Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet: Municipal, County, and Community Archives
http://www.usask.ca/archives/car/municmenu.html

Mostly information about hours, holdings, etc. created and maintained by Cheryl Avery, University of Saskatchewan Archives and Steve Billinton, Archives of Ontario.
(9 Feb 2004)

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VANCOUVER

City of Vancouver Archives
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/archives/index.htm

This excellent site promises 12,500 photos, many of which are already available, emphasizing social and architectural history. There is a comprehensive finding aid with advanced search capabilities not only to the photos but also to the city archives and to 2,000 linear meters of records from non-government organizations documenting the social, political, economic, cultural and community life of Vancouver, British Columbia. These include donations from pioneer families, politicians, social activists, artists, entrepreneurs and community organizations. The records are mostly textual, but also include photographs, architectural drawings, maps, plans, and documentary art.
(29 Jul 2001)

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TORONTO

Toronto City Archives
http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/archives/index.htm

Beginning on this home page, you can access growing image databases the City of Toronto is putting online. Crisp images document the many facets of Toronto as a historical urban site. Additional research links of value to urban scholars are clearly identified.
(16 Aug 2002)

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MONTREAL

Propriété, bâti ADHEMAR, Base de données du Groupe de recherche sur Montréal. Propriété, bâti et population à Montréal, 1642-1805
http://cca.qc.ca/adhemar

This site called "ADHEMAR" gives access to an important database that was built by the former Montréal Research Group at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. This Group conducted a systematic social history of the built environment in Montreal from the town's foundation in 1642 through the early years of the 19th century. Through the powerful search engine, one can obtain all the information pertaining to grounds, buildings or persons for a selected year or a whole period. The database covers Montreal in the 17th and 18th centuries, an area now known as the historic district of Old Montreal (see also the Old Montreal site at http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/eng/accueila.htm for more historical data). Although the site is mostly in French, there is a description of the project underlying the database. [Michèle Dagenais, département d'histoire, Université de Montréal, submitted this site and its review].
(30 Aug 2001)

Archives de Montreal
http://www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/archives/archives.htm

The Montreal City Archives of Quebec, Canada, is a well-presented site with numerous photos. Organized with an index, the site gives access through a general finding aid to city and municipal service records as well as to the different series of civic records in the private archives held by the Montreal City Archives. There is a library containing photos of Montreal and its municipal services, organized chronogically. Within this large site is a virtual museum exhibit on "Montreal, municipalité et métropole, 1920-1960" (http://www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/archives/seriez/index.htm), which contains 301 digitized photos of Montreal seen through its buildings, sites, municipal services, and important figures.
(30 Aug 2001; updated 7 Aug 2002)

Bibliotheque nationale de Quebec
http://www.bnquebec.ca/

This massive website includes many archives within its well designed pages that give in-depth information on urban structures and events from the 1500s through to the present in Canada, with more to come. Most pages are in French. Two archives within this government site of particular interest to urban historians are:
Albums de rues E.-Z. Massicotte
http://www.bnquebec.ca/massic/accueil.htm
This is a collection of 6000 illustrations (drawings, postcards, photos) of Montreal from 1870 to 1920. As the introduction of the site explains it, E.Z. Massicotte was a journalist and a local historian that built an impressive collection of illustrations and documents on many aspects (social, political, cultural) of the history of Montreal.
Cartes Geographiques
http://www.bnquebec.ca/cargeo/accueil.htm Full color maps and plans that illustrate a part of Canada (with an emphasis on Quebec) from 1556 to 1993 by municipality, date, or creator. A map of railroads in 1851 Montreal is one example of the well-rendered Internet images found in this section of the Quebec archive. Also found within this database are 37 Montreal maps and plans (1758-1945).
(30 Aug 2001; updated 7 Aug 2002)

Old Montreal
http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/eng/accueila.htm

Photographs with 3D drawings of historic buildings and a live camera view (updated every 20 minutes) of the old walled section of Montreal demonstrate some of the potential of the Internet for urban historians. Especially noteworthy is the visually exciting section on "The Lighting Plan of Old Montreal" (http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/planlum/eng/lu_intra.htm) that contains color night photographs informed with historical background, illustrations, and a lighting design map. For another informative database on Old Montreal, see (ADHEMAR, Base de données du Groupe de recherche sur Montréal at http://cca.qc.ca/adhemar).
(30 Aug 2001)
AWARD:  H-Urban congratulates this site as a winner of The Stockholm Challenge in Culture and Entertainment (H-Urban: 21 Dec 2001). See also the Stockholm Challenge announcement.

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University of Saskatchewan Archives
http://www.usask.ca/archives/car/municmenu.html

A good beginning point for work on Canada is the University of Saskatchewan Archives. The site links 59 municipal archives across Canada. I can't tell if the missing cities don't have websites or are just omitted.
(29 Jul 2001)

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