By Taylor Murray

Whether due to distance, time constraints, or pandemics, historians are not always able to visit archives for research. In my last post on this blog, I wrote about a few of the many resources relating to Baptists in Canada that are freely accessible online. While these materials are easily browsable on their respective websites, they are not the only sources available in a digital format. The Canadian Baptist Archives (CBA) in Hamilton, Ontario, has also scanned a variety of sources, many of which are available upon request and approval.¹

Survey of Material

Among the primary sources offered by the CBA are a variety of newspapers. As historians know, newspapers can provide important insight into the concerns and ministries of Baptists of their time. How did they engage theological and social debates? What issues did they spend time discussing? What topics did they brush past? Within this digital collection are The Canadian Missionary Link and The Baptist Visitor, each of which was the organ of a women’s missionary organization. Other significant features include The Canadian Baptist and The Western Baptist, the primary periodicals for the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and the Baptist Union of Western Canada, respectively. The collection also contains nineteenth-century newspapers, such as The Canadian Baptist Magazine and Missionary Register and The Baptist Register.

Of course, newspapers are not the only sources available. The digital collection includes the Baptist Yearbook for Ontario and Quebec and the Western Yearbook. These records provide insight into what was happening at the denominational level – major advancements, initiatives, ministries, and even controversies. At the associational level, there are resources from major metropolitan areas, such as record books from the Toronto Association and the Ottawa Association. The collection also contains records from the Amherstburg Association, which played a significant part in the history of Black Baptists in Canada, and the Grande Ligne Mission, which was a Baptist-supported ministry to French Canadians in Quebec.

List of Sources

Below is a complete list of available sources at the time of writing (parentheses connote years available):

• Canadian Baptist Magazine and Missionary Register (1837–1841)
• Baptist Register (1857–1876)
• Baptist Yearbook (Ontario and Quebec) (1877–1947/48)
• Canadian Baptist (1912–1956)
• Canadian Missionary Link (1878–1903)
• Baptist Visitor (1916–1927)
• Western Yearbook (1938/39–1946/47)
• Western Baptist (1938–1947)
• Toronto Association (1875–1931)
• Ottawa Association (1837–1890) (some years missing)
• Grande Ligne Mission (1909–1962/63)
• Amherstburg Association (1841–1947)

Final Thoughts

This list of resources provides a great starting point for a variety of research projects. As noted in the previous blog post, there are many stories in the history of Baptists in Canada just waiting to be told – all we need are the storytellers who are willing to put in the work. For more information on the CBA and its holdings, contact the archivist, Adam McCulloch.

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Taylor Murray, PhD, is Instructor of Christian History and Creative Producer of Distributed Learning at Tyndale University in Toronto. He is a Member at Large with the Canadian Baptist Historical Society.

Endnotes

1. I am indebted to Adam McCulloch, archivist at the Canadian Baptist Archives, for putting together this list of available material. If you wish to contact him about any of the sources in this blog (or for other research), you may reach him at cbarch@mcmaster.ca.

**The views of this Blog represent those of the author, and not necessarily the CBHS.**