Hours:
- Provincial Archives Administration: Monday-Friday, 8:15am-4:30pm (No retrieval of archival material from 11:30am-1:00pm and from 3:30pm onwards)
- Reading Room Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 9:00am-4:30pm
Location: 8555 Roper Road, Edmonton, AB, T6E 5W1
Contact:
- General Inquiries: 1-780-427-1750, paa@gov.ab.ca
- Reading Room: 1-780-427-1056
- Government Records Queries: 1-780-415-8450, gr_reference@gov.ab.ca
- Private Records Queries: 1-780-415-0700, tom.anderson@gov.ab.ca
Access: Visitors to the Archives must fill out a Researcher Registration Form at the Public Reception. Upon completion of the form, visitors will be issued a Researcher Registration Card. Visitors must present and wear this card and sign in and out of the daily register on every visit. Registration cards are valid until the end of the calendar year.
Website: http://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/
The Provincial Archives of Alberta contains private and government records of all media related to the province. It is the permanent archival repository of the Government of Alberta. The Provincial Archives of Alberta’s collections consist of 51,540 linear metres of government textual records; 4,360 linear metres of private textual records; 150,750 maps, plans, and drawings; 1,788,700 photographs; 69,740 audiovisual objects, including films, videos, and audio recordings; and 14,625 resource library books.
The Archives’ government records consists of the records of the Government of Alberta, its ministries such as the Ministry of Health and its predecessors, and its corporations, agencies, boards, commissions, and courts.
Private records from individuals, businesses, organizations, and communities cover a wide range of themes including resource development, the petroleum and natural gas industry, agricultural and urban development, settlement, manufacturing, sports, and religious and community organizations. Records from local public bodies, municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals are also considered private records by the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Other private records related to the history of medicine include the Alberta Lung Association fonds (1929-1988); the records of the Alberta Consumer Health Information Society (1985-2002) which operated Health Line, a telephone information service which provided free access to public health information; the records of Mary Percy Jackson (1904-2000), who worked as a physician in northern Alberta for over 45 years beginning in 1929; the records of Peggy Holmes (1897-?) who created a CBC radio program detailing her homesteading life in Alberta at the beginning of the twentieth century and volunteered extensively with the Canadian Cancer Society, the Red Cross, the YWCA, the War Brides Association, and the Physicians and Surgeons for Third World Aid; the records of the Alberta Pastoral Care Association (1969-1998), an ecumenical organization of hospital chaplains and clergy; the records of Dr. Evan Greene (1873-1966) who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War and then worked as a physician and instructor at the University of Alberta; and the records of Dr. George Meldrum Little (1895-?) who served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War and then worked as the Medical Officer of Health for Red Deer Rural Health District before being appointed Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta maintains the records of four faith organizations: the Alberta and Northwest Conference of the United Church of Canada (ca. 1830s-present), the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (1842-1980), the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton and Athabasca (1870-ca. 2000), and the Alberta synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (ca. 1895-ca. 2000). These records include registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials; membership rolls; minutes of church boards, committees, and organizations; correspondence; accounts; annual reports of local congregations; congregational newsletters; the records of educational institutions, social service agencies, and hospitals operated by religious institutions; and the personal papers of ministry personnel and other individuals associated with the religious institutions. Please note that although the records of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate are stored at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, they remain in the legal custody and control of the Oblates. For a list of their holdings or access their records, contact the Oblate archivist at 1-780-460-6927.
The Archives has a strong collection of material related to the First Nations and Métis people of the province of Alberta. Ranging from the 1880s to the 1990s, this collection includes government records as well as the records of private individuals and organizations. Government records relating to the First Nations and Métis people cover every ministry, department, and agency and their encounters with the province’s First Nations and Métis people on subjects such as health and welfare, education, crime, natural resources, treaties, land claims, employment, and economic development. Private records relating to the First Nations and Métis people come from the collections of individuals such as activist Jessie Daryl Sturrock (1899-1980), ethnologist John Hellson, photographer Ernest Brown (1877-1951), former Premier Peter Lougheed (1928-2012), and politician Gordon Taylor (1910-2003), and organizations such as churches, municipalities, and Aboriginal interest groups. These records contain photographs, oral history interviews, maps, genealogical and ethnographic research, and personal papers such as correspondence and diaries. Click here for a subject guide to the Aboriginal Resources at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta has created Explore Learning & Education, a series of online exhibits which use records from the Archives’ collections to explore different themes in the history of the province. These exhibits are: Law and Original Order: Discovering Alberta’s Court Records, For King and Country: Alberta’s Contribution to the First World War, Making History: Premiers and Parties, Photographs: If Only They Could Speak, Voices of the Past: Alberta School Broadcasts, and Royal Visits.
Currently, approximately 30,000 photographs from the Archives collections have been digitized and are available online.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta has also created subject guides to aid researchers in identifying relevant materials within the Archives’ collections. The following guides are available online: Aboriginal Resources, Francophone Archival Records at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Ukrainian Archival Records at the Provincial archives of Alberta, An Administrative History of the Government of Alberta 1905-2005, and Alberta and the Great War: A Guide to First World War Records at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.