LibGuides: Canadian History: Primary Sources

Canadian Primary Sources

Primary sources are original materials. They are first-hand accounts from the time period involved and may include such things as:

diaries, letters, photographs, art, maps, original video, film or sound recordings, interviews, or newspaper articles.

("Secondary" sources are created after the fact by individuals or groups who did not witness the events being discussed. They interpret, report, or correlate subjects based on their study of primary material. It is inevitable that we all interpret events of the past through the lens of our own experience, but reputable scholars attempt to minimize subjectivity.)

How to read and evaluate a primary source
Primary Source Analysis Tool; Library of Congress, Click on the ? to help you fill in the categories

To find primary sources in the Library catalogue use keywords that describe your topic together with any of the following subject headings:

Autobiography / Autobiographies, Correspondence, Diary / Diaries, Interview / Interviews, Letter / Letters, Personal narratives, Sources, Speech / Speeches

Examples:

Fur Traders Correspondence

Hudson's Bay Company Diaries.

Soldiers -- Canada -- Correspondence.

World War, 1939-1945 - Personal narratives, Canadian

Quebec During the American Invasion, 1775-1776 : The Journal of François Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams
The 1776 journal of François Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams provides an insight into the failure to incite rebellion in Quebec by American revolutionaries. While other sources have shown how British soldiers and civilians and the French-Canadian gentry (the seigneurs) responded to the American invasion of 1775-1776, this journal focuses on French-Canadian peasants (les habitants) who made up the vast majority of the population; in other words, the journal helps explain why Quebec did not become the "fourteenth colony."

Canadian Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Major Canadian newspapers as well as many small-market newspapers.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
BC Historical Newspapers - Combined Access - (Province, Times-Colonist, Vancouver Sun) This link opens in a new window
Search the historical archives of all three newspapers simultaneously - The Province (1894-2010), The Times Colonist (1884-2010), and The Vancouver Sun (1912-2010).
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
BC Historical Newspapers - Open Access - (Province, Times-Colonist, Vancouver Sun) This link opens in a new window
Access to the historical archives of The Province (1894-2010), The Times Colonist (1884-2010), and The Vancouver Sun (1912-2010). Open access for people in BC and the Yukon.
Vancouver Sun Historical and Recent Archive This link opens in a new window
Provides access to archival articles of the Vancouver Sun from 1912 to 3 months ago. Scans of microfilm. For access to current articles, please search Canadian Newsstream.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
Globe and Mail: ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Complete coverage of The Globe And Mail newspaper from 1844 to three years ago.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
SFU Digitized Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Open access repository of historical Canadian newspapers.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
Points to the Past This link opens in a new window
Historic primary source materials and newspapers available to all British Columbia residents.
Freely available to all BC residents.

BC Historical Newspapers - Open Collection
University of British Columbia
The British Colonist
University of Victoria;
This website contains all the issues of the British Colonist (also called The Daily British Colonist, the Daily Colonist, and other variants) from its first issue in 1858 to December 1980.
The Chilliwack Progress
Years available: 1891–2007
The Native Voice
Official Organ of the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia; 1947 - 1955
Peel's Prairie Provinces - Newspapers
University of Alberta
Ontario Community Newspaper Portal
200 years of Ontario newspapers, Coverage among the communities varies.
Democracy at War: Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War
Canadian War Museum
Google News

Burnaby Broadcast - 1926-1935 - Surrey
The Daily Colonist (Victoria) - 1858-1945- Surrey
Globe and Mail (metro ed.) - 1849-present - Surrey
Langley Advance - 1931-1977 - Surrey
Mainland Guardian - 1870-1889 - Surrey
National Post - 1998-present - Langley
New Westminster Columbian - 1861-1983 - Surrey
New Westminster Guardian - 1870-1889 - Surrey
Province - 1894-1986 - Surrey
Richmond Review - 1932-1986 - Surrey
Surrey Leader - 1929-2005 - Surrey
Vancouver Express (strike paper - shelved with Vancouver Sun) - Feb-May 1970, Nov-Dec 1978, Jan-June 1979 - Richmond
Vancouver News Herald - Apr 24, 1933-June 15, 1957 - Surrey
Vancouver Sun - 1914-1919 - Surrey; 1939-2012 - Richmond

Instructions for using the Scanpro microfilm reader/printer:

Scanpro viewer instructions - Surrey
Scanpro viewer instructions - Richmond
Scanpro - multiple pages
Instructions on how to scan up to 50 pages at a time. Note that you can save download time by saving to the hard drive first then saving to your flash drive.

