Introduction

The Dorland Room

Welcome to the website of the Quaker Archives and Library of Canada, your gateway to the history of Quakers in Canada.

The Quaker Archives and Library of Canada has two parts:

1. The Canadian Yearly Meeting Archives, which consists of the business and genealogical records of the Yearly Meeting and is constituent half-yearly, quarterly, monthly, and preparative meetings and their various committees from 1798 onwards. It also includes photographs of places, persons, and events, the personal papers of various Canadian Quakers as well as ephemera from pottery to traditional Quaker bonnets.

The archival collection of the Sharon Temple Museum Society is also stored here.

2. The Arthur Garratt Dorland Reference Library, which contains thousands of non-circulating books, journals, newspapers, and pamphlets dating from the late 1600s to today. Subjects range from Quakers in the Arts to history, biography, and theology to name but a few. Contained within the Library is the Rendall Rhodes Discipline Collection, which is both geographically and chronologically the most complete collection of Quaker Books of Discipline (books of church organisation and rules) in the world.

The Quaker Archives and Library of Canada is located at Pickering College in Newmarket, Ontario. The Archives are stored in a secure vault at the College while the The Arthur Garratt Dorland Reference Library is located in the Dorland Room which is adjacent to the College's Carolyn Sifton Library.

While located at Pickering College, both the Library and Archives are owned by the Trustees of the Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and are managed on their behalf by the Canadian Yearly Meeting Records Committee and its volunteer Archivist.

History of the Archives and Library

Arthur G. Dorland

A fire in the Conservative Friends Yearly Meetinghouse at Pickering, Ontario, during 1908 prompted John Cox Jr., and Genessee Yearly Meeting (Hicksite) , to deposit many records as combined archives in fireproof vaults in New York City. The nucleus of the Quaker archives in Canada began in the 1920s, when Arthur G. Dorland collected Ontario records during research for his doctoral thesis. In 1927, he deposited these, along with the retrieved Genessee records, at the University of Western Ontario, where he was head of the Department of History. Subsequently, the clerks of each of the three Yearly Meetings in Canada signed agreements with the university to preserve their records. During the fifty-six-year period from 1927 to 1983, the generous support of Dorland and his colleagues Fred Landon, James Talman and, later, Edward Phelps, at the University of Western Ontario played a crucial role in preserving the Quaker archives in Canada.

The 1955 reunification of Friends in Canada resulted in the formation of the Canadian Yearly Meeting Records Committee, combining the former records committees from Canada Yearly Meeting (Orthodox), Canada Yearly Meeting (Conservative), and, Genessee Yearly Meeting (Hicksite). Initially, there was little to do as older records remained on deposit at the University of Western Ontario and current records accumulated at Friends House in Toronto. Activity quickened, however; involvement in projects to microfilm records and the seeking of lost records to add to those already preserved at the University of Western Ontario were just two of the activities of a revitalized committee with Rosemarie McMechan as clerk. The Rendall Rhodes collection of Quaker Disciplines was acquired in 1981. A source of encouragement was The Canadian Friends Historical Association, founded in 1972 by Grace Pincoe and Kathleen Hertzberg, with Arthur G. Dorland as Honorary Chairman.

Lacking ecclesiastical centres, Yearly Meetings in North America have often chosen a Quaker school as the location in which to establish an archives and library. It was on 11 December 1983 that Canadian Yearly Meeting deposited its records at Pickering College, which was founded by Friends in 1842, and is now an independent primary and secondary boarding school in Newmarket, Ontario. The first Canadian Yearly Meeting archivist was Jane V. Zavitz who served for many years as Librarian of Pickering College.

Rebuilding after a 1981 fire, Pickering College planned an environmentally controlled storage room/vault as the archives of Canadian Yearly Meeting. The first deposits in the vault were the records from the University of Western Ontario, which arrived in a van driven by Edward Phelps even as the metal shelving was being installed in December 1982. All was ready by the dedication day in August 1983. Since that time, the vault has quickly filled, particularly in 1989 when the Canadian Yearly Meeting office moved from Toronto to Ottawa, sending a forty-year accumulation of records to the Archives.

Despite the Discipline's request that Meetings forward their records regularly, there are some unexpected acquisitions. In some cases, custodians felt that the records were personal property: some records of defunct Meetings have been lost by storage over decades in a drawer or attic. Records have appeared in local libraries and archives, or even at auctions. Thanks to many people, an impressive number of records have survived.

The Canadian Yearly Meeting records date from 1798 and cover settlements in Upper Canada - Prince Edward County, Niagara and Norwich districts, Yarmouth Township in Elgin County, Lobo Township in Middlesex County, Yonge Street and related meetings north of Toronto - as well as the only Quebec Meeting, East Farnham Township of Brome County (1820-1902). The Canada Half Yearly Meeting records provide insight into the history of Upper Canada after 1810. Files of Monthly Meetings, including membership transfer certificates and some treasurers' records, are rich resources. Private sources have provided some of the most valuable records.

Scholars of the twentieth century will find extensive documentation in the more recent records of Canadian Yearly Meeting committees: the Canadian Friends Service Committee; the Quaker Committee on Native Concerns; the Camp Nee-Kau-Kis Committee; the Committee on Jails and Justice; the Home Mission and Advancement Committee; the Religious Education Committee; the Discipline Committee; and the Foreign Missionary Board. The personal papers of active Yearly Meeting Friends such as Fred Haslam and John T. Dorland supplement these records. Non-textual records include photographs and maps of meetinghouses, homes, and individuals. There are extensive holdings of published material, particularly periodicals such as "The Canadian Friend", published since 1904, as well as pamphlets and tracts containing the testimonies of Friends on the subjects of simplicity, education, human rights, and peace.

Management

The Quaker Archives and Library of Canada is operated and managed by the Canadian Yearly Meeting Records Committee.

Records Committee is responsible for the receiving, oversight, preservation, inventory and indexing of records and documents of Canadian Yearly Meeting, its constituent meetings, its standing committees and other related bodies which entrust their records to its care. These include records and documents from the three Yearly Meetings that united in 1955 to become Canadian Yearly Meeting. Records Committee is also responsible for the Arthur Garratt Dorland Reference Library and the Rendell Rhoades Collection of Quaker Disciplines.

Records Committee acts as a resource for Canadian Yearly Meeting. It guides and assists the Yearly Meeting and its constituent bodies in the creation, care and preservation of their records, encouraging them to deposit their records, or duplicates of them, in the Archives.

Day-to-day management of the Archives and Library is delegated to the Yearly Meeting Archivist. The Archivist is responsible for the general operation of and access to the Archives and the Library.

Click here to contact the Clerk of Records Committee.

Questions or comments regarding this site should be directed here

Questions about Quakers?

For more information about Quakers and their beliefs, contact the Canadian Yearly Meeting's national office at information@quaker.ca or call 1-866-233-5933.

To find a local Quaker Meeting visit the Canadian Yearly Meeting website or visit Quakerfinder.org.

Acknowledgements

Records Committee would like to acknowledge the generous technical assistance of Lawrence Peddie who volunteered his time to create this website.

Click here to send him an email.