On Thursday, 22 November 2007, at 7:00 PM, a new book on the Hudson's Bay Company Archives will be launched at the Archives of Manitoba, 200 Vaughan Street, Winnipeg.
Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives
by Deidre Simmons
McGill-Queen's University Press
ISBN 9780773532915
Copies of the book will be available for sale at the launch. (Cash or cheque only please.)
The Hudson's Bay Company Archives is one of the world's most complete archival collections and a national treasure. Protected in the vaults of the Archives of Manitoba, its documents trace the history of the fur trade, North American exploration, the growth of a retail empire, and the evolution of Canada as a country. Keepers of the Record offers the first comprehensive look at the development of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives over three centuries.
Deidre Simmons places the archives within the historical context of the Company, England, and Canada, as well as British and Canadian archival traditions. Keepers of the Record is abundantly illustrated with archival photographs that evoke the texture and slightly musty smell of soft leather and crisp vellum and the ghostly presence of the people who created the pristine script, writing by candlelight in unheated (or overheated, depending on the season) dwellings in the wilderness of Hudson Bay or in the centre of London.
"This densely and carefully documented work with much contextual information is an unprecedented history of the HBCA and an important reference work on a body of archival material of the highest importance to Canadian history." Laura Peers, Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
Deidre Simmons, a research and archives consultant for twenty-five years, holds a Master's degree in history (archival studies) from the University of Manitoba. She is the author of Servite in Caritate: The First One Hundred Years of St. Margaret's School 1908-2008 and lives in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia.
Page revised: 14 November 2009
