The pictures might be old and somewhat faded, but they tell the story of Moose Jaw’s military history and of the young men who went to war during the last 121 years.
Thousands of military pictures — along with newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, folders, letters and microfilm — are housed in the Moose Jaw Public Library’s archives room, a space that contains some important and valuable treasures.
These items provide an in-depth look at how the community supported Canada’s war efforts in such engagements as the South African (Boer) War in 1898, the First World War in 1914, the Second World War in 1939, the Korean War in 1950 and Afghanistan in the 2000s.
The library hosted an open house recently to showcase all the archival resources it has on military history, personnel, and the units and battalions based out of Moose Jaw. An edition of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald from August 1945 was shown on microfilm, while two tables were filled with enlistment records, fundraising reports, and perhaps most importantly, photographs of the men and battalions.
Reference technician Stephanie Jeanes was thrilled to talk about the artifacts, especially the photographs.
“They are quite interesting because most of them are from the First World War and they’re over 100 years old,” she exclaimed.
The military enlistment records fascinated Jeanes the most since they are handwritten and contain every personal detail of every soldier who enlisted in Moose Jaw, such as height, weight, marital status and even religious affiliation.
“I think these are really cool,” she added. “… But I like all this old stuff. Some people don’t think it’s interesting. I like this stuff because it’s (a) primary source. This is real. These are actual papers written over 100 years ago. And now we’re so used to seeing everything online or you can get a digital image of it.”
Jeanes also likes looking through the back issues of newspapers such as the Times-Herald or Regina Leader on microfilm. However, not all digital copies are of high quality since some newspapers were scanned in when they were old. Most from the last 50 years are clean and crisp, though, which makes for easier reading.
“We do have a lot of the actual (physical) newspapers, like tons and tons of them,” Jeanes added. “The earliest ones are the late 1890s. I usually don’t let people touch them because newsprint was never intended to last long … So usually I encourage people to use the microfilm. But I will pull them out (for particular groups).”
Former Times-Herald columnist Leith Knight started the archives at the library in the late 1960s. The archives contain more than 6,000 photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, high school yearbooks, periodical magazine collections, Canadiana book collections, sheet music, and personal papers of residents and community organizations.
Anyone interested in accessing the archives can contact Jeanes at 306-692-2787. You can take photographs of archival material with your phone or camera. Documents and clippings can be photocopied for 25 cents per page. Photographs cannot be photocopied but can be scanned and emailed to you.
The library also has access to Ancestry.ca to help with research on family history. However, the website can only be accessed by using computers at the library.
What should excite military fans is the archives contain records of the 128th Battalion, the 210th Battalion, the National War Finance Committee, and the South African War Veterans Association. There is also information on the 128th Battalion’s enlistment records, and plenty of photos of the 46th (Suicide) Battalion, the 128th Battalion, 60th Rifles, 77th Battery, 28th Battalion and the 229th Battalion.
One reason the library has so much archival military material is that Moose Jaw has the armoury and the airbase, Jeanes said. Both locations have produced many photographs over the decades.
It is important to save all this material so residents in the future will know more about the community’s past, she added. Looking at the photographs also indicates how the community has changed since the 1890s.