B.C. Archives
The official provincial archives: holdings include government documents and records, private historical manuscripts and papers, maps, charts and architectural plans, photographs, paintings, drawings and prints, audio and video tapes; film; newspapers. NOTE: index only - photocopies may be ordered for a fee.
Landscapes of Injustice
This Research Database provides access to thousands of records related to Japanese Canadian history and the dispossession of their property in the 1940s.
B.C. History Digital Collections
a searchable collection of archival documents, photographs, books, and artifacts from the University of British Columbia: includes a Japanese Canadian World War II photo collection and several fishing and forestry photo collections
British Columbia Royal and Special Commissions
Royal commissions commenced in British Columbia in 1872, under the authority of the Public Inquiries Act. Chaired by one or more highly-respected persons (usually retired judges), royal commissions are legally autonomous from government.
Legislative Assembly of British Columbia - Hansard
the verbatim debates and indexes of the current and some previous sessions of the legislature (back to 1970)
Legislative Assembly of British Columbia - Journals
proceedings of the provincial legislature from 1851-2009
Papers relative to the affairs of British Columbia
4-volume set of documents and despatches relating to the colony and province of British Columbia, many written by Sir James Douglas, first governor of the province. (E-Book)
British Columbiana
Open collection of historical books, newspapers, magazines and more. UBC library.
Colonial Despatches
This digital archive contains the original correspondence between the British Colonial Office and the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia covering the period from 1846 leading to the founding of Vancouver Island in 1849, the founding of British Columbia in 1858, the annexation of Vancouver Island by British Columbia in 1866, and up to the incorporation of B.C. into the Canadian Federation in 1871.
B.C. Sessional Papers
The British Columbia Sessional Papers are an annual collection of selected papers tabled in the Legislative Council of British Columbia (2nd to 8th Sessions, 1865-1871) and the Legislative Assembly (1st to 32nd Parliaments, 1872-1982). It contains materials that document the political, historical, economic and cultural history of B.C. and includes official committee reports, orders of the day, petitions and papers presented, records of land sales, correspondence, budgetary estimates, proclamations, maps, voters lists by district, and departmental annual reports. This searchable collection only dates from 1875-1952 thus far.
BC Historical Books
BC Historical Books combines the traditional tools of bibliography with the new tools of the digital world to transform our understanding of, and insight into, the history and life of British Columbia.
B.C. City Directories - 1860-1955
The earliest directories contain essays on the growth and development of the towns and cities in B.C. Information includes population statistics, lists of government officials, schools, churches, hospitals, etc.

Canadiana Online This link opens in a new window
Canadiana Online contains historical Canadian publications including the complete content in Early Canadiana Online. Monographs, periodicals, and government documents are included.
Frontier Life: Borderlands, Settlement & Colonial Encounters This link opens in a new window
Documents can be selected by region (eg. Canada) and/or by type of document (books, diaries, correspondence, etc.)
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
Points to the Past This link opens in a new window
Historic primary source materials and newspapers available to all British Columbia residents.
Freely available to all BC residents.
Heritage This link opens in a new window
Archival collections from Library and Archives Canada covering genealogy materials, aboriginal history, government departments, military history, and papers of prominent Canadians.
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
American periodicals that document the time period 1691 to 1912. Daily life, society, industry, science, government, and many other topics can be explored through this collection. There is also substantial coverage of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
The interface for this and all our other EBSCO databases will change mid-2025. Click here to try out the new interface early!
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Books, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs, statistics, and other kinds of documents in both Western and non-Western languages.

After clicking on the link, scroll down the list of resources to find this collection.
Freely available to BC residents.
Maclean's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Full color scans of articles and advertisements from 1905 to 2015.
The interface for this and all our other EBSCO databases will change mid-2025. Click here to try out the new interface early!

