Deidre Simmons - Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudsons Bay Company Archives

KEEPERS OF THE RECORD

The History of the udsons Bay Company Archives

DEIDRE SIMMONS

McGill-Queens University Press 2007
ISBN 978-0-77353291-5

Legal deposit fourth quarter 2007
Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Hudsons Bay Company History Foundation.

McGill-Queens University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs have been provided by the Hudsons Bay Company Archives.

The Hudsons Bay Company charter is a trademark of and reproduced with the permission of Hudsons Bay Company. Image courtesy of Hudsons Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Simmons, Deidre, 1944
Keepers of the record: the history of the Hudsons Bay Company
Archives / Deidre Simmons.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7735-3291-5

1. Hudsons Bay Company Archives History. 2. Hudsons Bay Company Records and correspondence History. 3. Canada History Archival resources. 4. Hudsons Bay Company Archives History. I. Title.

FC3207.S59 2007 026'.971 C2007903679-1

This book was typeset by Interscript in 10/13 Sabon.

To my parents

Victor James Simmons (19131995)
Elizabeth Simmons (19152006)

In 1975 the Hudsons Bay Company Archives opened for public research in Manitoba following transfer of the records from Hudsons Bay House in London. Some staff members working here today still recall the unusual way in which the documents were loaded onto the shelves in those early years. They were loaded from the bottom up, rather than the top down, in order to prevent the shelves from tipping over under the weight of the volumes. It was amazing how we got used to this arrangement and found it more difficult to adjust to the other way around that is, scanning the shelves from the top down to locate a record once the records were relocated to another vault area and this small glitch in an otherwise flawless transfer of the records from London was corrected.

The time since the records were transferred from London has seen a growth in public interest in use of the material for research. Their accessibility in Canada, along with the development of new avenues to disperse information the Internet and other electronic tools has contributed to this growth, which has also increased awareness of the resources. Every year the Hudsons Bay Company Archives hosts thousands of inquiries about the records through on-site visits, remote requests, and microfilm interlibrary loan. HBCA resources contribute to numerous websites, cd-roms, exhibit projects, and television documentaries. The archives receives several dozen publications every year in which the author has used the HBCA as a major research component of the book or for illustration. The majority of researchers are genealogists and others doing private research. The traditional academic users from history, geography, anthropology, archaeology, and Canadian Studies fields have been joined in recent years by Native land-claims researchers and those studying forestry, earth sciences, physical education, sociology, accounting, polar studies, art history, law, English, Native Studies, retail history, and business history.

The Hudsons Bay Companys commitment to protecting its records and the social responsibility it has demonstrated in making this world-class resource available for research to North Americans and researchers around the world is unprecedented. Twenty years after placing them on deposit in the Archives of Manitoba, HBC formally donated the records to the province of Manitoba in 1994 and used the tax proceeds to set up a foundation (the Hudsons Bay Company History Foundation) to provide ongoing support for this amazing gift. Improvements to specialized storage facilities appropriate for each medium of records (textual, cartographic, still images, and film-based records) and increased staff resources have resulted from this financial support, ensuring the protection and accessibility of the records over time. Additionally, the Hudsons Bay Company Archives, Archives Manitoba, continues to be the corporate archives for the HBCs modern archival records, ensuring the continuity of this magnificent collection as the Companys history continues to unfold.

The HBCA continues to build on the legacy established by our earlier colleagues in London and in Winnipeg. As the steward of the HBC record-keeping legacy, the HBCA uses technological advances and current best practices in the archival profession to improve access to and intellectual control of the records.

In 2001 the Archives of Manitoba purchased and customized a descriptive database from Minisis, Inc., which is compliant with the Canadian Rules for Archival Description (RAD). At that time, the Hudsons Bay Company Archives decided to arrange and describe the records of the HBC using the series system, building on the Australian series system and the Canadian series approach developed at the Archives of Ontario. This database has given the HBCA the means to demonstrate more fully how records were created, by whom, in what context, and for what reason. It enables us to show the complexity of administrative history, organizational relationships, and records creation within the context of one company. Understanding hierarchical relationships helps archivists and researchers alike to see the interdependency of record creators and to find the records relevant to a particular administrative body to support their particular field of study.

Ian E. Wilson, now Librarian and Archivist of Canada and an appraiser for the textual records of the Hudsons Bay Company Archives in 1993, stated in his appraisal report, As an integrated record keeping system, maintained for more than 300 years, this is more than so many journals account books, ledgers and letters. It has all the intellectual integrity of the manuscript of a great novel, a famous painting or a multi-volume encyclopedia. All are worth more than their separate elements. The HBC Archives is a similar coherent work, created by many hands over the generations but the outcome of one continuous records system. The Hudsons Bay Company Archives, 1670 to 1920, is listed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations Memory of the World Register, testimony to its significance on a global scale.

Keepers of the Record is the first-ever comprehensive look at the development of the Hudsons Bay Companys Archives, the result of a continuous record-keeping system of the Hudsons Bay Company over more than three hundred years of its history. It describes the many hands that created and cared for the records over numerous generations. The author has pulled together information that is scattered throughout many different record series within the HBCA into a cohesive body of information. This account promotes a better understanding of the archives as a whole and contributes to the knowledge legacy that embodies the contributions of keepers of the records over time.

Maureen Dolyniuk
Manager, Hudsons Bay Company Archives

Any acknowledgment of assistance with the writing of this book will be inadequate, considering the encouragement and support I have been the recipient of over many years.