The Kingston Historical Society was created in 1893. The burial of Sir John A.
Macdonald in Kingston after his death in 1891 is thought to have ignited interest in the history of Kingston. Men affiliated with Queen’s university and religious leaders formed the Kingston Historical Society shortly after this event. The society’s purpose was and still is to maintain interest in the past of Kingston and preserve historically important materials. Of course, what should be considered “historically important” is often a matter of debate.
During World War II, the society declined due to a lack of interest. This decline lasted about 10 years, until another event would reignite interest in the historical past.
In the 1950s, the pillars outside City Hall began to deteriorate and were removed from the outside of the building. Without the pillars, the Hall’s entrance was aesthetically unappealing. Thus, for the centennial project the City decided to replace these pillars. The deterioration of the pillars restored interest in Kingston’s historical past because it demonstrated what might be lost if efforts were not undertaken to preserve important buildings
This renewed interest in preserving historical buildings coupled with the centennial celebrations in 1967 led to the revival of a strong Kingston Historical Society that has lasted until today.
The documents, collected by the Kingston Historical Society since 1893, are stored in the Heritage Room at the Queen’s University Archives. There are boxes upon boxes of unorganized documents piled around this large room. The society hired four interns, myself included, to reorganize these preserved documents.
There are many treasures to be found among the masses of documents such as a preserved letter written by Sir John A. MacDonald and a colourful image of the Queen’s royal visit to Canada in 1959.
For the interns, the first step was to do a preliminary sorting of the unorganized boxes. We opened them all, catalogued the contents of each box, and created an excel sheet for this information.
After the preliminary sorting, the next stage is to divide the information into categories and re-file the documents according to the new categories.
This is the stage we are now working on completing. I am responsible for publications, both to and from the Kingston Historical society. The other categories are: finance, administrative, Murney Tower and accessions.
In my work on publications, I have collected and filed newsletters, manuscripts, invitations and pamphlets spanning from the late 1800’s until today.
I have divided these publications in to those created by the Kingston Historical Society, those pertaining to Kingston or Queen’s University and other. The category of “other” has been by far the largest one, filled with an eccentric mix of publications from historical societies all over Canada.
As I continue my work until the end of term, I am sure there will be many more treasures to find!