The City of Toronto Archives is the municipal archives for the City of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. It holds records created by the municipal government and its amalgamated former municipalities from 1792 to the present day, as well as non-government records created by private groups and individuals. There are also over one million photographs of Toronto within its collection, with over 50,000 available to view on its website.

Collection

The oldest record in the Archives is a map of

Toronto Harbour Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a natural harbour, protected from Lake Ontario waves by the Toronto Islands. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational b ...

dated 1792, and the newest one is a DVD of the previous month's

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022. Structure The c ...

meeting. Of the 1.2 million photographs within the Toronto Archives collection, the oldest are a set of twenty-five prints of the city taken in 1856-57 by the firm of photographers, Armstrong, Beere and Hime. These are the earliest known photographs of Toronto. Other important photographic collections are the William James collection, the Alexander Galbraith collection and the F. W. Micklethwaite collection, ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' collection (1922–56), as well as over 100,000 photographs taken by city photographers.

Building

The present archives building was opened in 1992. It was designed by the architectural firm of Zeidler Roberts, who also designed the

Toronto Eaton Centre The Toronto Eaton Centre (corporately styled as the CF Toronto Eaton Centre since September 2015, and commonly referred to simply as the Eaton Centre) is a shopping mall and office complex in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is ...

, as a state-of-the-art purpose-built archives building incorporating a climate controlled records, a central atrium and exhibition area; a 60-seat theatre and a Research Hall. The original purpose of the building was to hold the records of the government of

Metropolitan Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

. Since amalgamation in 1998, documents from the other six constituent municipalities have been housed there. Prior to amalgamation, the archives were held in the respective city halls.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Archives in Ontario Municipal government of Toronto History of Toronto Organizations based in Toronto Postmodern architecture in Canada

1960 establishments in Ontario