Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador

Editorial Note
The selection of topics for this Encyclopedia has not always been easy, especially as some topics coincide with the present, and obscure with their familiarity the context of the past. Yet we have learned from our research for this work that unless the present be recorded in print now it has less chance of being known in the future. In addition to the thousands of topics compiled by the Editor in Chief, Mr. Smallwood, the topics presented here have been selected from those suggested by many people and from nearly one hundred and fifty source books of Newfoundland society and history. Sometimes the work of choosing the best and most accurate sources has been as difficult as choosing the topics; history is an account of what has been recorded to have happened. This being so, we have attempted to corroborate and otherwise verify such records, and, where this is impossible, to present and identify conflicting statements... Robert D.W. Pitt

The first 2 volumes were published by Joseph R. Smallwood in 1981 and 1984. The final 3 volumes were completed in 1991, 1993 and 1994 by editorial boards headed by George Story and Cyril Poole.