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Reeling back Sudbury's history

The geneologists, students and history buffs who use the City of Greater Sudbury Archives now have another resource to use in their research.
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City archivist Shanna Fraser (left) and Sudbury District Archives Interest Group chair Tracey Sanders show off a microfilm reel containing century-old copies of a local newspaper. The archives interest group donated 10 of the microfilm reels, with a value of $1,200. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
The geneologists, students and history buffs who use the City of Greater Sudbury Archives now have another resource to use in their research.

The Sudbury District Archives Interest Group has donated a set of 10 microfilm reels containing copies of a local newspaper dated from Nov. 4, 1911 to Jan. 20, 1923.

They purchased the microfilm reels for $1,200 from a company that owns historic templates for many different newspapers.

This isn't the first newspaper microfilm reel donation made by the group, which previously donated materials covering the late 1800s and early 1900s to the Sudbury archives.

Tracey Sanders, the archives interest group's chair, said the microfilm reels are important because physical copies of 100-year-old newspapers are difficult to find and extremely fragile.

She said she was able to review some of the content on the microfilm reels, and said it was neat to see what a newspaper from a century ago looked like, as well as what was happening in Sudbury at the time.

“You get to see how the typeface was done back then, what the advertisements were, what the prices were and what the clothing looked like,” Sanders said.

She said the archives interest group was founded about a decade ago to help find a home for the city's archives. The City of Greater Sudbury Archives opened in 2012 after Xstrata donated a building in the community of Falconbridge.

It's important for people to be able to access historic documents “in order for them to be able to appreciate their present and their future,” Sanders said.

City archivist Shanna Fraser said the newspaper microfilms are a valueable resource because they're a good, reliable source to find out what has happened.

The Sudbury archives welcomes donations of historic materials, she said.

“We love getting photographs, home movies, correspondence,” she said. “You never know what's going to be in someone's basement.”

For more information about the city's archives, visit www.greatersudbury.ca/living/archives.

Learn more about the Sudbury District Archives Interest Group at www.sudburyarchives.ca.

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