Archives and Special Collections - Digitized Material

This unique item was created in 1979 when the St. John's daily newspaper, The Telegram, celebrated its 100th anniversary. It is a timeline of events covering 100 years of Newfoundland history mixed with world events. The timeline appears to be a reprint of the "50 years Ago Today" and "25 years Ago Today" columns. Printed on a single piece of paper it measures 1½ inches wide by 36½ feet long.

The original document is held in the Michael Harrington Collection, Coll-307. Harrington was the editor of The Telegram from 1959 to 1982.

For more information on this collection, click here.

This fonds consists of a hand-bound booklet containing the published A.R.P. Note Book issued by the Director of Civil Defence, St. John's, Newfoundland, February, 1942, which gives the "functions and duties of an air raid warden," as well as blackout regulations and emergency procedures. Additional typed pages contain location and contact information for the air raid zones in St. John's. Blank pages contain handwritten notes.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Air Raid Precautions Note Book Coll-364

Located on the northeastern tip of the Bonavista peninsula, the municipality of Bonavista is one of the oldest towns on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. On June 24th, 1497, John Cabot, an Italian explorer sailing under the British flag for King Henry VII, made landfall in the New World.

Methodism was founded in Newfoundland in 1766 with the arrival of Rev. Laurence Coughlan, a newly-ordained Church of England priest who had been converted to Methodism some 13 years previously.

The first Methodist Church in Bonavista was constructed in 1814 under the ministry of Rev. William Ellis. It served the people of Bonavista for 35 years when it was enlarged to house the growing population. However, on January 8, 1870 a severe storm destroyed the church. It was rebuilt within a year under the ministry of Rev. John S. Phimmey. The building could seat 800 people; however, with time the population grew and a larger building was needed, so on March 4, 1918 the church was taken down in order to build a new one. The fourth and present church was completed in 1921 under the leadership of Rev. Charles Lench. It is 65 feet wide and 124 feet long with a seating capacity of 1200 which makes it the largest wooden church in Eastern Canada. The design is "Classical Revival Style" which was widely popular at this time. It has an open scissor-brace rafter system, a timber balloon frame, and a combination stone-concrete foundation. The church was designed by architect Charles H. Lench, M.Arch. (Harvard). The Master Builder of the church was Ronald Strathie, who also built other structures in Bonavista. The tower clock was purchased from the Howard Clock Company in New York and was installed by Mr. Strathie and has long been a landmark for local fishermen returning to port.

A special ceremony was held for the laying of the cornerstone on October 31, 1921. The cornerstone contains a box filled with contemporary copies of newspapers, the "Methodist Monthly Greeting," circulating coins, and a list of the officials attending the ceremony.

The fine stained glass window in the facade was donated by the Swyers Family in memory of those who lost their lives in war; it portrays Christ as the Good Shepherd, and incorporates symbols appropriate to The United Church of Canada.

The building was dedicated on 28th January, 1923. Two years later, upon church union, the Methodist church became part of The United Church of Canada.

The church seats 1375 people and is filled to capacity when used for occasions of a special nature, such as ecumenical services, high school graduation ceremonies, and special performances such as Handel's "Messiah" given by the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and its Philharmonic Choir, an event held first held during the Christmas Season of 1996 and again in 2008.

The church has a thriving Sunday School, active adult groups - United Church Women and Men's Fellowship Group - as well as a Junior and Senior Choir, Mime Group, and Messenger Group. Weekly Prayer Services are held and there are Sunday evening "After Services" following the regular evening worship.

From Charles Lench, The Story of Methodism in Bonavista
Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador
https://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/methodist.html

This collection consists of two photograph albums showing the creation of Bowring Park during the years 1912 to 1914. The photos were taken by landscape architect, Rudolph Cochius. The albums were donated to the Archives and Special Collections by the Bowring Park Foundation in 2002. Rudolph Cochius had worked on landscape and road construction projects in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France before immigrating to Canada in 1911. The following year he went to St. John's to supervise the development of the new park. In a preliminary report on the project submitted to Sir Edgar Bowring, Cochius wrote "It would hardly seem possible that a greater number of attractive natural features could be combined within such an area, almost surrounded as it is by the north and south rivers, whose well wooded banks make a very pleasing boundary for the proposed Park, while the interior of the property is for the most part open and well adapted for play-grounds and other public purposes."

He went on to recommend "I think the most important play-grounds, such as tennis, bowling, etc., should be located in the vicinity of the shelter; but there should also be provided, on the level area below the bridge, a pool for bathing, etc. Suitable bathing houses should also be provided." Cochius spent the next two years designing the layout for Bowring Park and after it opened on July 14, 1914, he agreed to remain as park superintendent and oversee future development of the landscape.

In 1920 Cochius returned to Europe where he spent 1920 and 1921 as a town planner in Belgium. The Newfoundland Government wanted to create war memorial parks at the five main European battle sites where the Newfoundland Regiment fought and sustained major casualties. In 1922 Prime Minister Richard Squires approached Cochius to design these parks in France and Belgium. When this work was completed, in 1925, he returned to Newfoundland where he was appointed a member of the Newfoundland Highroads Commission. During this time he also designed Mount Pearl Park. In 1928 he was appointed to the first St. John's Town Planning Commission, established by St. John's City Council. In 1934, the Newfoundland Government appointed him to the governing board for the Markland Land Settlement, the first of the Commission of Government schemes to create a series of farming communities in rural Newfoundland. Rudolf Cochius married Marie Aarsen of Amsterdam on December 7, 1911. Cochius died in March 1944.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Bowring Park Photograph Albums Coll-311

Coll-187 "Catholic Footprints in the Ancient Colony" by Patrick Browne. It consists of 257 numbered leaves, typed one side only, together with an additional 21 leaves of end-notes and appendix, bound in a simple black cardboard stock with cloth spine. There is no title page, but there appears to have been one or two pages torn from the front of the text; these may have included a title page. Written in ink on the inside front cover is "Patrick W. Brown [sic] died prior to July 27,1937". It was never published. Two photocopies were made to be catalogued for the Centre's book collection and the original was then transferred to the Archives and Special Collections. The photocopies are catalogued under the call number BX 1422N4B75193.

Collegian Service Record - The Methodist College (Later Prince of Wales College)

This small collection consists of the Records of Collegians who served in the First World War. Each page has the name of person, address and next of kin, as well as the dates of events including Date of Enlistment, Date Embarked, Promotions, etc.

There are over 200 students listed here including such notables as Cluny Macpherson, Owen Steele, Lester Barbour, and Robert Tait.

"Collegian" was the name given to a student who attended the Methodist College, located on Long's Hill in St. John's. The school yearbook, which was begun by the headmaster Robert Holloway in 1896, was called "The Collegian".

Founded in 1859, the Methodist College subsequently became Prince of Wales College. In 1925 Methodists in Newfoundland became part of the United Church of Canada and with subsequent reorganization of the United Church education system, as well as new buildings, the old Methodist College was renamed Holloway School and a new school on LeMarchant Road was named Prince of Wales College.

This collection consists of correspondence prior to David Francis' travels to Newfoundland in 1947, a diary and annotated photo album that document his time in Newfoundland including travels to and from, and reports related to David Francis' forestry work while in Newfoundland.

The photo album was retrieved from the Exmouth Recycling Centre by Dan Fishman of Venn Ottery, Devon, England, UK in the autumn of 2007. Through the editor of Journal of Apicultural Research Fishman was able to make contact with David Francis' widow Jean (Jackie) Francis in January 2008 who added related material to this collection.

In 2016 Dan Fishman donated the material to Archives and Special Collections, Memorial University via Sally Goddard. It was received by Archives and Special Collections 10 April 2017.

David Francis was born 17 March 1928 in Brecon, Wales to D. Stanley Francis, clerk and WWI veteran. Francis was married to Jean (Jackie) and they had three children, Diana, Alison, and David. After a short illness, Francis died on 4 June 2006 at the age of 78.

Francis was educated at the University College of North Wales (UCNW) in Bangor where he completed a BSc in Forestry and Botany. After university, he accepted a position in Canada conducting aerial and ground forest surveys. Following this position, Francis joined the British Colonial Service where he did similar work primarily in Ghana and also undertook a two-year secondment for post graduate study at Oxford University where he specialized in aerial surveying. He left the British Colonial Service in 1954 to join Huntings Aero Survey eventually becoming Managing Director. While in this position, he also worked as a consultant to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In 1988, David became temporary Director of the International Beekeeping Research Association (IBRA) holding that post until 1991.

Newfoundland Trip 1947
As part of his educational program at UCNW, Francis was required to complete a practicum course related to the forestry industry. Francis' father, Stanley Francis, wrote Lord Rothermere seeking information regarding paper mills in Newfoundland as well advice on how to secure a practicum position in Newfoundland. Lord Rothermere provided Francis with support and introductions including the manager of the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. Mill in Grand Falls. Francis traveled to Newfoundland on board the SS North Devon and arrived at Wabana in Conception Bay Newfoundland on 19 August 1947. He worked as part of the Woods Division and documented his time in Newfoundland by keeping a diary and creating an annotated photograph album that covers his travels to and from Newfoundland and his work 7 August - 4 October 1947. Francis completed his work in Newfoundland and departed from Wabana on 22 September 1947 returning to his program of study in Wales.

The majority of information contained in this biography came from an obituary published in the Journal of Apicultural Research 45(3) p. 166, (2006).

Decks Awash was a popular interest magazine with a sociological outlook that was published by Memorial University's Extension Service from 1968 to 1993. It developed out of an earlier Extension Services ETV program of the same name. Its articles were authored by university employees and freelance writers, who travelled all around the province. Decks Awash can function as a history of Newfoundland and Labrador society from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. The multifarious work of Extension Services, including its Fogo Island Process Project and Decks Awash, is considered a high point in Memorial University's contributions to the community.

This collection consists of the photograph, negatives and contact prints that were used in the magazine. The collection was transferred to the Archives and Special Collections in 1991 after MUN Extension Services were closed.

Each issue of the magazine, Decks Awash, is available online

Each article of the magazine is indexed and annotated in the Newfoundland Periodical Article Bibliography (PAB)

Fonds consists of textual, photographic, and audio-visual material relating to Don Walsh's life and career, 1960s-2014. Fonds includes promotional material, photographs, recordings, and correspondence related to Walsh's activities as music producer (Dadyeen Studios) and a professional musician with the following bands: Red Island,Tickle Harbour, Plankerdown Band, and Solid Ground. Material also relates to his activities as an independent musician. The fonds also includes material associated with his personal life (family and friends) as well as his work as a computer programmer. In addition, the fonds consists of a pan flute, several t-shirts and art work.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Don Walsh Coll-457

The papers of Florence Miller (1889-1979) consist primarily of daily diaries and poetry written by Miller at her home in Topsail, Newfoundland, covering the years 1928 to 1979. In addition there is a large number of short verses that she wrote and submitted to greeting card companies, such as the Hallmark Company, for which she was paid. There are short stories, local histories and genealogical material, a few photographs, as well as one play that Miller wrote that was broadcast in 1925 on a radio station in Pittsburg. There is a small amount of material relating to the United Church in Topsail, the church she and her family faithfully attended during their lifetime. There is a significant collection of correspondence with a variety of people, including her good friend and fellow Newfoundland poet, Edwin Duder.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for Florence Miller Coll-016

This collection consists of material generated by Frances Cluett who served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) in Europe during World War I and covers the years from 1916 to 1920. The collection consists mainly of correspondence written by Frances Cluett to her mother, Matilda Cluett, in Belleoram, Fortune Bay. There is a photograph album of pictures taken by Cluett, many of them documenting her time in Europe, two badges bearing the initials SJAB (St. John Ambulance Brigade), and five watercolours painted by Cluett during her service in France. There is also a German Iron Cross medal which was given to her by a German soldier; an autograph album covering the years 1907 to 1910; and, a small journal written by Cluett in 1908 describing life in Belleoram.

These letters, photographs and other items provide insight into the life of one Newfoundland woman and her experiences as a VAD in World War I.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Frost Collection Coll-174

This collection consists of 31 photographs taken by Frank Schrader, an American serviceman, when he was stationed at the American armed forces base, Argentia, Newfoundland, during the 1940s. The photographs depict the early days of construction of the base and surrounding area.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Schrader Collection Coll-402

Collection consists of dairies created by Charles Hugh Renouf relating to daily life, weather patterns, ship arrivals in St. John’s and major historical and cultural events in Newfoundland and Labrador History. Notably, this includes observations and reaction to the Great Fire (1892), the Newfoundland Bank Crash (1894) and the First World War. It also includes commentary on world events such as the Sino Japanese War and the Nicaraguan Crisis of 1894-1895.The diaries were written by Charles Hugh Renouf in 1890-1913 and 1915-1916.

Charles Hugh Renouf (1870 - 1945) was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland on n.d., 1870 to Dr. Charles Hugh Renouf (1815-1878), physician, and Anita Catherine Moore (1828-1903). He had four siblings: Mary Catherine Jean Renouf (1857-1942), Charles Lorenzo Renouf (1860-1867), Mary Caroline Renouf (1864-1864), and Henry Thomas Renouf (1872-1941). He married Maude G. Hanrahan on 24 June 1908 and had two children: George Rex Renouf (1911-1971) and Henry Thomas Moore Renouf (1912-1982). Renouf attended St. Bonaventure’s college in St. John’s. He entered the mercantile business and was attached to the brokerage house of Gillard & Smith. He would go on to become Chief Accountant in the finance department with the Newfoundland government.

Charles Rendell (1897-1948), cable operator, was born on 25 September 1897. He grew up in Heart's Content, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. He married Clare 28 September 1922, they had two sons and two daughters. Rendell died on 26 March 1948 at Heart's Content

Rendell completed his schooling until grade nine at Heart's Content. He then enrolled in a telegraphy course in Boston so that he could become a cable operator at Heart's Content cable station. He and his wife, Clare (married September 28, 1922) were the parents of two sons and two daughters. He died on March 26, 1948 at Heart's Content.

The photographs in this album were collected by Charles Sydney Frost during his service with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in the First World War. Most of the photographs were taken between 1914 and 1918. They are snapshots of Regiment officers while in the United Kingdom and France. The majority of these men were from "B" Company and it is likely that the photos of these men were taken while C.S. Frost presided over that company as Captain. Also contained in the album are reproductions of the 12 Newfoundland stamps that were issued to honor the Regiment's service in World War One.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Frost Collection Coll-346

These two photograph albums contain black and white photographs, mostly of St. John's and surrounding area, and were probably collected by the Frew family of St. John's. They appear to be taken around the turn of the century and contain several good images of St. John's after the Great Fire of 1892. On the inside back cover there is written "G.J. Tessier, Amateur photographer".

The albums were apparently also used as scrapbooks and contains paper images of, possibly, Africa.
The albums were given to the Archives and Special Collections in 2000 by Dr Tom Nemec.

For more information on this please see the Finding Aid for the Collection Coll-276

In 1903, Richard Kelly sent a copy of his book, Galway as a Transatlantic Port, to Sir Robert Bond, the Prime Minister of Newfoundland. The original is housed in the Bond Collection, Coll-237, file 11.01.008. The file also contains a letter from Kelly to Bond.

Richard John Kelly (1856-1931)
From the Dictionary of Irish Biography, Cambridge University Press

Richard John Kelly, a newspaper editor and lawyer, was born January 20, 1856 and educated at Blackrock College and QCG and became a reporter and editorial writer for the Tuam Herald before assuming full control.

Kelly was called to the bar in 1886 and built up a successful practice on the Connacht circuit, becoming a king's counsel in 1914. He published numerous legal works. Kelly took a strong interest in local matters and lobbied for the development of Galway as an Atlantic port.

Richard John Kelly died 3 September 1931 in Dublin and was buried at Glasnevin cemetery. He married Edith Mackey of Southampton; they had one son, Richard Jasper and six daughters.

For more information on the Robert Bond collection, see the finding aid Coll-199
Series 11, in particular, consists of material related to Bond's interests and involvement in an all British trans-Atlantic shipping route which would include Newfoundland as a trans-shipment point.

The Gauntlet Press was operated jointly by the Canadian poet Richard Outram and his artist wife Barbara Howard for over forty years, producing superbly crafted limited edition letterpress broadsheets and booklets. Later broadsides differ from the original letterpress publications in being computer-generated. All the books and broadsheets reproduced digitally at this site can be seen in their paper analogues at the QEII Library's Centre for Newfoundland Studies. This Web site was jointly sponsored by the QEII Library and the Department of English of Memorial University.

Gauntlet Press Postscript is a digital archive of the two poetic sequences Nine Shiners and Brief Immortals written by Richard Outram after the sudden death of his wife, Barbara Howard, in 2002. Originally sent only to a small circle of close friends, these intensely personal final poems, accompanied by reproductions of Howard's paintings, were not assigned a Gauntlet Press imprint by Outram. Nevertheless, given their important place in Outram's and Howard's artistic and poetic oeuvre, they are reproduced here as a companion-piece to The Gauntlet Press of Richard Outram and Barbara Howard digital archive. The digital images have been provided by Peter Newman and Susan Warner Keene from a print original.

The one-hundred-and-thirty titles in the Robert D. Denham's Collection include books, broadsides and keepsakes produced by the Gauntlet Press, the private press established by Canadian poet Richard Outram and Canadian artist Barbara Howard. The Collection also holds trade editions of Outram's work as well as works by Richard Outram and Barbara Howard that do not bear the mark of the Gauntlet Press. Many of the items in the Collection are presentation copies, inscribed by Outram for Professor Robert D. Denham and his wife. The Collection also contains Gauntlet Press and other titles that were originally Barbara Howards's personal copies, several of which bear an inscription in Richard Outram's hand.

The Robert Dyer diaries covers his time as an Anglican clergy and Newfoundland School Society teacher at Greenspond (1841-1859) and at Alberton, Prince Edward Island (1859-1884).

Microfilmed from the original: General Synod Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada, Toronto, Ont.

