Fonds consists of research materials and notes, modern correspondence, photocopies of historical documentation, and genealogical resources for the Need family as well as other people living in both England and Newcastle District. The historical documentation includes wills, gravesite information, lot and concession records, military records, correspondence. As well as the Need family, there is also biographical information on other families, including the Dunsfords, Langtons, Campbells, and Sawers.

These research materials were accumulated by Dawn Bell Logan and used to write books, articles, and biographical entries about Thomas Need, including Thomas Need : settler in the backwoods of Upper Canada (self published, 2022), and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for Thomas Need (V. 12). Photographs are of some sites in Lincolnshire, U.K, Peterborough, Canada, the Trent Severn Waterway, Thomas Need’s descendants, and gravestones of Need family members.

Fonds is organized into four series: Thomas Need journals and correspondence; Research materials and manuscripts; Dawn Logan correspondence; and Files on Dawn Logan’s publications.

Thomas Need Biography

Thomas Need (1808-1895) emigrated from Nottingham, England to Upper Canada in May 1832 and settled in Verulam Township in Victoria County in 1833 around Sturgeon Lake. He had graduated from University College, London, in 1830 and rejected the idea of becoming a member of the clergy. This contributed to his decision to leave England.

While in Upper Canada, Need was a member of the government commission that oversaw the construction of what became the first lock of the Trent-Severn Waterway, founded the Village of Bobcaygeon in 1834, and served as a magistrate for the Court of Requests from 1835 to 1837.

Need anonymously published his book Six years in the bush or extracts from the journal of a settler in Upper Canada (London, 1838) on his experiences in Upper Canada. The book was based on his journal entries he made in his personal journal which he called the “Woodhouse Journal.” Need returned to Nottingham, England permanently in 1847 and died in 1895. His authorship was confirmed with the publication of John Langton’s letters in 1926 and he was subsequently recognized as a contributor to early Canadian literature.

Source: Biography – NEED, THOMAS – Volume XII (1891-1900) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/need_thomas_12E.html. Accessed 11 Jan. 2024.

Series consists of unidentified photographs taken of or submitted to Margie and Robert Lightbody. Most of the photographs appear to have been taken at a house party in 1989 and at an Alumni reunion organized by the Lightbody’s in Fall 1994. Series also consists of a scrapbook of the 1994 reunion which contains letters from Trent alumni, photographs of alumni which were taken while they were at the reunion week as well as when they were students in the 1960’s. There are also thank you notes addressed to the Lightbody’s for their efforts organizing the reunion. Series also consists of some photographs of Margie and Robert Lightbody taken at Trent events or on the Symons Campus. Other photographs include early construction shots of Champlain College, and of Sadlier House and Peter Robinson College.

This fonds consists of primary research material and the manuscript and photographs for Harley R. Cummings' book, "Early Days in Haliburton". The fonds also consists of correspondence, including letters from the Honorable Leslie Frost, photographs, maps, and an original 1863 surveyor's diary for Eyre Township. Also included are the C.R. Stewart diaries, dated 1902-1904. C.R. Stewart (1826-1905) was resident agent for the Canadian Land and Immigration Company and was the first settler in the Village of Haliburton. In his diaries he refers to Colonel Samuel Hughes and Mossom Boyd. Stewart's son, C.E. Stewart (1851-1921) was editor of the "Bobcaygeon Independent". The fonds also includes several historical papers and publications written by Cummings and others.

This collection of photographs consists of 2 tintypes (one woman is identified as Mrs E.R. Young; 2 photographs of lumbering operations at Lake of Bays including a photograph of an alligator machine; one ambrotype of a young boy and 1 daguerreotype of two adults with a child.

Fonds consists of personal records of Thomas H.B. Symons relating to his career and to his family. Included are records of his wife, Christine Symons, his children, Mary, Jeffrey, and Ryerson Symons, his father, Harry Lutz Symons, including his father's manuscript for "Three Ships West", and his mother, Dorothy Sarah (Bull) Symons. Also included are materials relating to Professor Symons' activities on various boards and committees, addresses, articles, manuscripts, typescripts, and correspondence, documents and notes concerning Trent University, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Celanese Canada, Science Council of Canada, Department of External Affairs, Royal Society of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, etc.. Also included are photographs of Thomas H.B. Symons, Christine Symons, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

Fonds consists of letters written to Peter Gzowski in his role as broadcaster for CBC's "Morningside" show. The hundreds of letters include such subjects as literacy, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and Edith Babb. Also included are contracts, correspondence, notes, and memos relating to Peter Gzowski's career with CBC; records relating to Gzowski's association with the "Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf for Literacy" tournament; Gzowski's association with Ridley College, and Trent University (Margaret Laurence tribute, Timothy Findley conference, chancellorship); and greeting cards, personal calendars, photographs, family genealogical information, and correspondence relating to awards received. The fonds also includes correspondence, partial manuscripts, and notes relating to various books which Gzowski has written.

