PARLIAMENT PASSES PUBLIC ARCHIVES ACT

The Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada) began modestly in 1872 with the appointment of a clerk in the Department of Agriculture and a vague mandate to establish an Archives Branch. The preservation of historically significant documents and publications evolved to include federal government records. It wasn’t until the 1904 appointment of Arthur Doughty as Dominion Archivist, though, that the archives’ cultural and scholarly profile thrived. With strong political support, he secured a separate archives building with more staff and a larger budget. He also pushed for government recognition of the crucial role of the archives with the proclamation of the Public Archives Act on this day in 1912. Under the legislation, the archives became a separate department under the Secretary of State. Doughty worked tirelessly to expand the collections by arranging the copying by hand of early colonial records in London and Paris, while dramatically expanding Canada’s archival heritage to include documentary art, maps, photographs and artifacts. By the 1920s, the Public Archives, through its publications, exhibitions and reading rooms, was the national centre for historical research. Generations of genealogists and students of history have investigated the constantly growing archives, now partly online, as they interpret and reinterpret the story of Canada.