Location number: MF-273

The Geography Collection consists of 1109 black and white photographs together with contact prints and negatives. These photographs depict many images of Newfoundland and Labrador houses, churches, public buildings, ships, railways, communities, and special events. The creation of these photographs was primarily the work of three prominent photographers: Robert Holloway, S.H. Parsons and James Vey. Through a special project initiated by the Geography Department of Memorial University of Newfoundland, the photographs were copied from the original glass negatives that were in the custody of the Newfoundland Museum but are now on deposit in the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador. They were arranged and described in an annotated guide to the collection, The Historic Photographic Collection of the Department of Geography, in three volumes by Dr. Maurice Scarlett, professor of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and his wife, Shirley Scarlett.

George Bond (1850-1933), Methodist minister and writer, was born on 1 July 1850 in St. John's, the eldest son of John Bond and Elizabeth Roberts. He received his early education in St. John's, and in 1869 decided to enter the Methodist ministry. He was accepted as a candidate in 1871, and studied for the ministry at Mount Allison Methodist College in Sackville, New Brunswick; he graduated in 1874. He was ordained into the Methodist ministry at George Street Methodist Church in St. John's on 26 June 1876.

In 1891 Bond transferred to Nova Scotia. He served in Halifax at Grafton Methodist Church and Oxford Street Church, and at Canso. In 1895 he was appointed editor of The Wesleyan, a monthly church magazine published in Halifax.

While he was serving in Nova Scotia, Bond spent a year, 1907-1908, in China and Japan studying the church's missionary work there. His visit took him up the Yangtze River where he saw first-hand the work of the Methodist missionaries in that part of the country . After his return to Halifax, he used what he had learned, together with photographs he had taken in China, to give public lectures on this facet of the church's work.

George Bond retired from the active ministry in 1923. He spent part of his retirement in Halifax, but also lived part of each year at the Grange, which he inherited after his brother's death in 1927.

Series 2.03 documents his involvement with the Methodist Church in China and includes: diaries, notebooks, lantern slides, posters, and books. One book titled The Story of The Sing Yet Family by J L Stewart, c. 1910 included "Rag Dolls" to use as illustrations to accompany the book.

For more information on the George Bond Collection, see finding aid Coll-236

George Elson was born about 1876 in the James Bay region of northern Ontario, seventy miles south of Rupert House. He lived and worked mostly with the Hudson Bay Company in James Bay. This diary is an expedition diary and covers the period from June to August 1905 when Elson accompanied Mina Hubbard, Joseph Isserhoff, Job Chapies, and Gilbert Blake on a 576 mile trek through Labrador, from North West River to the mouth of the George River on Ungava Bay. Mina Hubbard was attempting to complete the journey that her husband, Leonidas Hubbard, began in 1903. George Elson, a Scots Cree, was the head guide on Mina Hubbard's expedition. (He had also accompanied Leonidas Hubbard's ill-fated journey). Job Chapies, a Cree from Missanabie was Elson's second in command. He was an expert whitewater canoeist. Elson, Chapies and Iserhoff had worked together at the Hudson Bay Company post in James Bay. Gilbert Blake (1886-1979), of Scottish-Inuit descent, was from a North West River settler family. In 1906 Elson and Chapies accompanied Florence and Stephen Tasker on their expedition. The four successfully traversed the Ungava Peninsula in a single canoe.

Please note that pages 97-100 were torn out of the original diary.

For more information on the George Elson, see the finding aid Coll-241

King William's instructions for Colonel Gibson in command of the expedition to Newfoundland. This is an original handwritten transcript in bound volume, covering the dates 1692 to 1699. It was donated to Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1969 by then President, Lord Taylor of Harlow.

For more information see the finding aid MF-041

Photos in this album were taken by Gustav Anderson for the Newfoundland Tourist Development Board in 1950.

Gustav Anderson (1897-1974)
Photoengraver, pictorial photographer, salon exhibitor, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on 17 October 1897. He died on 9 November 1974 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the home of his Stella. Anderson grew up in a rural village in Sweden. By age fourteen, he was employed in a photoengraving shop and studying art in night school. He subsequently worked in the Swedish film industry where he reportedly hand-developed the first Greta Garbo film. He emigrated to the United States circa 1925; in 1928 he settled in Amityville, Long Island, and worked nearly all his life as a photoengraver in New York.

For more information on the Gustav Anderson Collection, see finding aid see Coll-429

These scrapbook were kept by Harvey Skirving who was 12 years old when the World War I broke out in August 1914. Little is known of Skirving except the fact that he later worked as an accountant in St John's.

For more information on the Harvey Skirving Collection, see finding aid see Coll-058

A Tale of The Reformation in Devonshire, and of the Western Rebellion.

By the late Rev. A. D. CRAKE, B.A.,
Sometime Fellow of the Royal Historicak Society; Vicar of Chosley, Berks.

This collection consists of reproductions of the portrait photographs of the 139 men who appeared in H. Y. Mott's 1894 publication Newfoundland Men. It provides the only known photographic image of several of these men.

The reproductions found in this collection were copied at Photographic Services unit of Memorial University's Division of University Relations at the request of the Archives and Special Collections in 2003.

For more information on the Henry Mott Collection, see finding aid see Coll-327

The International Labour and Radical History Pamphlet Collection in the Queen Elizabeth II Library consists of more than 2200 pamphlets, representing a broad spectrum of leftist opinion that includes communists of various stripes, socialists, liberal reformers, trade unionists, civil libertarians and antiwar activists.

Published for the most part between the years 1920 and 1970 (the collection also includes a number of Fabian Society publications that predate this period), the majority of the pamphlets are English-language publications from the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Canada and China. Among the topics and issues dealt with are socialist theory and practice, critiques of capitalism, war and peace, labour and the role of unions, international communism, the Vietnam war, racism and Third World liberation. Authors include Daniel DeLeon, Earl Browder, William Z Foster, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Georgi Dimitrov, James Cannon, Howard Fast, Anna Louise Strong, Paul Robeson, Harry Pollitt, Jacques Duclos, Vyacheslav Molotov, Sergei Eisenstein, as well as Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Mao.

This collection consists of anthropological research done by Dr. James Faris during the 1960s and 1970s in Lumsden, (Cat Harbour). It includes textual material, correspondence, black and white photographs and 35 mm coloured slides. The James Faris papers were donated to the Archives and Special Collections, Memorial University, in 2010, by James Faris.

For more about James Faris see the Archives finding aid Coll-422

In 1997 Janet Davis and Duke Kelloway, from Wesleyville, became the new owners of the old Job Kean premises in Brookfield, Bonavista Bay. Among the items purchased with the house were hundreds of Christmas cards dating from 1905 to 1926. The following year Ms Davis donated this wonderful collection to the Archives and Special Collections division of the Queen Elizabeth II Library.

Job Kean's family moved from Flower's Island, Bonavista Bay, to Norton's Cove in 1878. The Keans were seafaring people. Job's uncle, the famous Captain Abram Kean, (who subsequently renamed Norton's Cove to Brookfield) was the most successful sealing captain in Newfoundland history. Like his uncles and brothers, Job participated in the seal fishery in the spring of the year and in the cod fishery on the Labrador coast during the summer. He served as captain of the sealing ship the S.S. Erik for 12 years and was captain of the S.S. Leopard during the Greenland disaster of 1898.

Captain Job Kean (1863-1945) married Virtue Maria Hann (1858-1929) of Cape Cove. They built a three-storey Mansard-roofed house in Norton's Cove in 1884, and around 1890 opened a shop that supplied ships' provisions - groceries, clothing, salt - in essence, everything from "a needle to an anchor". Job and Virtue had eleven children: five sons: Hedley Walter (d.1892, 7 mos.) Baxter Wesley (1895-1976) who was to remain a bachelor and inherit the family property: Alexander Smith (d. 1905, 10 mos.) and Charles (1901-1975) who married Lydia Parsons of cat Harbour, and six daughters: Maggie Marcilla Hann (b.1884) who married Baxter Barbour from Newtown; Sophie who moved to New York and subsequently married there; Gladys Murray (d. 1891, 7 mos.); Mary Jane (d. 1897, 5 mos.); Daisy, who married Job Wornell of Greenspond and later Joseph Bartlett; and Carrie who graduated from the Friends Hospital in Philadelphia as a nurse. The Kean shop was the centre of commerce in the Brookfield area. Located near the harbour front, Kean's ships had easy access to the shop when they arrived in port for supplies and merchandise. Kean's also supplied other local sailing vessels. According to residents, Aunt Virtue and her son Baxter would usually be found behind the counter. In addition, Virtue ran the telegraph and post office from these premises.

Virtue Kean also became famous as a poet and a songwriter. According to tradition, she wrote the folk song "Lukey's Boat" and performed it one night at the Methodist Church Hall as a way of poking fun at local resident Luke Gaulton. As she sang verse after verse ridiculing both him and his boat, the audience roared with laughter. Gaulton later added a verse of his own, making fun of Virtue's well-known hypochondria.

Virtue died in 1929 and in 1945, after Job's death, Baxter was left to carry on alone. At his death, the business passed to his nephew Job Kean, son of Charlie Kean, who eventually closed up shop in the 1970s and moved to St. John's.

Today there is a new and thriving enterprise on the old Kean property. Janet Davis, after lovingly restoring the shop to its former glory, operates the Norton's Cove Studio from there in the award-winning heritage structure.

For more about Job Kean see the Archives finding aid Coll-339

Coll-333 Ranier Rees. This fonds consists of 42 original music compositions, written by Rainer Rees between 1988 and 1992, as well as research on Rees's life and work.