Fonds consists of records relating to the Millbrook, Ontario and Cavan, Ontario area. Included are photographs, photocopies of newspaper clippings and articles, and scrapbooks. Several items pertain to St. Andrews United Church, Millbrook.

Collection consists of correspondence, 1882-1899, and several envelopes dating 1870s to 1890s, most of which are addressed to Thomas Choate of Warsaw, and Mrs. John Moore [Cettie Choate, daughter of Thomas]; souvenir brochure of pictures of Peterborough, Ontario; Maccabees brochures; approximately 125 stereographs depicting scenery, architecture, and people in the U.S.A., Europe, and Canada; two photographs of the employees of Western Clock Company Limited of Peterborough, Ontario, 1938 and 1944; a temperance meeting poster for Warsaw, Ontario, 1858; and an electoral district of East Durham proclamation broadside, 1924. Also included is the Choate Family Bible donated and added to the collection in 2002. The bible contains genealogical information on the Choate family.

Fonds consists of maps and plans of the Ottawa and Haliburton areas, time-books of Bronsons and Weston logging firm, and photographs of the building of a railway, and of the Haliburton area. Included also are research material and manuscripts relating to books which Harley R. Cummings wrote about schools in the Ottawa area, and on the history of Haliburton. Included are notes on John Strachan and a transcript of his diary. The fonds also includes several genealogical charts of the MacCallum family.

Fonds consists of a bound original assessment roll for Harvey Township for 1927, a photograph of Marjorie McLean Oliver (ca. 1919), two account books of the tourist camp which the Olivers operated (1926-1947; 1951-1970), a cemetery deed from Verulam Cemetery Company (1880), tax bills (1907-1968), and assessment notices (1891-1960). Also included are two land documents (1927; 1938) of the property donated to Trent University in 1998 by Marjorie McLean Oliver in memory of her father, James McLean Oliver.

Collection consists of three pamphlets, "Our Own Cookbook" / by the East Victoria Women's Institute, 1905, "Pioneer Gleanings from Verulam, 1867-1967" / by T.H. Martin, and "Bury's Green Branch of the Women's Institute, 1953-1993". Also included are items which were removed from a scrapbook: seven photographs, brochures, and several newspaper clippings relating to Fenelon Falls, Bobcaygeon, Lindsay, and Bury's Green, Ontario, 1961, 1984-1994. The photographs include Women's Institute members such as Nan McGhee, Phyllis Fell, Esther Humphries, Laura Flett, Mrs. Tiers, Clara Flett, and Grace Barker; also included are photos of Sherry L. Telford and Kim Chambers during the Olympic Torch Run, 1988. This collection also consists of a scrapbook entitled "Tweedsmuir History: Bury's Green Branch Women's Institute". Enclosed in it are approximately 70 photographs, a history of Bury's Green branch of the Women's Institute, maps, brochures, correspondence, historical accounts, and memorabilia, n.d. This collection also consists of research material for the Tweedsmuir History; Hand Books for the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario, 1949, 1971, 1983, and 1987; notebooks containing reports on the Tweedsmuir History, on Historical Research and Cultural Events, and on Education and Cultural Activities, 1953-1987; programs dated 1953-54 through 1993-94; 100th anniversary materials; and correspondence and brochures relating to an award given to a student at Fenelon Falls Secondary School, 1996.

Fonds consists of correspondence, minutes, memos, publications, and financial and administrative records of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Also included are materials relating to campaigns, donors, etc.

Fonds consists of photographs and post cards relating to the Oliver family and their friends, and their home at Lakeview Farm, Bobcaygeon, Ontario. Family members referred to include Marjorie McLean Oliver, Margaret Elizabeth Oliver, Margaret Chase Oliver, and James McLean Oliver. The fonds also consists of a collection of Time Books for 1935-1948, The Clan Oliver Magazine and The Oliver Society Magazine 1969-1986, a family scrapbook of birth and death notices, newspaper clippings, letters and certificates, and two Tourist Registers for Lakeview Farm 1926-1961. