Archive & Finding Aids

Collections held in public trust.

The following collections are currently processed and accessible to researchers, descendants, and member communities. Requests for consultation are routed through a member society or partner institution. Record codes follow the pattern NHI-[series]-[number].

A — Accessioned papers O — Oral history S — Survey records R — Transcribed registers M — Maps & cartographic

NHI-A-014

Hollister Farmstead Papers

Extent: 4.2 linear metres, 1871–1962; 3 boxes of photographic negatives (glass plate and acetate)
Summary: Correspondence, account books, shipping receipts, and photographic negatives documenting four generations of a working dairy and sugar-wood operation in the upper watershed. Includes extensive correspondence with regional co-operative federations (1921–1954), a complete run of weekly weather logs kept by one family member across forty-one years, and the farm's hay-cutting diaries.
Access: Open; photographic reproduction restricted to non-commercial use. Executive Director recused from decisions concerning this collection.

NHI-R-027

Eastern Townships Parish Register Transcriptions

Extent: Eleven bound volumes plus digital transcription, 1798–1921
Summary: Transcribed registers of baptism, marriage, and burial from seven small rural parishes, prepared in partnership with the parishes of record. Includes name indices, geographic cross-references, and a gazetteer of the forty-three hamlets and concession lots referenced in the originals. Verification pass underway; est. completion Q3 2026.
Access: Open; certified extracts prepared on referral from the parish of record.

NHI-A-041

Pérec Carpentry Notebooks

Extent: Nineteen pocket notebooks, 1962–2003
Summary: Working notebooks of a regional timber-frame carpenter (not to be confused with the Director of Field Survey, a descendant), comprising joinery studies, material lists, sketches of historic framing encountered in repair work, and day-by-day records of twenty-three major restoration engagements. Books 11 and 14 contain the earliest known written account of the "scarfed-ridge" dialect treatment.
Access: Open; consultation in reading room only. The notebooks are not imaged.

NHI-O-003

Watershed Oral History Series

Extent: 1,174 recorded sessions with full transcriptions, 1998–ongoing
Summary: Interviews with long-resident families and tradespeople of the upper watershed on subjects including seasonal labour, parish life, timber trade, dairy co-operation, domestic craft, and musical repertoire. Master recordings held on LTO-9 tape in triplicate; access copies in FLAC. Sub-series include NHI-O-003.B (Ridge Barns testimony, 41 sessions) and NHI-O-003.C (parish musicianship, 118 sessions).
Access: Mixed; per-session terms determined by the consent record on file. Approximately 71% of the series is open on standard terms.

NHI-S-002

Ridge Barns Survey Records

Extent: Ninety-two full structural records plus one hundred and forty-eight reconnaissance records, 2022–2026
Summary: Measured drawings, condition reports, photogrammetric data, and supporting oral testimony for ninety-two ridge-pole barns surveyed under the four-year programme. Release of final catalogue anticipated autumn 2026; interim plates available to partner institutions with prior arrangement. See the Ridge Barns page for anatomy, dialect analysis, and selected case records.
Access: Restricted pending final publication; partner institutions may consult with prior arrangement.

NHI-A-052

Ridge Township Minute Books

Extent: Seven bound minute books, 1849–1922, with ancillary correspondence file
Summary: The civic record of a single township council across seventy-three years, including road-allowance debates, school trustee minutes, poundkeeper appointments, and the full minute record of the 1874 bridge-works dispute. First-pass transcription underway; a preliminary subject index is available to consultation visits.
Access: Open on consultation; transcription in progress.

NHI-M-008

Watershed Cartographic Fragments

Extent: Forty-three items (maps, sketches, and field-note diagrams), 1822–1968
Summary: A small but dense collection of surveyor's field sketches, concession-line diagrams, a hand-drawn parish map of 1831 inscribed on linen, and later road-allowance revisions. Supports geographic reference across the other series.
Access: Open; oversize items are imaged and served as surrogates. Originals consulted by arrangement.

NHI-A-063

Co-operative Dairy Ledger Series

Extent: Thirty-one ledgers and day-books, 1908–1973
Summary: Account ledgers, butter-fat test registers, and shipping day-books from three small farmers' co-operative dairies that operated in sequence on a single site. A remarkable continuous record of the valuation of milk across two price regimes and a full generational cycle of membership.
Access: Open; member-name redaction applies for records less than fifty years old.