Rainer Rees was born in Berlin, Germany, on March 27, 1926. He was adopted by Robert Rees, a wealthy businessman. He studied piano and flute, and under the National Socialist Party, he became a member of the Hitlerjunge where he received more musical training.

In 1943, at age 17, Rees was called to active military duty and was sent to Russia. After the war, Rees returned to Germany and his musical studies. He attended the Amorbach, a musical conservatory, and studied at the Kirchenmusikschule (Church Music School), Regensburg, graduating in 1952.

In 1953, Rees accepted a job as organist and choirmaster at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (later, Basilica) in St. John's. Aside from his Basilica work, Rees taught music theory and history, and conducted bands and choirs, at St. Patrick's and St. Bonaventure's schools, where he remained until 1987. Known as Professor Rees, between 1953 and 1990, he also taught piano privately, generally taking on 45 students each year at his home at No. 1 Rowan Street.

Since his time in Germany, Rees had been interested in composing music, but did not do much during his time in St. John's until 1988. He was known for his improvisations on the organ, but these were never recorded. Between 1988 and 1992, he began to compose a large collection of music including 32 sonatas and 10 books of character pieces.

For more about Rainer Rees see the Archives finding aid Coll-333

This collection consists of three diaries handwritten by Joseph Iserhoff while he was in northern Ontario in 1902 and Labrador in 1905.

Joseph C. Iserhoff was a Russian-Cree who lived and worked mostly with the Hudson Bay Company in James Bay. He was a descendant of a shipwrecked Russian sailor, John Leopold Iserhoff, who had married a Cree woman.

During the course of his life he kept handwritten diaries. The first diary covers the period February to August 1902 while he was at Missinabie and Wawa City. It focuses on his employment and daily life, with reflections on labour and society in northern Ontario. It also contains a brief biography of Tom Swanson, who worked at the Hudson Bay Company's post and was a boat builder at Brunswick House. It is signed by Swanson and Iserhoff.

The second diary is a field diary and covers the period from June to August 1902. It overlaps with the first diary. It contains mostly detailed surveying logs for work done in northern Ontario.

The third diary is an expedition diary and covers the period from June to August 1905 when Iserhoff accompanied Mina Hubbard, George Elson, Job Chapies, and Gilbert Blake on a 576 mile trek through Labrador, from North West River to the mouth of the George River on Ungava Bay. Mina Hubbard was attempting to complete the journey that her husband, Leonidas Hubbard, began in 1903. George Elson, a Scots Cree, was the head guide on Mina Hubbard's expedition. (He had also accompanied Leonidas Hubbard's ill-fated journey). Job Chapies, a Cree from Missanabie was Elson's second in command. He was an expert whitewater canoeist. Elson, Chapies and Iserhoff had worked together at the Hudson Bay Company post in James Bay. Gilbert Blake (1886-1979), of Scottish-Inuit descent, was from a North West River settler family.

In 1906 Elson and Chapies accompanied Florence and Stephen Tasker on their expedition. The four successfully traversed the Ungava Peninsula in a single canoe.

For more about Joseph Iserhoff Diaries see the Archives finding aid Coll-498

This collection consists of the Journal of Rev William Marshall, a Methodist Missionary to Newfoundland. It covers daily accounts of Marhsall's years on the south coast of Newfoundland, from 1839 to 1842.

For more about William Marshall see the Archives finding aid MF-238

These photographs show the destruction and damage caused to the people and communities of the Burin Peninsula by the tidal wave which swept its coasts on November 18, 1929. The three images which form this collection are not as common as some others, but they were part of a number which were printed as postcards and made available for sale. These three were kept by Matilda Kelly, a young schoolteacher in Point au Gaul in 1929, where she witnessed the destruction of the tidal wave first-hand.

For more about Kelly, Matilda M. see the Archives finding aid MF-334

This collection consists of material, primarily correspondence, between Kevin Keegan and his parents, from 1915 to 1918 as well as material related to Keegan's service with the Newfoundland Regiment during World War I. There is also correspondence between Kevin Keegan's father, Dr Lawrence Keegan, and the Newfoundland Colonial Secretary, R.A. Squires.

For more about Kevin Keegan see the Archives finding aid Coll-474

This site provides information on the 250-year relationship between Moravian missionaries and the Inuit of Labrador. This interaction led to the establishment of settlements for a formerly nomadic people, their conversion to Christianity and exposure to aspects of North American culture. The information has been gathered from a variety of sources that shed light upon this unique adventure.

The Barbour family of Newtown, Bonavista Bay, were very prominent in Newfoundland history. Members of the family are found in many walks of life including master mariners, sealing captains, school teachers, clergy, sailors, lawyers, politicians, and soldiers.

According to family history, the first Barbour to come to Newfoundland from England was Captain George Barbour arrived in Greenspond, Bonavista Bay, in the early part of the 19th century. He had one son, Benjamin Barbour, (1809-1891). Around 1824 Benjamin Barbour moved to Pinchard's Island and in 1843 he settled at Cobbler's Island, a small island southwest of Cape Freels. In 1841, Benjamin Barbour married Rebecca Green of Greenspond (1820-1906) and they had eleven children: Joseph, William, Thomas, George, James, John, Benjamin, Samuel, Edward, Mary and Keziah. The first five sons were well-known sealing captains. Benjamin, Samuel and Edward were engaged in the fishery but later, Edward and Samuel went into business forming a partnership known as "E.& S. Barbour" in Newtown with a branch in St. John's.

Edward Barbour was born August 2, 1862 at Cobbler's Island and died June 8, 1912 at the age of 50. He married Mary Jane Kean of Brookfield, Bonavista Bay, who was born July 2, 1866 at Flower's Island and died July 4, 1941 at the age of 75. Edward and Mary Jane Barbour had nine children: Clarissa, Sybil, Lester, Job Kean, Elsie, Clifton (died in infancy), Wilhelmina, Clarence (died in infancy), and Carlson.

In 1917 Lester Densmore Barbour, eldest son of the Edward and Mary Jane Barbour, enlisted with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. He died on March 10, 1918, of wounds that were sustained during the Battle of Paschendale Ridge. While overseas, in England and in France, Lester Barbour wrote home regularly to his mother and sisters.

This collection consists of the Lester Barbour correspondence.

For further information about the Barbour family see The Exploits and Anecdotes of the Barbours of Bonavista Bay by Carl Barbour, 1973.

The ballads in this collection are typical examples of nineteenth century broadside printer's art with most sheets containing two ballads, many with a woodcut at the top and displayed title underneath it, and often with another decorative cut at the bottom of the sheet. The same woodcut is often used with different ballads. Sometimes the matching of woodcut, title and ballad are incongruous as in the ballad "Old Folks at Home" (Folder 4, #55). Some of the broadsides display the printers name and address, e.g. Folder 1, # 61: Joseph Ford, Printer, 70, Pinstone Street, Sheffield. In a number of cases (e.g. Folder 1, #66) the printers name and the date of printing is written in by hand: "Joseph Tate, printer, July 1841." Folder 3 consists entirely of the work of London printers, particularly those operating in the Seven Dials district. All of the broadsides are in roman type; a few still display the long or descending s (?) (Folder #7, #'s 5 and 21, printer J. Pitts; and Folder 10, #11).

The atlas, c. 1821, is a manuscript atlas of Newfoundland's French Shore, attributed to Clair-Desire Le Tourneur, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and commander of the French Shore in the early 18th century. The atlas is comprised of hand-drawn charts of the eastern coast fishing stations of the French Shore from Ha Ha Bay to La Scie. There are 43 coloured manuscript charts also, two loose charts in the same hand. The charts show depth soundings, safe anchorages and provide details regarding the sizes of vessels that may navigate the harbors, at times noting places in which military vessels might safely pass. Each fishery is annotated with its production methods and capacity; the number of fishing boats, the amount of fish dried on stone terraces (graves) and the amount dried on racks (flakes or rances).

For more about the Atlas see the Archives finding aid Coll-477

This diary was kept by a young woman in her mid-twenties during the year 1897. It contains a brief entry for each day; nothing spectacular, just ordinary events in the life of a young woman living in St. John's as the end of a century approached. She records the weather, what she did each day, shopping expeditions, church services, tea parties, staying at home with her mother. But the physical diary tells as much about the young woman as what she writes. Her literacy and writing ability attest to a good education. On the cover of the diary she has written her name and address. The family home was located at 31 Cookstown Road, a street which was up over the hill from downtown, running north through LeMarchant Road.

This diary should prove to be of interest to social historians, students of autobiography and women's studies, and all who are curious about the writings of a young woman in the St. John's of 1897.

Margaret Jane Hill Mayo was born in St. John's in 1871 or 1872. She was the youngest of three children born to William Mayo (1829-1904) and Rebecca Butler (1833-1912). Her older sister, Mary, was born in 1861, married Eli Benson of Grate's Cove in 1885 and died in 1889 at the age of 28. Her brother, John Frederick, was born in 1869, married Rebecca Rogers, and died in 1944. William Mayo's grandfather, also William Mayo, came to Newfoundland from Great Britain with the Royal Newfoundland Company, a military force stationed in St. John's, in the 1790s. He married Frances King in St. John's in 1796 and they had four children, one of whom was James Mayo. James married Mary Dagwell of St. John's and they, too, had four children, the eldest of whom was William Mayo.

