Project Partners Kitchener Public Library – Grace Schmidt Room of Local History http://www.kpl.org/fyi_geneal.shtml The Grace Schmidt Room opened in 1984, and has provided access to the local history collections owned by the Kitchener Public Library, the Waterloo Historical Society and the Waterloo Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. Preservation of Kitchener and Waterloo Region history is the focus of this collection. Researchers can access local history books, maps, photographs, manuscript collections and oral history tapes in the GSR. Waterloo Historical Society The Waterloo Historical Society was formed in 1912, and has been preserving Waterloo Region history for over 90 years. The Society’s archival collection is kept in the Grace Schmidt Room at the Kitchener Public Library. Other activities include at least four public meetings per year, the publication of an annual volume of local history articles, special dedication of historical plaques and the publication of histories of Waterloo Township and Waterloo County. Woodside National Historic Site of http://parkscanada.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/woodside/index_e.asp Woodside is the childhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King in Kitchener, Ontario. The house was built in 1853 by James Colquhoun. It was rented by the King family from 1886 to 1893. In the late 1940s the house was in danger of being demolished, but it was saved by a group of citizens who organized the Mackenzie King Woodside Trust. The building has been restored to the Victorian style of the 1890s, and is open to the public seven days a week from the long weekend in May until 23 December. The Record The Record is the largest newspaper published in Waterloo Region. The paper can trace its history back to 1878, when the Daily Record became the first daily newspaper in the area. The paper has been known by several names throughout the last 125 years, including The Daily News, Berlin Daily Record, Berlin News Record etc. Kitchener changed its name from Berlin in 1916, which also changed the name of the paper. When Waterloo became a city in 1947, the paper became the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Finally in 1994, the paper became The Record, recognizing that it also covered Cambridge, Guelph and the surrounding area. University of Waterloo Library Special Collections –Archives and Rare Books http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/SpecColl/Special1.html The University of Waterloo’s Special Collection Department is kept in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room in the Dana Porter Library. One of the subject strengths in the collection is local history. One of the largest collections is the Kitchener-Waterloo Record Photographic Negative Collection. There are over two million negatives of photographs taken from 1938 up to the present day. The photographs, taken by K-W Record photographers, document many events of the day. Another resource is the Breithaupt Hewetson Clark Collection, which includes the papers of the Breithaupt family of Kitchener, Ontario. This vast collection includes diaries of Louis Jacob Breithaupt which depict the family’s business and domestic life in the community. |