of the things that we are trying to do is to digitize materials. We want to transform documents and photographs so they are visible on your computer so you can send them to friends and do research that way.”
Ivany says Edmonton is like a treasure trove of history waiting to be discovered. As former president of the local chapter of the Historical Society of Alberta, she has given numerous guided walking tours of the city and its local cemeteries, and even authored a book entitled, Historic Walks of Edmonton. She now plans to draw on all her experience to help guide the important work at the City Archives.
“An archive is basically the memory of the city. People need to know what happened 10, 20, even 50 years ago,” says Ivany.
“The archives make this information available to City of Edmonton decision makers and employees, to people who are interested in learning about our history, and to professional researchers who are writing our history.”
For more information visit www.edmonton.ca/archives