Very little is known of Margaret Mayo's life. The Mayo's attended Gower Street Methodist Church, so it would seem likely that Margaret and her siblings attended the Methodist Academy, on Long's Hill. While she may have worked after finishing school, there is no indication of this in the diary that she kept during 1897. Her days in that year were filled with shopping, visiting, and attending church services and church-related events.

On August 8, 1901 Margaret married Lloyd Tocque Chancey (1865-1931) of St. John's. The ceremony took place at Gower Street Methodist Church and was conducted by Rev. William Rice, the groom's mother's brother. Lloyd Chancey was the youngest son of William George Fletcher Chancey (1820-1895) and Eliza Chancey Rice. The Chancey family had been resident in Newfoundland since the late-1700s, when Lionel Chancey (c. 1751-1822) moved to Harbour Grace from Collompton, Devon; Lionel was Lloyd Chancey's great-grandfather. Lloyd's middle name, Tocque, is probably after the Rev. Philip Tocque (1814-1899), author and clergyman of Carbonear, who married Lloyd father's sister, Eliza.

Margaret Mayo and Lloyd Chancey had four children: one daughter, Pearl, and three sons, Victor, Reginald and Roy; only Roy married, to Blanche Adams. Lloyd Chancey was a barber by profession. The family lived first at Richmond Cottage on Freshwater Road, but sometime after William Mayo's death in 1904, they moved in with Margaret's mother, Rebecca, at 31 Cookstown Road. Records of their life together are scarce, but one can safely assume that Margaret spent her married life raising their children and being a homemaker. After her marriage she began attending her husband's church, the Queen's Road Congregational Church where she sang in the choir. Lloyd Chancey died on September 26, 1931. His wife survived him by ten years, dying September 19, 1941 after a lengthy illness.

For more about Margaret Chancey see the Archives finding aid MF-150

This collection consists of an exercise book kept by Maria Patience Andrews when she was a student in Port de Grave. It contains containing songs, poetry and some punishment lines, handwritten by Andrews, c. 1881. The exercise book was donatedby her granddaughter, Anne Dixon, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in 1985.

For more information see the Archives finding aid MF-222

This collection consists of 135 photographs taken by Mary Schwall or her companions while on excursions to Newfoundland during 1913 and 1915. They are a pictorial record of a journey by ship from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, a train trip from Channel to St. John's, and a trip from St. John's north around the coast to St. Anthony, across the Strait of Belle Isle to Labrador and down the west coast of the Great Northern Peninsula. There is evidence that the photographs were taken during two trips to Newfoundland, as two photographs have the date 1913 on the back with the caption, while another has the date 1915. The photographs provide visual documentation of Mary Schwall's vacations, but they also provide valuable information on Newfoundland communities during the early years of the twentieth century. Vernacular architecture historians have attested to the fact that several of the photographs show buildings only previously known through oral accounts. As well there is visual documentation of people, especially children, which can provide information on lifestyle, dress, nutrition, disease, and a host of other subjects.

In addition, there are 56 postcards with images covering much the same geographical area as the photographs, leading one to believe that they were purchased in larger communities during stopovers, or possibly in St. John's. Most of the postcards were produced for the St. John's-based companies Ayre & Sons, Ltd. and Dicks & Co.; 31 are coloured. Many of the postcards are scenics, but some are of people, especially 10 which depict Labrador natives in traditional dress or demonstrate aspects of their unique lifestyle.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-206

This collection consists of one photograph album which contains 205 black and white photographs. The photographs were taken by Maxwell Cook when he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.

Maxwell Ernest Cook was born August 12, 1921, the son of Johanna (King) Cook and Tasker Cook, at St. John's. He had two brothers: Tasker and Angus, and, three sisters: Phyllis, Douglass and Rita. Little is known of his life, he was educated at Bishop Feild College and was active in the Church Lads Brigade (CLB), a Church of England organization. He married June Howse on October 1, 1946. They had two sons and three daughters.

With the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent building of the American base, Fort Pepperell, in St. John's, Cook worked with a construction company at the base. Sometime after this he worked at the Royal Canadian Airforce base in Torbay. In 1942 he joined the RCAF and moved to Lachine, Quebec, for three months training followed by training in London, Ontario. He went overseas in 1944. Following the war he worked with the fire departments in St. John's: first at the Central Fire Station in 1948 and then various stations, ending up at the Kent's Pond station until his retirement in 1972.

He was a member of the Masons, the Royal Canadian Legion, and a faithful member of St. Thomas's Anglican Church.
Maxwell Cook died November 10, 1994.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-415

This fonds contains 79 photographs taken by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell (1865-1940), during his initial visit to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1892 and given to Rev. Moses Harvey. They include several pictures of St. John's in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed much of the town on July 8, and many others documenting life in the many small fishing villages along the southern coast of Labrador. A further 30 photographs by St. John's photographer Simeon H. Parsons (1844-1908) depict a number of Newfoundland communities and ice bergs along the coast of the island. Three scrapbooks contain clippings of many of Harvey's newspaper columns and other items related to happenings in Newfoundland collected and saved by Harvey. A fourth scrapbook, in a similar collecting vein, was compiled by one of Harvey's sons. There is a bibliography containing a partial list of Harvey's writings in the early 1870s and copies of obituaries of Harvey, one written by Daniel W. Prowse, that appeared in the St. John's Evening Telegram on September 3 and 4, 1901.

Custodial History:
The contents of the fonds, except for two items, were acquired from Frances Monroe Baird Cole, St. John's, Newfoundland, a grand-daughter of Moses Harvey, in 1983. The scrapbook labeled 2.01.001 was a gift of Rosalie Fowler, widow of former Memorial University History professor Ian MacDonald (1942-1977), who had acquired it during his research into Newfoundland history, in 1967. The scrapbook compiled by A. Stanley Harvey was transferred from the Newfoundland collection at the Newfoundland Public Library at the St. John's Arts and Culture Centre in 1994.

Restrictions:
There are no restrictions on access. Copyright laws and regulations may apply to all or to parts of this collection. All patrons should be aware that copyright regulations state that any copy of archival material is to be used solely for the purpose of research or private study. Any use of the copy for any other purpose may require the authorization of the copyright owner. It is the patron's responsibility to obtain such authorization.

Biography or History:
Moses Harvey (1820-1901), Presbyterian minister, essayist, lecturer, historian, naturalist, was born at Armagh, Northern Ireland, on 21 March 1820 to Reverend James Harvey and Jane Holmes. He married Sarah Anne ("Jessie") Browne on 7 July 1852 in Cockermouth, England, and the couple had three sons, Alfred J., Charles James and A. Stanley. Harvey died in St. John's on 3 September 1901. Harvey was educated at Royal Academical Institute, Belfast, and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1844.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-041

The collection consists of a diary kept by members of the Manuel Family (merchant family) of Exploits between the years 1760s to 1840s. The diary was used primarily by William and Joseph Manuel, merchants in the community of Exploits, Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland.

For more information see the Archives finding aid MF-385

This collection contains posters of Newfoundland and Labrador theatrical and musical productions, dance performances, benefit concerts, stand-up comedy acts, folk festivals and other performing arts events. Posters of productions coming into the province from other areas are kept if local performers are involved. Posters of productions staged outside the province are kept if they involve Newfoundland and Labrador performers, playwrights, directors, etc.

Posters are obtained in various ways: theatre companies have been asked to save copies for the Archives; members of the Archives staff keep an eye out for outdated posters on bulletin boards and in shop windows; and as collections from theatre companies and individuals are received by the Archives, posters are removed from the collections and placed in the Poster Collection. While posters are physically removed from individual collections, they remain part of their fonds.

The collection will be of interest to students of visual art, graphic design as well as the performing arts and has grown into a valuable resource for academic researchers and those restaging productions.

In 1948 Gordon Winter was appointed a delegate to negotiate and sign the Terms of Union between Newfoundland and Canada.

This photograph album with 37 black and white photographs depicts the signing of the Terms of Union and the delegations.

The Gordon Winter collection contains minutes of meetings, reports, financial statements, correspondence, and photographs, related to the negotiations between Canada and Newfoundland that resulted in Newfoundland's entry into the Canadian confederation. It also includes a Gordon Winter's copy of the Terms of Union and the pen he used in signing it.

Gordon Winter was born in St. John's in 1912, the son of Ethel (Arnaud) and Robert Gordon Winter. He was educated at Bishop Feild College in St. John's and Loretto School, Musselburgh, Scotland. He married Millicent Anderson. At the age of 18 Winter joined the family firm of T. and M. Winter Ltd., a firm of commercial agents and importers that was founded in 1878.