Canada Year Book Historical Collection: 1867 - 1967
Searchable PDF's of each annual volume. Each page in each volume is a separate PDF. If you'd prefer to view a whole volume at once, use the PDF version available through the Publications Canada catalogue instead.
Missing volumes for 1969, 1970-71, and 1972.
Note: We have print copies from 1968-2012 in the Surrey Reference collection. Call number: REF HA 741 A21
Canada Year Book, 1906-1967
In the Publications Canada catalogue. Each yearbook is a separate PDF which makes it easier to search and browse than the version in the CYB Historical Collection.
The Canadian Letters and Images Project
An online archive of the Canadian war experience as told through the correspondence and photographs of Canadians themselves.
Historical Statistics of Canada
This site contains over 1000 tables displaying social and economic data from 1867 to the mid-1970s. Topics include population, health, labour, resource industries, education, housing, and many others
Atlas of Canada - Historical Map Collection
An extensive collection of early maps organized around various themes - native peoples, exploration and expansion.
Documents on the Confederation of British North America: : a compilation based on Sir Joseph Pope's Confederation documents supplemented by other official material
JL 61 B78 1969 (L)
Documents relating to the formation of Canada
Historical Debates of the Government of Canada
Beginning with the first session of Parliament in 1867, this site reports the proceedings of the government (Senate and House of Commons) up until 1996.
Debates of the Parliament of Canada (Hansard)
The verbatim debates of the House of Commons. Search under "Select a Session" for the years 1996 to the present session.
Debates of the Senate (Hansard)
Transcripts of the debates from 1997 to the present. (Click on "select a different session")
Debates of the Legislative Assembly of United Canada
Even before Confederation in 1867, the colony of Canada had a legislature. Although no official records were kept, detailed accounts of these debates were reported in newspapers. The records at this site cover the dates from 1841-1851
Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1893 to 1950
New France Archives
Displays manuscripts, printed material, maps and charts, plans, portraits, engravings, and medals of New France, from the first voyages of discovery to the end of the French Regime. It is comprised of 350 archival documents arranged under 12 themes.
Acadian Deportation
French colonists who had settled the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick area when it was a French territory were forcibly deported after the area was ceded to England. These documents from the Nova Scotia Archives include first-hand accounts of the events leading up to the expulsion as well as the records of the British officers overseeing it.
Black Loyalists Digital Collection
Included are letters, personal accounts, and official documents relating to the experiences of African Americans fleeing slavery in the United States
Abolitionist Newspaper
Learn about Ontario's abolitionist history
The Alaska, Western Canada, and United States collection
A digital collection of historic photographs documenting the geographic area of Alaska, Western United States and the Canadian provinces of Yukon Territory and British Columbia, this collection features images of the Gold Rush of 1898-1900, mining activities, street scenes, First Nations peoples of the region, hunting and fishing, transportation, and World War II installations.
Editorial Cartoons
The Simon Fraser University Library Editorial Cartoons Collection contains over 9300 original drawings published in Canadian newspapers between 1952 and the present.
Federal and Provincial Royal Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, and Reports
Dating from 1994, these can be searched by date, author, title, or subject
How to Live in War Time
Canadian government publication extolling the value of thrift and economy in the home as a way to help the Canadian war effort in World War I. Includes piece by Stephen Leacock. Interesting table on cost of living during war years showing price for many foodstuffs, fuel and rent.
Rise Up Feminist Archive
Rise Up! is a digital archive of feminist activism in Canada from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Indigenous Peoples of North America This link opens in a new window
Explore the political, social, and cultural history of native peoples of North America from the sixteenth century well into the twentieth century through extensive monograph, manuscript, newspaper, periodical and photograph collections.

After clicking on the link, scroll through the list of resources to find this collection.
Freely available to BC residents.

Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) - news archive website for news publications from the 1980s onwards

Indian Affairs Annual Reports 1864 - 1990 - Although there have been several different government bodies responsible for aboriginal affairs in Canada at various times (see "history" on this site), this useful site pulls all their annual reports together. Also included for 1902-1922 is "Schedules of Indian Bands, Reserves and Settlements", a separate publication that reports the location and status of aboriginal lands annually during that time period.

iPortal: Indigenous Studies Portal Research Tool - University of Saskatchewan

Native American Activism (mostly US but NARP, Native Movement, and Agenutamagen are published in Canada):

Indian Education Newsletter: 1971 - 1977 (select a date and issue)

Indian News: 1954-1982; University of Winnipeg

The Native Voice: 1947 - 1955; Official Organ of the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia

Social History of the Eastern Arctic Database - This database contains abstracts of documents that deal principally with what is now Nunavut Territory and includes other material from the Inuvialuit Settlement Area, the Northwest Territories and Nunavik (Arctic Quebec).

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Canadian Primary Sources