Originally published in 1909 by County Council, A History of Simcoe County by Andrew F. Hunter illustrates the history of the County in two volumes. Hunter was born in Innisfil Township in 1863 and was a prolific contributor to the study of archaeology, geology, and history in Canada.

While Archives typically collect unpublished, original records, we also have a robust Reference Library. Secondary sources are a great starting point for researchers to begin examining a topic of interest.

Read our donations page to learn more about the types of records we collect at the Archives.

This autograph book from Ella Beryl Rowley (née Irwin) features a note from her friend Susie in Beeton, written on April 23, 1933.

She writes “Dear Ella, it seems so funny, it makes me laugh, to think you want my autograph.”

What would you write if you were asked to leave a message in a friend’s book today?

Diaries are fantastic resources for researchers and Captain Ed Burke’s diary is no exception. He gives a snapshot into his daily life by writing about his encounters with family and friends. The Archives has five diaries by Ed Burke from 1941 to 1956, as well as other diaries from various local families.

Visit our Non-Government Records database to search for descriptions of the private collections at the Archives using the link below.

Here is a page from a minute book by the Creemore Loyal Orange Lodge (L.O.L.) #704 with entries from September and October 1923. 

The L.O.L. is a Protestant fraternal organization that was founded in the eighteenth century. The Loyal Orange Association in Canada was founded in 1812.

Minute books are important records that document an organization’s activities over time and can be very useful research tools.

Scrapbooks are one-of-a-kind compilations that can contain newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs, and more.

Here is a scrapbook page created by Annie Boyes honouring fallen servicemen who fought in World War I. Annie Boyes (1872-1960) was an active member of the Gilford community and created two scrapbooks dedicated to the First World War by compiling clippings from newspapers and magazines published both inside and outside of Simcoe County.

Check out our blog post highlighting the work of Annie Boyes.

Here is a page from the scrapbook of Helen L. Lane, a military nurse who served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps from 1940 to 1944. Helen trained at Camp Borden in 1941 before heading overseas. Canadian Forces Base Borden (CFB Borden) was established in 1916 as a training ground for soldiers during World War I.

Helen’s scrapbook is a fascinating record of her service as a military nurse. With over 70 pages of photographs, she carefully lists the places she visited, the nurses and other military personnel she served with, her patients, and the animals she encountered.

Learn more about Helen L. Lane in our blog post.

Archives Awareness Week is celebrated annually in April. Let’s celebrate by looking back at the opening of the Archives addition at the Simcoe County Museum in 1966, the Archives’ first home. Check out a drawing and picture of the original space above!

Programmes are a type of ephemera, meaning they are typically meant to be used for a short time. Programmes are a valuable resource for Archives because they document an event or activity, often including the date, location, and names of speakers.

Visit our blog to check out our posts about Archives Awareness Week over time!

Here is an invitation to a “Social Party” at Robinson’s Hotel in Holland Landing, East Gwillimbury Township, on February 25, 1874. For one dollar, attendees could dance to music played by a Quadrille Band with waltzes and polkas on the programme.

The invitation features space for attendees to write the names of their dance partners. These « dance cards » were an important tool for maintaining proper order during social dances. These documents could become keepsakes for partygoers to reminisce over the events of the evening.

Look at this share certificate from the Brechin Milling Company in Mara Township, entitling Frank O’Connell to one share of the company’s Capital Stock in 1921. 

The $100 cost of each share would now be almost $1700 in 2026!

Collecting and preserving records from local businesses helps us to better understand how industries have changed over time.

Here is another certificate, this time a Pupil’s Certificate of Promotion certifying that Leah Campbell of S.S. No. 12 Tay was promoted to the Jr. 3rd Class as of July 1, 1896.

The Common School Act of 1816 allowed communities in Upper Canada with 20 or more children to establish a schoolhouse. Nineteenth-century schoolhouses were often one room.

In 1846, townships were divided into School Sections (S.S) based on the current needs of the community. A Union School Section (U.S.S.) refers to a school that was built on the boundary of two or more townships or municipalities.

Check out this photo in the virtual exhibit to see an example of a historical schoolhouse.

Here is a letter written by Sir James R. Gowan, first judge of Simcoe District, to journalist E.F. Clarke on April 13, 1896.

Gowan shares his reaction to the murder of his nephew John Alexander Strathy that occurred in February 1896, writing “…it was a dreadful shock to me, he was to my wife and myself almost as a son… I have not been well since and only now am beginning to recover energy for any thing…”

Preserving Gowan’s letters helps us to learn about his daily life and relationships with different political figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

Speaking of letters, check out this unique series of letters written by Christina Frances MacDougall to local students at Barrie Collegiate Institute (BC).

While acting as a Presbyterian missionary teaching in Weihui, China, she wrote several letters that she affixed together to form a scroll. MacDougall was once a teacher at BC and her sister Florence was a staff member at the time the letters were written.