This photograph album is part of the Gordon Winter Collection, Coll-363

This album of photographs appears to be the work of Simeon H. Parsons (1844-1908), one of Newfoundland's earliest professional, self-taught and award-winning photographers. The photographs are very much in the style for which Parsons was noted and cover a wide geographic area, including the Burin Peninsula and coastal Labrador, in addition to more easily accessible areas such as St. John's and eastern Newfoundland communities. Internal evidence dates some of the images to around 1884-1885, and given that the recipient of the album, Joseph Laurence, died in October 1886, it would appear safe to assume that the album was compiled during those middle years of the 1880s. Some of the images may date earlier, possibly from stock photographs Parsons may have had on hand.The album contains some rare images of St. John's streets and buildings that were later destroyed in the 1892 fire that ravaged most of the downtown of the city. It also contains images of people at work in the fishery, particularly on the coast of Labrador; various communities on the Burin Peninsula and on the east coast of Newfoundland; rural scenes, including rivers, lakes and waterfalls; icebergs; groups of people, particularly several gatherings of Methodist clergy, some of whom Laurence was probably responsible for sending to Newfoundland.The album should prove beneficial to researchers interested in architectural and municipal development, the development of Methodism, the history of photography, the work of Simeon Parsons, and a variety of other subjects pertaining to Newfoundland in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-199

Series 8 in Coll-150 includes a handwritten nominal census for 1836 for the area from Exploits River to Cape John and Fogo Island. This census is just one part of the entire collection which has been scanned and placed on this website. The Peyton Family Collection consists of a variety of records deposited in the Archives and Special Collections division by Ernest Peyton of Gander, Newfoundland, as well as material concerning the Peyton family which was transferred from other collections in the Archives. Ernest Peyton is a direct descendant of John Peyton, Senior, the progenitor of a family which has played a prominent role in Newfoundland history: John Peyton, Senior (1747-1827), his son, John Peyton, Junior (1793-1879), and his son, Thomas Peyton, residents of Exploits Island and Twillingate. The material in this collection ranges from 1806 to 1908 and was mainly written by the Peytons mentioned above. There are a number of legal journals, wills, notary work for shipping wrecks, and writs issued for the Supreme Court. There are two voters lists for Twillingate district (1882 and 1889) which may be the only ones extant from before 1900. A valuable item is the 1836 nominal census for Twillingate and Fogo area which is probably the only one of its kind to have survived from before 1900. The register of fishing rooms (1806-1828) is a rare treasure which should be of interest to historians, demographers, geographers, and genealogists. Other material includes memorials of indentures generated through the Deputy Surveyor's Office, Twillingate, from 1851 to 1908; and, navigational aids for sailing from Newfoundland to a variety of places in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, and the West Indies.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-150

Pages from the Past is a collection of artefacts, manuscript and rare book leaves compiled by New York book dealer Alfred W. Stites (1922-2016) in the 1960s. Stites created 122 portfolio sets of leaves removed from rare books and manuscripts which he then sold to academic libraries. These collections are examples of "leaf books", a way of collecting and combining pages from damaged or incomplete books to show the progress of writing and printing over the centuries.

Pages from the Past: History of the Written Word (No. 10 of fifteen numbered portfolio sets) consists of 157 original leaves and artefacts, including a Babylonian clay tablet, a Babylonian cylinder seal, an Egyptian scarab seal, and several papyrus pieces. There are parchment leaves from medieval manuscripts, and pages from incunables, including a leaf each from the Nuremberg Chronicles (Koberger, 1493) and Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools (Bergmann, 1498). The Collection also contains a wide range of pages from the hand-press period, including a leaf printed by Wynkyn De Worde (1516), a sample from Munster's Cosmographia Universalis (1559), a leaf from Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible (1584), as well as samples of fine calligraphy. There are early printed pages from Ireland, Mexico and the USA, one of the latter being a fragment of a Cotton Mather sermon printed by his sister in Boston in 1685. This leaf book concludes with fragments from some of the best late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century printers, including William Morris and Bruce Rogers.

For more information, please contact librarian Patrick Warner at the QEII's Archives and Special Collections.

This fonds consists of 30 photographic postcards and eight postcards. Ten of the photographic postcards depict the destruction caused by the tidal wave which hit the Burin Peninsula on November 18, 1929. These ten postcards were numbered 350-359. Twenty of the photographic postcards are of the SS Sagona and its crew on a mission to rescue the survivors of the SS Viking explosion, March, 1931. A further three postcards are of Corner Brook, four of St. John's and one of Pouch Cove.

For more information see the Archives finding aid MF-391

Series 7 in the Peyton Family Collection, consists of several hundred original, hand-drawn, surveys of land in the Twillingate area, covering the period, 1862-1910. These surveys, which are just one part of the entire collection, have been scanned and placed on this website.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-150

Major Vernon Hesketh-Prichard (17 November 1876 - 14 June 1922) was an explorer, adventurer, writer, and big-game hunter. He was born in India and educated in England and Scotland. He made several trips to Labrador in the early 20th century. In July 1910, he undertook to explore the interior of Labrador. This expedition involved a long portage with a canoe full of supplies in tow. The canoe was eventually abandoned. Subsequently he described this journey in his book, Through Trackless Labrador in 1911.

In 2008 Larry Coady published The Lost Canoe, his account of the contemporary search for Prichard's lost canoe. Over three summers Larry Coady convinced friends and strangers into searching for Prichard's canoe, retracing Prichard's route, verifying landforms and campsites, and mapping the entire trail.

The Lost Canoe included Prichard's original 1910 photographs and accounts of his journey, that were published in Through Trackless Labrador, and paired with Coady's own photographs and writings.

In 2009 Coady donated the research material for his book to the Archives and Special Collections. It included Prichard's original 1910 photographs.

Hesketh-Prichard, Hesketh (1911). Through Trackless Labrador. London: Heinemann.

In the summer of 1932 a group of geologists from Princeton University under the leadership of Dr AK Snelgrove visited western Newfoundland to survey the geological formation of Blow-Me-Down Mountain on the south shore of the Bay of Islands. This photograph album consists of aerial views that were taken during the geological expedition. This was the first aerial photographic survey for geological purposes in Newfoundland.

Items from the University Libraries' Main Rare Books and Manuscripts collection, housed with the Archives and Special Collections.

See Also:
Rare Books and Special Collections - Bibliographies

In 1975 Albert Whiteley, a civil servant living in Ottawa, completed his manuscript of the history of the Whiteley family and their life in the Bonne Esperance District. He titled it "Quebec-Labrador Cod Fishery: One Hundred Years of Life and Work, The Story of the Whiteley Family in an Isolated Community". He sent the typescript to the Head of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies in the hopes of finding a Newfoundland publisher. He was unsuccessful. In 1977 a much shortened version was published under the title "A Century on Bonne Esperance", by Sheraton Graphics, Ottawa.

MF-113 is the full length manuscript, 386 pages

Diary of the early years of O'Driscoll's priesthood in Witless Bay, recording events and conditions on the Southern Shore. Includes a typed transcript.

For more information see the Archives finding aid MF-149

Ruby Ayre was a nurse with a detachment of British Red Cross Society, from 1915-1918. She married Edward Emerson. This collection consists of a scrapbook with photographs kept during her wartime nursing service in the Ascot Auxiliary Military Hospital, a detachment of the British Red Cross Society. It includes photographs, clippings and mementos of Newfoundlanders in Europe and fellow nurses, Janet Ayre, Mary Rendell and Nell Job.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-322

Series 3 in Coll-150 includes Legal Records from 1799-1910. The Register of rooms at Twillingate, 1806 to 1828 is just one part of the entire collection which has been scanned and placed on this website.

The Peyton Family Collection consists of a variety of records deposited in the Archives and Special Collections division by Ernest Peyton of Gander, Newfoundland, as wll as material concerning the Peyton family which was transferred from other collections in the Archives. Ernest Peyton is a direct descendant of John Peyton, Senior, the progenitor of a family which has played a prominent role in Newfoundland history: John Peyton, Senior (1747-1827), his son, John Peyton, Junior (1793-1879), and his son, Thomas Peyton, residents of Exploits Island and Twillingate.

The material in this collection ranges from 1806 to 1908 and was mainly written by the Peytons mentioned above. There are a number of legal journals, wills, notary work for shipping wrecks, and writs issued for the Supreme Court. T here are two voters lists for Twillingate district (1882 and 1889) which may be the only ones extant from before 1900. A valuable item is the 1836 nominal census for Twillingate and Fogo area which is probably the only one of its kind to have survived from before 1900. The register of fishing rooms (1806-1828) is a rare treasure which should be of interest to historians, demographers, geographers, and genealogists. Other material includes memorials of indentures generated through the Deputy Surveyor's Office, Twillingate, from 1851 to 1908; and, navigational aids for sailing from Newfoundland to a variety of places in Spain, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, and the West Indies.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-150

The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 (before which the territory had the status of a British colony, self-governing from 1855). The Statute of Westminster of 11 December 1931 provided a mechanism for Newfoundland to achieve independence within the British Commonwealth, but rather than ratify it, after the near bankruptcy in 1933, on 16 February 1934 the Newfoundland Parliament passed an Address to the Crown relinquishing self- government. Responsible government in Newfoundland voluntarily ended and governance of the dominion reverted to direct control from London. Between 1934 and 1949 a six-member Commission of Government (plus a governor) administered Newfoundland, reporting to the Dominions Office in London. Newfoundland remained a de jure dominion until it joined Canada in 1949 to become Canada's tenth province.

Sir Richard Squires served as Prime Minister of Newfoundland from 1919 to 1923 and 1928 to 1932. The passports shown here are part of a larger collection. The passports were issued to Sir Richard Squires and Lady Helena Squires.

