A window into the past: archive in Grande Prairie, Alta., gets a new home

A new public archive facility in Grande Prairie will help preserve the history of Alberta's South Peace region for generations to come.

"People can come and … contribute to their own history," Ellyn Vandekerkhove, executive director of the South Peace Regional Archives, said at a grand opening on Wednesday.

Previously housed in the Grande Prairie Museum, the archives is now occupying 7,555 square feet of space in Centre 2000, a community facility in Grande Prairie's Muskoseepi Park.

Members of the public and researchers can examine the archival materials in the reading room. The materials are stored in a vault, where they reside in boxes on metal shelves.

Dozens of people, including public officials from Grande Prairie and the region, attended Wednesday's grand opening.

The archives now takes up more than 7,500 square feet in Centre 2000, a community facility in Grande Prairie, Alta., shown here. (Dennis Kovtun/CBC)

"We are the major archive for the whole South Peace region," Jack Lawrence, the facility's archivist, said in an interview.

"We preserve the documentary history of the area, and that includes not just the big organizations, but families, individuals — even some government records, non-profits.

"The idea is to try and have a comprehensive picture of the history of the region, and that includes everything — from paper, official documents, diaries, to even film, photographs, and digital records as well."

Lawrence is thrilled about the archive's move into a new home.

"It's just so very exciting to be in this new space, where we are able to grow, where we are able to preserve records in the future," he said.

Jack Lawrence is the archivist at South Peace Regional Archives. He is very pleased that the archives have moved into the new facility. (Dennis Kovtun/CBC)

Members of the public pose interesting questions to staff at the archive. One of Lawrence's favourite questions came from someone looking for information on the history of their home.

"We found out that it was actually designed by a specific architect, and was supposed to be state of the art back in the 1920s," he said.

The archive is also a depository for organizational records.

"We have organizations that are interested in preserving their own history or looking back on it and trying to remember it into the future," Lawrence said.

A scientist's legacy

Vandekerkhove said one of her favourite visual collections is in the W.D. Albright fonds.

William Donald Albright was a scientist who moved to Grande Prairie in the early 20th century. His scientific work focused on the region's agriculture.

Albright was the founder and first superintendent in the Beaverlodge Dominion experimental substation. Today it operates as the Beaverlodge Research Farm, home to Canada's honey bee research program and other agricultural research work.

Vandekerkhove said Albright was known for giving talks and other outreach efforts throughout his career as a scientist.

The archive now possesses a large collection of his research and presentation materials, including 764 glass lantern slides, which were likely created between 1930 and 1942.

Originally black and white images, some were later colourized by hand.

Among the records is this lantern slide of hollyhocks blooming in September, taken in 1926. It was photographed by W.D. Albright. (Submitted by South Peace Regional Archives)

"They're kind of amazing to look at, because a large portion of them have been hand-painted, so that people can see the details of the colours, especially because a lot of them are of plants," Vandekerkhove said.

"You can see the flowers, you can see the berries, all of those details — and they've all been painstakingly hand-painted."

Family history

Dan Wong is a senior mechanical engineer with Beairsto & Associates in Grande Prairie. He also chairs Grande Prairie's police commission.

The archives have helped him learn more about his family's history in Canada, Wong said in an interview after Wednesday's grand opening.

"I was looking for some family history, because I knew that my great-grandfather had settled here," he said.

Arthur Wong came to Canada from China in 1918 and settled in the Grande Prairie area.

Dan Wong, a senior mechanical engineer with Beairsto & Associates in Grande Prairie, and the chair of city's police commission, used the archives to discover new details about his family's history (Dennis Kovtun/CBC)

Wong wanted to know if there were any records about his great-grandfather from that time — and he found several stories in the Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune that provided a snapshot of what Arthur Wong's life in the community was like.

On Dec. 28, 1944, the Herald-Tribune reported that "some 60 people," including a number from nearby Sexsmith, Alta., "sat down to a wonderful banquet given by the Royal Cafe in Grande Prairie" at Christmas. Arthur Wong owned that venue.

"Arthur Wong, manager of the Royal, who was in the chair, welcomed the guests and wished them prosperity for the coming year," the newspaper reported.

Dan Wong has spent most of his life in Grande Prairie. "I knew that the Chinese community had really strong roots here, but I didn't know where it originated," he said.

"It's really moving to be able to go back in history and find out what kind of impact your family had in the community that you grew up in," he said.

Wong also found an article that mentioned his great-grandmother in the archive. His great-grandmother "was the very first Chinese lady to come into Grande Prairie," he said.

"I found another article, back in 1951, where they were mentioning [that she] and my great-grandfather reunited again after 30 years."

Learning that his great-grandfather was one of the first immigrants from China to settle in Grande Prairie, and his great-grandmother was the first female Chinese immigrant in the area "was really eye-opening," Wong said.

"But it really touched me to know that we were that settled in," he added.