Local History

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Code

Scope note(s)

  • Special Collections & Archives holds a variety of resources related to the local and urban history of the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Collections include maps, fire insurance plans, business and city directories, yearbooks from local high schools, government documents outlining local county or village by-laws, and newspapers including restored copies of issues of the Berliner Journal for the years 1859-1889. The department is also home to the Kitchener-Waterloo Photographic Negative Collection, which documents local news events, community activities, regional development, and human-interest stories between 1938-2001. Many of the local history collections contain the institutional archives of local businesses and organizations such as Dare Foods Limited, Electrohome, Fritsch Pharmacy, the Dominion Rubber Company, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and the Rotary Club of Kitchener. In addition, the department maintains numerous family papers including those for the Breithaupt, Bolender Ball, Ratz, Schantz, Schneider, and Seagram families, among many others. These collections complement several printed genealogies, family histories, and monographs also held by the department.

Source note(s)

Display note(s)

Hierarchical terms

Local History

Local History

Equivalent terms

Local History

Associated terms

Local History

14 Archival description results for Local History

14 results directly related Exclude narrower terms

Architectural drawings for the Berlin Y.M.C.A.

  • SCA303-GA339
  • Collection
  • 1895

File consists of three architectural drawings of the building of the Berlin [Kitchener] Y.M.C.A. at 22 Queen Street North. Includes a side elevation, main and upper floor plans, and details of the locker room.

Kitchener-Waterloo Young Men's Christian Association

Augustine, Ham, Kaufman family fonds.

Material related to the lives and activities of members of the Augustine and Kaufman families of Kitchener, Ontario and of the Ham family of Toronto, Ontario, in particular of the parents, aunt and grandparents of Mary Ham. Includes biographical information, clippings, correspondence, diaries, ephemera and photographs.

Augustine, Ham, Kaufman family

Bechler family fonds.

  • SCA153-GA126
  • Fonds
  • [18--]-1945

The Bechler family fonds contains records created and accumulated by the Bechler family documenting life in Berlin (later Kitchener). Records include textual records and graphic material, predominantly photographs from an album. Records also contain confirmation certificates, marriage certificate, press clippings, and cards.

Bechler family

Breithaupt Leather Co. truck.

  • SCA168-GA142
  • Collection
  • [191-?]

One undated photograph showing a Breithaupt Leather Co. truck in front of the Shipping Dept. at the tannery, which was located in Kitchener, Ont.

Denton, Ernest

Budd's Dept. Stores Kitchener, Guelph, Simcoe annual picnic.

  • SCA411-GA478
  • Collection
  • August 20, 1947

One photograph of the Budds Department Store annual picnic, held August 20, 1947. The photograph shows 82 people, including men, women, and children. The picnic attendees appear to include the owners and employees of the three Budds Department Store locations, as well as their families. The photograph was taken outside in an undisclosed location and the subjects appear relaxed and informal.

Budds Department Store

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist) and Anti Imperial Alliance.

Correspondence and notes between members of the Dumont Press, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist) (CPC M-L), and the Anti Imperial Alliance (AIA) of the University of Waterloo. The correspondence outlines a political disagreement between the left wing politics of those who worked at the press and the CPC M-L and AIA. The Dumont Press had been allowing the CPC M-L and the AIA to use the press to print their materials, but indicated that they had become uncomfortable with the division between the groups. Part of this disagreement was also what was happening with the Chevron, the student newspaper of the University of Waterloo, at the time. The Dumont Press printed the Chevron and indicated that they were finding it difficult to do their work under the political perspective of the AIA, which was the dominant voice of the Chevron at the time. Also present is one item of correspondence from Dr. Henry Crapo, professor in the Faculty of Mathematics, at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Crapo was requesting back the money that he had loaned the Dumont Press due to the press' political disagreements with the CPC M-L, the AIA and the Canada-China Friendship Society.

Dumont Press Graphix Limited

Company of Neighbours fonds.

  • SCA147-GA120
  • Fonds
  • [189-]-[195-], predominant [189-]-1906.

Photographs taken in and around Waterloo, Ontario by unknown photographers. Included are images of Waterloo Park and events and businesses along King Street.

Dominion Life Assurance Company head office.

  • SCA265-GA283
  • Collection
  • July 1939

File consists of one photograph of the employees of the head office of the Dominion Life Assurance Company in Waterloo, Ontario. The photograph was taken July 1939. The employees are standing in front of the building at 14 Erb Street West.

Dominion Life Assurance Company

Dumont Press Graphix Limited fonds.

  • SCA448-GA524
  • Fonds
  • 1970-2017

Materials relating to the creation and operation of Dumont Press Graphix Limited.

Dumont Press Graphix Limited

First Mennonite Church bible school.

  • SCA291-GA326
  • Collection
  • [1928?]

One photograph of students of the First Mennonite Church bible school. Students are shown outside in front of the church building.

Furniture and woodworkers union materials.

  • SCA275-GA296
  • Collection
  • 1931-1935

Fonds consists of ephemera relating to the unionization of furniture makers and woodworkers in the Kitchener, Stratford, and Woodstock area. Includes a mock liberty bond for the defence of workers arrested protesting, a card promoting socialist industrial unionism, a handbill outlining union desires, a letter from Canada Furniture Manufacturers regarding an adjustment to pay rates, a handbill encouraging furniture workers to unionize, and a photocopy of a letter to Herman Kreuger.

King Street, Waterloo, Ont., 1923 : completed paving work.

  • SCA201-GA178
  • Collection
  • 1923

One photograph of a section of King Street, Waterloo, Ont. showing recently completed paving work by Standardite Paving. Also visible in the photograph are streetcar tracks, early street lights and automobiles.

Denton, Ernest

Municipal council of the town of Berlin.

  • SCA413-GA481
  • Collection
  • 1909

One photograph mounted on cardboard of the Municipal Council of the town of Berlin, dated 1909. The black and white photograph shows 15 adults dressed in suits and posed seated or standing in front of an ornately painted backdrop.

  • Back row, from left to right is Edwin Whyte Clement, F. W. Sheppard, Joseph Roman Winterhalt, and Frederich “Frederick” Bornhold.
  • Middle row from left to right is Charles Boehmer Dunke, William Daum Euler, William Robert Wilkinson, Alexander Hugh Millar, H. Martin, and John R. Schilling.
  • Front row from left to right is reeve David Gross Jr. (George “David" Gross), third deputy reeve Henry Anthony Dietrich, Mayor Charles Casper Hahn who served from 1909 to 1910, second deputy reeve John F. McKay, and first deputy reeve Nicholas Asmussen.

Among the subjects are three individuals who would later serve as mayor of Berlin or Kitchener following its 1916 name change: William Daum Euler (1914-1917), David Gross Jr. (1917-1919), and Nicholas Asmussen (1925 -1926). William Daum Euler was also elected to the House of Commons of Canada (1917) and Nicholas Asmussen to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (1919-1926). Both represented Waterloo North, Ontario in their Federal political office.

R. Forbes & Co. Ltd. film

  • SCA316-GA352
  • Fonds
  • [191-]

File consists of one film reel showing the exterior and operations of the R. Forbes Co. woollen mill in Hespeler (Cambridge), Ontario. The mill would later become the Dominion Woollen and Worsted Mill.

R. Forbes & Co. Ltd.