Richard Anderson Squires was born in Harbour Grace on January 18, 1880, the son of Alexander Squires and Sydney Anderson. He received his early education there at the Grammar School and at the Methodist Academy, Carbonear, before completing his schooling in St. John's at the Methodist College (later Prince of Wales College). He attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, where he studied law, graduating with an L.L.B. in 1901. He was first elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in the election of May 8, 1909. He served as Prime Minister and Colonial Secretary: 1919-1923, and Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Attorney General: 1928-1932.

The original passports are held in the Sir Richard Squires Collection, Coll-250.

For more information see the Archives finding aid Coll-250

Sir Richard Squires served as Prime Minister of Newfoundland from 1919 to 1923 and 1928 to 1932.

The photograph album shown here is part of a larger collection. It was donated to the Archives and Special Collections by Squires's grandson Robert Squires, in March 2014. The photo album depicts Sir Richard Squires tour of Europe in 1920 and includes images of the Beaumont Hamel battleground. His wife, Lady Helena Squires, daughter, Elaine, and Sir William Coaker also accompanied him on the tour.

Richard Anderson Squires was born in Harbour Grace on January 18, 1880, the son of Alexander Squires and Sydney Anderson. He received his early education there at the Grammar School and at the Methodist Academy, Carbonear, before completing his schooling in St. John's at the Methodist College (later Prince of Wales College). He attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, where he studied law, graduating with an L.L.B. in 1901. He was first elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in the election of May 8, 1909. He served as Prime Minister and Colonial Secretary: 1919-1923, and Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Attorney General: 1928-1932.

For more information on the Sir Richard Squires Collection, see the Archives finding aid Coll-250

The papers of Sir Robert Bond, Prime Minister of Newfoundland from 1900 to 1909, are a mixture of personal and political papers ranging from before his birth to after his death. The papers before his birth relate to Bond's father, John Bond, and include correspondence and a diary. The papers after Bond's death relate to the disposition of his estate and the interpretation of his will. There are papers documenting his education, legal training and practice, financial and business dealings, mineral and timber speculation, various personal interests, and ownership of the Grange, his estate at Whitbourne. There is extensive correspondence with his brother George, a Methodist clergyman, and with other family members.

For more information on the Sir Robert Bond Collection, see the Archives finding aid Coll-237

Stanley James Carew was born on Bell Island, December 31, 1914. In 1941 he joined the Faculty of Memorial University College as Head of the Engineering Department. In 1949, he was named Dean of Engineering. He served as Master of Paton College from 1967 to 1972.

Dr. Carew was involved in the design and layout of the University's new Elizabeth Avenue campus and as such watched the campus being built. His friend and colleague, Dr Hugh Anderson, owned a rather good camera and he accompanied Carew around campus photographing the whole process. Thus there are 1209 photographs in this collection of the building of MUN.

The remainder of the Carew collection consists of textual material, scrapbooks and reel to reel audiotapes. It covers the period 1950 to 1975, and deals with the history of Memorial University.

For more information on the Sir Robert Bond Collection, see the Archives finding aid Coll-012

This collection consists of photographs of St. John's buildings, both houses and commercial properties, mainly in the older, downtown portion of the city, together with a brief historical note on each building. It was created as a student summer project sponsored by the Council of the Students Union, Memorial University of Newfoundland, over several summers between 1983 and 1987, to photographically document St. John's buildings. Lynn Byrnes was the Project Co-ordinator with the Council of the Students Union.

Photocopies of the complete set of 14 volumes are held in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (NA 7243 S3 S77)

Alphabetical Index to Streets and the volume the street can be found in:
Adelaide Street 5
Allan Square 3
Avalon Street 13
Balsam Street 5
Bannerman Street 2
Barnes Place 3
Barnes Road 3
Barrows Road 11
Bates Hill 3
Battery Road 10
Bell street 3
Belvedere Street 3
Blatch Avenue 12
Boggan Street 5
Bonaventure Avenue 5
Bond Street 2
British Square 2
Bulger's Lane 1
Bulley street 3
Byron Street 14
Cabot Avenue 10
Cairo Street 13
Calver Avenue 12
Carew Street 2
Carter's Hill 5
Cathedral Street 5
Catherine Street 3
Cavell Avenue 11
Cavendish Square 5
Chapel Street 3
Church Hill 3
Circular Road 6
Clancy Drive 11
Cochrane Street 1
Coleman Place 3
College Square 2
Collier's Lane 11
Colonial Street 2
Cook Street 12
Cook's Hill 10
Cuckhold's Cove Road 11
Cummings Street 2
Dick's Square - 3
Duckworth Street 6
East Middle Battery 10
Ellis Place 14
Empire Avenue (37-151; 22-114) 6
Factory Lane 10
Field Street 12
Lower Battery Road 10
Malta Street 13
Maxse Street 4
Outer Battery Road 10
Parade Street 4
Pilot's Hill 1
Plymouth Road 10
Powder House Hill 10
Power's Court 10
Prescott Street 2
Prospect Street 1
Queen Street 8
Queen's Road 8
Quidi Vidi Road 10
Quidi Vidi Village Road 11
Rennies Mill Road 4
Riverview Avenue 9
Saunder's Place 4
Scott Street 12
Signal Hill Road 10
Spencer Street 12
Stewart Avenue 2
Summer Street 12
Taaffes Lane 11
Temperance Street 10
Tessier Place 9
Top Battery Road 10
Victoria Street 9
Wallace Place 14
Walsh's Square 10
Water Street (3-369; 14-404) 9
Whiteway Street 14
William Street 4
Willicott Lane 4
Wood street 1
York Street 1
Young Street 4

The Rossley Kiddies (1911-192?) were associated with Marie and Jack Rossley. Jack Rossley managed several theatres including Rossley's East and Rossley's West and later the British Hall known as the "British Theatre-Paramount photo play picture palace" in St. John's NL from 1911-ca. 1917. The troupe performed several times a week at the Rossley theatres and toured throughout Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 1914-1916. The tours were as long as three months with as many as 40 performers (mostly female). The Rossley family relocated to Saint John, New Brunswick ca. 1918 and the Rossley Kiddies operated until, at least, the 1920s under the patronage of W. H. Golding, Keith's Imperial and Governor and Lady Davidson.

For more information on the Sir Robert Bond Collection, see the Archives finding aid Coll-472

In the summer of 1948 a seven-member delegation from Newfoundland traveled to Ottawa to discuss possible terms for the entry of Newfoundland into the Canadian Confederation. After several months of negotiations, agreement was finally reached and "Terms of Union" between Newfoundland and Canada were formally signed on December 11, 1948. Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and Defence Minister Brooke Claxton joined six of the seven Newfoundland delegates - Sir Albert Walsh, F. Gordon Bradley, Philip Gruchy, John B. McEvoy, Joseph R. Smallwood and Gordon A. Winter (Chesley Crosbie refused to sign) - in appending their names to the document. Copies of the signed "Terms of Union" were given to each of the signatories. The copy seen here was Smallwood's. There are also photographs from Smallwood's personal collection of the signing ceremony.

For more about The Terms of Union see the J. R. Smallwood finding aid, Coll-075

This collection consists of the papers of Lt. Col. Thomas F. Nangle, one of the Padres to the Newfoundland Regiment in France during World War I. He was the Newfoundland government's representative on the Imperial War Graves Commission, and was instrumental in acquiring title to the land from its French owners. He supervised the building of the memorial park to the fallen of the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel, and orchestrated the placement of the five caribou monuments at Beaumont Hamel, Gueudecourt, Monchy and Masnieres in France and at Courtrai in Belgium.

Nangle served as President of Newfoundland's Great War Veterans' Association during 1924, during which time he oversaw the construction of the National War Memorial in St. John's. Included in this fonds are press cuttings, Battalion, Brigade and Divisional documents, reports, and battle orders, as well as photograph albums documenting the activities of the Newfoundland Regiment and the building of the war memorials to the fallen soldiers of that regiment.

Much of the material in this collection was received as part of accessions from Joseph R. Smallwood: Two photograph albums, items 57 and 58, documenting the construction and dedication of the Newfoundland war memorial in 1924, accession number 93-067, acquired June 16, 1993. All other material (except item 55) including six albums of press cuttings, battalion, brigade and divisional documents, reports, battle orders, and two photograph albums, accession numbers 00-090 and 04-070, deposited in 2000 and 2004 respectively. This material was sent to Smallwood by Thomas Nangle on May 27, 1965 (see file 48a in Box 3 for their correspondence on this).

Item 55.0, the bound volume entitled "News Cuttings, F.M. Earl Haig's Canadian Tour, 1925," accession number 06-152, was acquired from Hugh Nangle, Thomas Nangle's son in 2006.

For more information please see the Archives finding aid Coll-308

Trip to the Newfoundland Seal Hunt 1937 is a scrapbook compiled by P. Derrick Bowring in 1937 following a trip to the seal hunt, off the Newfoundland northeast coast, aboard the S.S. Imogene, a Bowring Brothers ship. It includes diary entries describing daily life onboard, photographs of sealers, stowaways, and seals. In addition there are original telegrams to Bowring Brothers head office from the front, and newspaper accounts of the voyage. There is also a detailed hand drawn chart of the ship's route. The Captain of the S.S. Imogene was Albert Blackwood.