When unrolled, the scroll is just under 8 metres long! Check out our blog post to learn more about Christina and her letters.

Here is a letter written by Hannah Cooke on December 8, 1871, to her Uncle John and Aunt Alice Cooke in England on behalf of her father. 

Hannah was the second daughter of James Cooke and Hannah Cooke (née Overs). The Cooke family settled in Medonte Township during the nineteenth century

Catalogues are useful documents that contain information about different goods or services.

Check out this catalogue of “Minnitoys” from the Orillia Tudhope Anderson Company (OTACO). Minnitoys were miniature toy models made for children, designed to replicate popular real-world vehicles and equipment such as transport trucks and railway cars. This 1955 catalogue  advertises their sturdy “true-to-life-design. » 

OTACO was founded in 1910 as the Tudhope Anderson Company and produced various equipment such as stoves, water pumps, sleighs and more. 

Check out this brochure from the 1970s for Blue Mountain Pottery, a pottery company in Collingwood that operated from 1953 to 2004. 

The company was best known for their unique blue-green pottery glaze.  The brochure describes that « all pieces are glazed and fired at approximately 2000 degrees. The flowing effects are the result of many years of experience, the colours are produced by heat. »

Check out this sheet music for the song “Wasaga Beach,” with words and music by C.J. Wolfe, Midland, Ontario. 

One of the lyrics reads “For hours of joyous freedom, where wave lets surging reach, with haunting our feet to greet. On Nottawasaga Beach.”

Newspapers are incredible resources for information about current events in a local community.

Here is a page from an August 1975 issue of The CORAID News, which was a newspaper produced in Rama First Nation in the 1970s. The Central Ontario Regional Amalgamated Indian Development Council (CORAID) sought to improve communications through a program that included producing video tapes and newspapers that documented activities in local Indigenous communities.

Visit our Guide to Researching Indigenous Histories in Simcoe County to learn more about related records and resources at the Archives.

By-Laws

The SCA has permanent and archival records transferred from the County of Simcoe, its current and former member municipalities, and the City of Barrie. 

This book contains the By-Laws for Simcoe District and Simcoe County from 1843 to 1864.

Simcoe District, comprised of eighteen townships, was established in 1843 by the Legislature of Upper Canada. Seven years later, the District was abolished by the provincial government and Simcoe County formed in its place.

Use the link below to visit the SCA’s searchable online database containing descriptions of its Government Records.

Since 1869, the Government of Ontario has registered marriages, births, and deaths in the province. These registrations, also known as vital statistics, are managed by the provincial government.

Occasionally, older marriage certificates have been donated to the SCA, such as this beautifully decorated marriage certificate for the union of William H. Manning and Mary Quantrell of Coldwater, signed on January 19, 1895. William Manning once served as a Reeve of Coldwater.

Learn more about accessing vital statistics records on the website of the Archives of Ontario.

Here is an Upper Canada land deed for Lot 20, Concession 1 in Innisfil Township signed on October 2, 1854. The agreement was between Thomas and Catherine Mann and John Strathy of Barrie.

Ontario’s historical land survey system divided townships into lots and concessions and can still be used today to locate and identify parcels of land.

Visit the County’s Geographic Information System (GIS) site, and activate the « Lot and Concession » layer to see an interactive map of lot and concessions across the County.

The Gayety Theatre

This plan of the proposed front entrance alterations for The Gayety Theatre in Collingwood was drafted on May 19, 1953.

The drawing features surfacing details and measurements of the north and west elevation.

Traditional blueprints are cyanotypes, a photographic process in which translucent paper is coated with chemicals that, when exposed to light, turn uncovered areas into a deep blue, while any covered areas remain white.

Read our blog post to learn more about historical photo processes and formats at the SCA.

This hand-drawn plan of the Barrie jail from the Ardagh family collection was created by Arthur Gowan Ardagh of Barrie in the early twentieth century.

Look closely and you’ll see “The Gaol” written in cursive along the side of the plan, which is an older spelling of “jail.”

The Barrie Jail operated from 1841 to 2001 at 87 Mulcaster Street.

Check out this blueprint of the original water tower in Springwater Park from 1923!

The original tower was 100 feet tall and had a tank capacity of over 75,000 litres!

Technical Drawing of Stonework Entrance

Here is a technical drawing of the stonework for the Church of the Guardian Angels in Orillia by Stuart N. Keyes & Associates, Consulting Engineers, ca. 1960s. 

Here is a blueprint containing a sample design for the Simcoe County War Memorial Plaque, honouring those from Simcoe County that served Canada during the Second World War.

The Simcoe County Archives has a database containing the names of men and women with connections to Simcoe County who died while in service or because of wounds or injuries sustained during the First World War.

