Research guides: History Research Guide: History 253 (Canada: Cultures &amp; Conflicts)

Researching Pre-Confederation Canada

Research on pre-confederation Canada has its own unique challenges, as the names of government institutions and geographical regions were different before the nation of Canada was formed. Some terminology used at the time is also no longer appropriate today, but persists as a keyword in primary documents (e.g. indian vs indigenous). Whether you are working on a primary sources analysis, a research paper, a historiographical paper, or other project work, the sections on this page will help you discover both primary and secondary sources relating to your topic. However, if you are not finding what you need, please let me know. I'm committed to helping you do the best research possible.

-- Mike Chee, History Librarian

Secondary Sources

Find secondary sources by searching the library catalogue (OMNI) and looking in topic-specific history databases. Learn more about the work undertaken in Canadian history by tapping into the community spaces (virtual and journal-based) where these historians gather and discuss.

Find secondary sources in history-specific databases

JSTOR
Provides access to back issues of journals in the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences, many of which date from the 1800s.
Coverage: varies (excludes current 3 to 5 years)
America History and Life
Identifies articles, book reviews, and dissertations on American and Canadian history and culture from prehistoric times to the present.
Coverage: mid 1950s - present
Note: A limited number of users may access this database simultaneously; if you are unable to connect, please try later.
Bibliography of British and Irish History
Indexes historical scholarship relating to the British Isles, the British Empire, and the Commonwealth. Time periods range from 55 BC.
Coverage: 1901 - present
Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America
Indexes books, articles, and government documents about Indigenous peoples of North America, covering the 1500s to the present.
Coverage: 1500s - present
Humanities & Social Sciences Retrospective
Indexes nearly 1200 periodicals, including many of the most important scholarly journals published in North America and Europe.
Coverage: 1907 - 1984
PAIS International
Indexes public and social policy literature on business, economics, finance, law, international relations, public administration, government, political science, and other social sciences.
Coverage: 1915 - present

Canadian Historian Communities

NiCHE
NiCHE (Network in Canadian History & Environment) is a Canadian-based confederation of researchers working on historical topics related to Canada and the environment.
Active History
Active History is a website that connects the work of historians with the wider public and the importance of the past to current events.
Acadiensis: journal of the history of the Atlantic Region.
"It would be difficult to overstate the central role of Acadiensis within Atlantic Canada studies..." -Stephen Dutcher (2021)
The Beaver
The Beaver magazine was founded, and for decades, was published, during eras shaped by colonialism. Concepts such as racial, cultural, or gender equality were rarely, if ever, considered by the magazine or its contributors. In earlier issues, readers will find comments and terms now considered to be derogatory. Canada’s History Society cautions readers to explore the Archive using historical thinking concepts — analyzing not only the content, but asking questions of who shaped the content, and why.
BC Studies
Established in 1969, BC Studies is dedicated to the exploration of British Columbia’s cultural, economic, and political life; past and present.
Manitoba History
Manitoba History published peer-reviewed scholarly, feature-length articles as well as shorter, popular articles, documentary selections, essays, pictorial essays, and reviews relating to the social, economic, political, intellectual, and cultural history of Manitoba and the Canadian West. Published from 1980 to 2019, Manitoba History replaced the Society’s previous publications Transactions and Manitoba Pageant.
Ontario History
Ontario History is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that is published bi-annually by the Ontario Historical Society. In 1899, the Ontario Historical Society (OHS) published the first issue of Ontario History, then titled Papers and Records. What began primarily as an effort to preserve important documentary sources has evolved over the past century to become today’s scholarly peer journal.
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association
Founded in 1922 as the Report of the Annual Meeting (from 1966-1989 published under the title Historical Papers) the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada publishes papers in English and French in any field that opens up new avenues of historical enquiry, explores a subject previously treated in a fresh and promising fashion, and/or employs a method or approach of interest to historians working outside the narrow specialization of the paper in question.
Canadian Historical Review
The Canadian Historical Review offers an analysis of the ideas, people, and events that have molded Canadian society and institutions into their present state.

Primary Sources

Primary sources for pre-confederation Canada can be difficult to track down, as a historical period with fluid geographical boundaries and a diversity of peoples and cultures. Archives remain a primary repository of primary sources from this period. In addition, primary sources may be found in collections of primary sources available in the catalogue, in digitized form within searchable databases, and as newspapers from the period that are available in-part in digitized form.

When searching primary documents by key word, remember that terms and alternate/older spelling variations have changed over time. For example:
use v for u; u for v; j for i or y; i for j or y; y for i or j; w for vv or uu; s for f

Primary Source Collections from the Library Catalogue

A Few Acres of Snow
Publication Date: 2009
Consolidation of Indian legislation
v. 1. United Kingdom and Canada -- v. 2. Indian acts and amendments, 1868-1975 -- v. 3. Provincial legislation, pre- and post-confederation --[v. 4] Ordinances of Northwest and Yukon Territories.
British North America acts and selected statutes
Publication Date: 1962
(Together with pre-Confederation statutes and documents, a short historical review, a chapter on responsible government and a chapter on the years preceding Confederation)
Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia
ISBN: 1487599692
Publication Date: 2019
Joseph Howe was not yet a prominent politician in 1828 but he was already developing a deep interest in the political institutions of Nova Scotia, and his love of the land and its people was innate. In these Rambles he put aside his professional preoccupations and spoke as an observer bent on recording his impressions of the landscapes, settlements, people, and character of his native province.
Material memory : documents in pre-Confederation history
Publication Date: 1998

Digitized Primary Source Databases

Canadiana
Find documents from 1st European contact to recent student activism, including items relating to Indigenous-settler relations, cookbooks, women's writings, and more.
Coverage: Pre-1970

Héritage
Some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 40 million pages of primary-source documents. Chronicling the country and its people from the 1600s to the mid-1900s.

HeinOnline
Articles on law and legal history, court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations from Canadian, U.S. and UK jurisdictions.
Coverage: varies

France in America Collection
"Subjects in this collection include an account of France’s attempted settlement at Rio de Janeiro (1557), Samuel de Champlain’s account of his voyage to Canada (1613), a peace treaty between the King of France and the Indians of Canada (1667), and numerous memoirs and other books related to French activities in the Americas."

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
English and other language books, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera published in the United Kingdom and the Americas.
Coverage: 1701 - 1820
Included are significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, numerous 18th century editions of the works of Shakespeare, and multiple editions of other works of literature.

University of Waterloo Special Collections & Archives Women's Studies Thematic Area collection
The University of Waterloo Special Collections & Archives has digitized a number of items from the collection that support research in women’s, gender, and family studies. Archival collections include papers of individual women and women’s organizations that support the study of women’s history in Canada from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century.

Digitized newspaper collections

Indigenous Newspapers in North America (formerly American Indian Newspapers)
A collection of papers from Indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada.
Coverage: 1828 - 2016

The Black Press in 19th-century Canada and Beyond
The Voice of the Fugitive (1851-1852)
The Provincial Freeman (1853-1876)
The Voice of the Bondsman (1856)
The True Royalist (1860-1861)

Paper of Record
Archive of selected 19 and 20th century community newspapers from across Canada, the United States, and other countries.
Coverage: varies

Ontario Community Newspapers
1800s - 1970s
Ontario English newspapers on microfilm (some digitized)
1800s - early 1900s.
French-Canadian Newspapers: An Essential Historical Source
1808 - 1919.

Globe and Mail, Canada's Heritage from 1844 [digital archive]
Search news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, and birth and marriage announcements, historical photos, stock photos, and advertisements.
Coverage: 1844 - 4 years ago