Normal Archives Hours Tuesday to Thursday
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
ARCHIVIST
Judith Colwell
OUR MANDATE:
to collect, to preserve, and to provide access to the non-current records of continuing value to the Conference
What Records should come to the Archives?
Minutes - of all groups, boards, committees
Official Correspondence
Members Rolls and Registers: baptism, marriage burial
Property and building records
Published and unpublished histories
Newsletters and Annual Reports
Biographical documents and information on clergy, founding members and lay leaders
MARITIME CONFERENCE ARCHIVES
The development of the collections in
the Maritime Conference Archives
began as early as 1866 when the
Synod of the Presbyterian Church of
the Lower Provinces of British North
America agreed that the clerks of the
presbyteries be a committee “… to
collect manuscripts and documents
of interest … and report to the Synod
at its next meeting.”
In 1903 an
informal meeting of New Brunswick
and Prince Edward Island
Methodists organized a society to
promote the study of Church history.
In 1960 a room equipped to serve
as an Archives was opened in the
residence of Pine Hill Divinity Hall,
in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was
named in memory of Dr. J. W.
Falconer, Professor of New
Testament at Pine Hill, 1907-1941.
The Methodist records were moved
from Mount Allison University to
the Falconer room in 1968. Thirty
years later the entire collection was
moved to its current location in
Sackville.
The work of the Archives is
overseen by the Archives Unit of
the Heritage and Resources
Committee of Maritime
Conference.
OUR ARCHIVES SPACE TODAY
We moved into our current facility in
December 1997. At that time there were
three empty aisles awaiting records, and it
was thought that the space would be
sufficient for twenty years. The shelves on
the aisles, if stretched out end to end,
measure 496 metres. We added 5.4
metres of shelving on a spare wall, so now
the space occupied by records stretches
over half a kilometer.
The shelves are full,
but with wiggle room from stringent
weeding and some off-site storage, we
can cope until a permanent solution is
found.
The largest sector of records are those of
our Pastoral Charges which take up 53%
of our shelving. Conference and similar
records prior to 1925 take up 20% of
shelving. Biographical and personal
records take up 8%; Pine Hill, 6%; photos
5%, and Presbyteries 8%.
Would you
like a copy of the colour brochure that outlines this information and more?
Download the document here (it's a pdf file, 455 KB).
OUR ARCHIVES IS GROWING
We will be faced with a crisis. As more
churches close, their records must
come to the Archives [The Manual section
090(a), 092(u)], and many churches are
closing and/or amalgamating.
Presbytery and Conference records
which are vital to our United Church
ministry in Maritime Conference are also
growing.
OUR ARCHIVES NEEDS SPACE
To be sure that we will have adequate
space for the foreseeable future, we
need another kilometer of shelves -
and, by the way, a place to put them.
An Archives Planning Committee,
charged with finding increased space
to meet our current and future needs,
is now in place.
