Thank you, UPEI Robertson Library, and Islandora for the IslandArchives.ca project. As sometimes PEI scholar, in exile, I appreciate so much the research opportunities that IslandArchives.ca has afforded me.
Here’s a concrete example. Many years ago, I wrote an MA thesis on early tourism on PEI. When recently co-writing with Ed MacDonald a book on the history of tourism on PEI, he and I both assumed I would rely largely on the MA to write the pre-1945 chapters – particularly because I would be writing while in Ontario. Instead, I found myself able to do a phenomenal amount of new research online, thanks to IslandArchives.ca’s “Island Newspapers,” “Island Stories,” “Island Maps,” and other collections. As a result of the variety of material online, and its accessibility and ease of search, I utterly changed what I thought about PEI tourism’s early years.
I have used IslandArchives.ca in perhaps a half-dozen provincial, regional, and national historical projects over the past half-dozen years. Beyond that, knowing how useful the site is means I want to contribute collections of my own to it. And knowing that it is supported and has a stable home at UPEI means that I feel safe to contribute to such collections. As you know, I hope in the next little while to offer 3 PEI collections and related material to IslandArchives.ca: on back-to-the-landers, on the 1876 historical survey, and on Environment Canada’s PEI weather observations. This isn’t entirely selfless of me: IslandArchives.ca is the leading online repository of Island historical material, so where better to showcase a collection that will be found by Islanders and non-Islanders alike for many years to come?
PEI has far and away the most comprehensive coverage of historical material online of any Canadian province – of any jurisdiction I can think of, in fact. That’s in part due to PEI’s small size and population, and that it has been a political entity for so long, of course. But it’s also due to the phenomenal foresight, hard work, and talent of you and your team at Robertson Library and Islandora. Thank you.
Alan MacEachern
Professor, Department of History
The University of Western Ontario