S.S. Imogene
The S.S Imogene was built at Southbank-on-Tees, England, by Smith's Stock Co. for Bowring Brothers of St. John's. The 715-ton ship, designed and powered to cope with Arctic ice, was the last vessel built specifically for sealing and participated in the seal hunt from 1929 to 1940. Captain Albert Blackwood was master of the Imogene from 1928 to 1936 during which time he averaged over 36,000 seals per year, a record in the industry.

P. Derrick Bowring
Derrick Bowring (1916-2009) was the eldest son of Cyril and Clara Bowring. Born in Liverpool, England, he came out to Newfoundland in 1935 to join Bowring Brothers Ltd. He rose through the management ranks, retiring in 1977 as Chair of the Board of Directors. He married Moira Gordon Baird, of St. John's, and they had four children: David, Paula, Vivian, and Norman.

Bowring Brothers
In 1811 Benjamin Bowring of Exeter, England moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and set up a watch making company. The business soon diversified into importing and selling a wide variety of goods and before long it had expanded into the cod and seal oil trade. In 1834 Bowring returned to England to establish a European end of the export trade operating out of Liverpool, leaving the St. John's branch to be managed by his son.

Charles Tricks Bowring, Benjamin Bowring's eldest son, operated the business, Benjamin Bowring and Son, until 1841 when he returned to England to take over the management of the Liverpool establishment from his father and to establish C. T. Bowring and Company. Two of Benjamin Bowring's other sons, Henry Price and Edward, assumed responsibility for the St. John's firm which by then had become Bowring Brothers. In the 1850s both retired to England leaving the management to their youngest brother, John. The firm continued to be managed by Benjamin Bowring's descendants: Hon. Charles Bowring, Eric Bowring, Edgar Bowring, and Paul Derrick Bowring until 1977.

Bowring Brothers became a thriving business, outfitting fishermen and exporting fishery products. The firm became insurance agents and in the 1870s acquired the contract from the Newfoundland Government to provide a coastal steamer service. The firm also operated a passenger and cargo service between England and St. John's and to points along the eastern seaboard of the United States.

By 1980 Bowring Brothers was one of 160 subsidiaries controlled by C. T. Bowring and Company worldwide. In 1982 C.T. Bowring and Company, by now a public company, was taken over by March and Maclellan, and Bowring Brothers on Water Street, and the chain of shops across Canada and in the United States were sold.

The original scrapbook is located in the Michael Harrington collection, Coll-307
For more about P. Derrick Bowring see the Bowring Family collection, Coll-157

Walter C. Sellars was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, on December 22, 1919, the son of Obe Sellars, a master-tailor originally from Western Bay and Ada Bowden, a native of St. John's. He received his early education at Holloway School and Prince of Wales College, graduating from the latter at age 14. Shortly after graduation, on June 30, 1934 he went to work with the St. John's mercantile firm, the Royal Stores.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Sellars went to Halifax where he joined the RCAF and became part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

After his discharge from the RCAF in 1945, Sellars attended university and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree; Bachelor of Divinity from United College, Winnipeg, and a Master of Sacred Theology from Union Theological Seminary, New York. He served as a United Church minister until his retirement in 1979.

His collection includes sermons, as well as reminiscences of growing up in St. John's in the 1920s. In addition he donated drawings and plans for the H.M.S. Calypso.

In 1902 the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) was formed through the combined efforts of Newfoundland and Great Britain. In September of that year HMS Calypso was commissioned at Devonport for service in Newfoundland as depot and drill ship for the RNR. Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby and launched at Chatham, England, in 1883, she was the last of the steam and sail class corvette. With a protective deck and steel hull cased in teak and oak, Calypso was perhaps the most successful of Victorian era cruising ship built for the Royal Navy.

7.01 H.M.S. Calypso Ship Plans

For more information on Walter Sellars, see the Archives finding aid Coll-176

The Williams Epps Cormack documents date from 1818-1829 and were gifted to Archives and Special Collections in 2017 by the Howley Family. These documents consist of: notes; a drawing attributed to Shawnadithit; correspondence; information about the Beothick Institute; a journal and map of an excursion from St. John's to Placentia Bay by Cormack and Joseph Sylvester in 1822. These documents were used by James P. Howley in his research for his book The Beothuck or Red Indians. The papers were in the custody of Ingeborg Marshall and also informed her Beothuk research.

For more information on The Howley Family Papers, see the Archives finding aid Coll-262

6.02.004 Boethick [Beothuk] language

William Pearce Moss Diary 1854 William Pearce Moss Diary 1875-1876 This collection consists of two diaries written by William Pearce Moss of Twillingate. The first and smaller diary is from April 1, 1854 to December 31, 1854. The second diary covers the period from August 24, 1875 to December 13, 1876. Both diaries are a daily record of the weather, births and deaths, along with accounts of arrivals and departures of shipping vessels at Twillingate. William Pearce Moss was born in 1838 in Twillingate, Newfoundland. We do not know any more about him then what is contained in these two diaries. The first of his diaries was written when he was 16 years old and the second, when he was 37. During these years, Twillingate was the major mercantile centre for Notre Dame Bay, and a fishing centre. It was ofter referred to as "the capital of the north." Fishing and merchant vessels were entering and exiting the harbor daily and Moss records the names of some of these ships in his diaries. Provisions were brought to Twillingate on schooners, many of which were owned by the Slades, an English family running their mercantile business from Poole, England, to Newfoundland. The end of the 1800's marked an end to the boom. Sailing ships made way for steamers. The Bank Crash of 1894 and the Labrador fishing crisis saw an end to Twillingate's prosperity.

For more information on William Pearce Moss, see the Archives finding aid MF-387

One of three volumes by William Sweetland, a magistrate from Ferryland, later transferred to Bonavista. It was his intention to have it published as one of the earliest histories of Newfoundland but, for reasons we do not know, his history was never publiched.

This collection consists of: next of kin memorial plaques; medals; badges; pins; uniform items; artifacts; photographs; postcards; greeting cards; and textual items all related to the First World War. Particularly, this collection includes items related to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment; the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve; and individuals either from Newfoundland; with a connection to Newfoundland; or related to Newfoundland's involvement in the First World War.

After the war, many of those who served returned to Newfoundland and to family life. They often retained various mementos that related to their service, stayed in contact with former comrades through personal correspondence and reunions. Groups like the Great War Veteran's Association provided assistance to veterans and helped them to maintain contact with each other and to help facilitate commemoration. For those who died, these mementos were kept by family members along with other special family items.

For more information see the Archives finding aid for Coll-489

As an introduction to the following Journal, it is necessary to mention, that the Phillis, Transport, Lisle Passmere [Passmore], Master, having on board Lieutts Douglas, Caddy, Forbes, Tanscott [Imscott], Barkley, and Barnes, and seven Gunners of the Royal Artillery, and Ensn Bennett of the 5th Regiment, sailed from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, on the 25th of August 1795, bound to Quebec... Hill Street 22 Apr 1796

Scope and Content:
Correspondence and business documents concerning the Newfoundland Company's settlement at Cupids. Journal kept by Henry Croute of Cupids, 1 September 1612 to 13 May 1613.

Percival Willoughby (fl.1606-1643), settlement promoter, council member of the Newfoundland Company, member of parliament, was born into the Kentish branch of the house of Willoughby d'Eresby in the latter sixteenth century. He married his kinswoman, Bridget (also spelled Bridgett) heiress of Francis Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottingham, and acquired substantial property in both Kent and Nottingham. They had at least three sons, one of whom, Thomas, was also involved in the Newfoundland ventures. Willoughby died in England in 1643.

For more information on the Willoughby Papers see the Archives finding aid for MF-114

Scope and Content:
This album consists of 49 watercolour paintings depicting scenes from St. John's and environs, painted by William Frederick Rennie, and presented to Caroline Withers on the occasion of her marriage to Reverend Henry Dunfield on 10 October 1878. The paintings are affixed in a large scrapbook album and are in very good condition and shed much light on Rennie as a painter, as little of his work has survived.

This document, originally titled Vocabulary of Mary March's Language presented to Mr. John Peyton by the Revd. John Leigh, is believed to be an original list of Beothuk vocabulary created by Reverend John Leigh as told to him by Demasduit in 1819.

In March of 1819, the party of John Peyton Sr. and Jr. embarked on an expedition in the Bay of Exploits to recover stolen property they believed were taken and destroyed by Beothuk. As a result of the expedition, a Beothuk woman named Demasduit was captured. After her capture, she was taken to Twillingate and put into the care of Rev. John Leigh, an Anglican missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). While in his care, Leigh composed two Beothuk vocabularies consisting of terms told to him by Demasduit; one written with the intent of sending it to the SPG, known as the SPG Copy, and the other written personally for John Peyton, known as the Peyton Copy.

The SPG Copy, titled A Vocabulary of the Native Red Indians' Language, Newfoundland, from Mary March, a female red Indian who was caught by Mr. John Peyton of the Exploits on the fifth March 1819, and presented to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts by the Revd. John Leigh, Episcopal Missionary, Twillingate, is at The Rooms Provincial Archives.

The Peyton Copy was believed to be missing for a number of years until it arrived at the Archives & Special Collections in 2001 with the papers of Michael Harrington.