St. Clair West in the archives

As a graduate student in the archives field, I am so excited to be part of the St. Clair West Oral History Project!

Oral histories are such an important part of the archival legacy that we leave for future generations, and being able to hear a voice telling their own story is so much more engaging than reading a written account. Audio recordings have been around for a relatively short time in our recent history, and the medium has changed so much since the very early “phonautographs” (a representation of sound waves on a piece of paper) or wax cylinders in the mid 1800’s. We can never hear the voices of our ancestors or notable people who lived before this time, as much as we would love to, and that’s why it is so important to record these contemporary memories and stories within our lifetimes.

Hearing a voice and being able to match a picture to that speaker is one of the many advantages of creating modern oral history recordings! People are inherently visual beings, and seeing the image of an interviewee as they tell you about their life helps to spark the imagination and forge a connection between the speaker and the listener. Our interview pages feature the picture behind the voice where possible, so you know who is speaking to you.

Many of the stories and recollections are so vibrant and energetic that they allow the listener to place themselves back in time, right in the middle of the action. We wanted to capture these memories in special “featured stories” around exciting themes, with creative visuals to compliment the story-telling. For this, I was able to search through archival collections to find both images and video that helped to enhance the audio, and really draw our listeners in to the era. One main source of archival images is the City of Toronto archives, which has many digitized photograph collections available to browse. These collections provide an absolute wealth of resources for the public, and have been invaluable in researching the history of St. Clair West.

Beginning an archives search can be a daunting task. For one, there is no guarantee that the record or photo you are looking for has been preserved in an archive. Archive systems are very different from library systems, in that there is rarely one database that links various branches together, and the items in an archive are not arranged or described by subjects. Archival arrangement is based on the idea of “provenance”, so that all the records and documents coming from one person or organisation are kept together, in a “fonds”. A fonds is the whole of the collection from one particular donor, and can be broken down into series and files, usually based on how the creator organised their own documents. So, searching for a subject like “streetcars” or “shops” might not yield many results, unless the archive staff have added in these descriptive words. And unlike a library with detailed online descriptions of each book in their holdings, many archives don’t have individual item listings, so you may need to dig a littler deeper in person!

Don’t let these differences hold you back though, there are many amazing discoveries to be made by engaging with archives and the way they work. As you embark on your own research interests, here are some resources within Toronto and Ontario that may set you on the path to discovery!

I hope this might inspire you to start your own historical research about the St. Clair West neighbourhood. Please do let us know how it goes!

- Heather, Master of Information Student at the University of Toronto

The Edison Wax Cylinder, or phonograph cylinder, was the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound.

The Edison Wax Cylinder, or phonograph cylinder, was the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound.

Heather Walker1 Comment