Georgian Bay Regional Development Council fonds

Here is a photograph of Sir Frederick Banting amongst his family in front of his family home in Alliston, taken in 1910. Banting is seated the first on the left in the front row. Banting’s family home was originally built in 1858 and later rebuilt in 1925, still standing today at 5116 Sir Frederick Banting Road in Alliston. 

The text reads “Mid pleasures and palaces, Though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, There’s no place like home,” which are song lyrics from John Howard Payne’s 1823 song “Home, Sweet Home.” 

Born in Alliston on November 14, 1891, Banting is most known for co-discovering insulin in 1922. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with John Macleod in 1923.

Check out our blog post to learn more about Banting!

As we continue to celebrate the Archives’ 60th anniversary, check out this photograph of Fred W. Grant on a farm veranda in Wales, Ontario, taken in 1942.  

The Fred Walker Grant collection is a large collection at the Archives that primarily contains scrapbooks and negatives relating to Barrie’s history, collected by Grant. Grant was a printer who grew up in Barrie and later worked in Victoria, B.C. at a daily newspaper before retiring and returning to Barrie in 1945.

Here is a photograph of J. Harvey Giffen of Elmvale who won the “Potash Trophy” for the best exhibit of potatoes at the 1932 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. Giffen was honoured in December 1932 for his achievement at a banquet sponsored by the Barrie Kiwanis Club in cooperation with the Potash Company of Canada Limited.

The Stewart L. Page collection contains records generated by Stewart Lewis Page, former Ontario Department of Agriculture Agricultural Representative for North Simcoe.

Here are two photographs of Boy Scouts planting trees in Angus as part of the Scout Forestry Camp that happened annually in the 1930s. The initiative was created to demonstrate the value of reforestation and provide teens with practical skills in forestry. 

The Robert J. Groves fonds features photographs from the a Boy Scout troop planting trees in the « Boy Scout Forest » in Angus, including views of tree planting, tents, Scouts visiting from England, Scoutmaster Wally Lemon, and other scenes.

This watercolour painting depicts the shores of Orillia on Lake Couchiching. Captain William Henry Grubbe writes that he painted the scene from nature in August 1854. 

Captain Grubbe built a home in Barrie at 268 Codrington Street in 1851, which became a designated Heritage Property under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2002.

Pictured below is a first day cover featuring Sir William Osler (1849-1919), a prominent physician born in Bond Head, Bradford West Gwillimbury, on July 12, 1849. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians and is often considered the “Father of Modern Medicine.” The decorated envelope commemorates the 50th anniversary of Osler’s death.

Pictured above is another example of a decorated envelope, this time in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Midland Post Office (1872-1997). The envelope features a portrait of Thomas Gladstane, Midland’s first Postmaster.

Plan of Angus

This map from February 16, 1857 depicts the plan of proposed streets and lot sub divisions in Angus, Essa Township. The map features the property of W. Proudfoot and J.T. Bush on Lot 30, Concessions 3 and 4.

Angus was named for Angus Morrison (1822-1882), the former Member of the Legislative Assembly for Simcoe North.

Zoom in on this plan from the SCA maps, surveys, and plans collection, and notice the fine details!

Maps can also be digital! Women’s Institutes have been active in the County since the early 1900s, with over 130 individual branches established.

The Archives sought to document the history of these branches visually by creating a map highlighting their locations over time. The map also features pictures of members and a description of the branch’s activities.

Check out this plan of Collingwood Harbour from 1854 showcasing the intended location for the Terminal Depot Grounds of the “Ontario Simcoe & Huron Railroad.” 

Later reorganized as the Northern Railway of Canada, it was the first steam railway in Upper Canada, established in the early 1850s. Parts of the line are still used today by modern railway transit systems!

Read more about early railways in Simcoe County in our blog post! 

Check out this map of Tay Township and South Orillia Township from the 1881 H. Belden and Co. Atlas. Tay and the nearby Tiny Township were incorporated as a United Township in 1851, before Tay became a separate township in 1869.

North and South Orillia Township officially became the singular Orillia Township in 1851, though often treated the North and South as two divisions. Orillia Township was a separate entity from the Village of Orillia.

The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project contains high resolution images of various County Atlases and indexes of the people listed.

Clip of a recording of the Barrie Collegiate Institute band during their Bon Voyage Concert on July 18, 1970, as they prepared for a European tour.

Sweetheart Pin

Here is a First World War 157th Simcoe Foresters sweetheart pin from ca. 1910-1919.

Often called « sweetheart jewelry, » these decorative tokens were given to loved ones of those serving in the military and often featured military symbols. They were meaningful tokens of connection during wartime.

Beck Dollar

Here is another unique object in our collections – a coin from the C. Beck Manufacturing Company Ltd. collection. 

A « Beck dollar » was earned by employees to be exchanged for groceries and dry goods at Beck-operated retail stores.

Founded by Charles Beck, the Company manufactured lumber and wood from 1875 to 1969 with its centre of operations in Penetanguishene.