New and Noteworthy - Spring 2010

Canadian Council on Archives' National Archival Development Program (NADP) Grant - Records of the Rev. Michael Fesenko and the Rev. Dr. Arthur Gowland - Finding Aids now online!

With grateful financial assistance from the Canadian Council on Archives' National Archival Development Program, we are pleased to announce that the papers of two very distinguished and significant Presbyterian ministers have now been catalogued and described, with the Finding Aids available online. These papers were catalogued by Sarah Wallace, recent graduate of the Faculty of Information Studies programme at the University of Toronto, who developed file level finding aids for each collection. The papers of Rev. Fesenko are a rich resource relating to the work of the Ukrainian Presbyterian Church in Toronto from the 1940s to the 1970s, while the Rev. Gowland papers document his involvement on the Board of Evangelism and Social Action through the 1960s.

The finding aids to these two collections are available on our website under the Finding Aids section. to access them directly from here, just "click" on the following links.

Finding Aid describing the records of the Rev. Michael Fesenko

Finding Aid describing the records of the Rev. Dr. Arthur Gowland

Donation of Mackay Papers
The archives recently received a wonderful donation of family photographs and papers from Ms. Margaret Mackay. These items document many aspects of her family’s history, and especially the work of her father and grandfather, George William and George Leslie Mackay.  The Mackay family has had a long and significant connection to The Presbyterian Church in Canada, and these items reflecting the work of George Leslie and George William Mackay are a much appreciated addition to the Archives collection. Along with copies of George Leslie Mackay’s journals (already held in the Archives), these new items will be a well-used, and well-appreciated, resource to current and future researchers to our Archives.

The Rev. Dr. George Leslie Mackay and family

New Volunteer
The Archives is very pleased to announce that a new volunteer has started with us. The Rev. Dr. Robert Anderson, who along with his wife Priscilla, served for many years as missionaries within the Korean Christian Church in Japan. Rev. Dr. Anderson is also the author of the book "Kimchi and Maple Leaves: Under the Rising Sun" and a noted scholar on the life and work of W.W. Bryden.

Recent Microfilming Work
Many thanks to the following congregations for recently having their historical and official records copied to preservation micrifolm:

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, New Liskeard, Ontario
Morningside-High Park Presbyterian Church, Toronto, Ontario
St. Lawrence Presbyterian Church, London, Ontario
First Presbyterian Church, Pictou, Nova Scotia
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Kitchener, Ontario

Microfilm is still the safest and most cost-effective way of insuring that a copy of your records will exist if anything should happen to the originals.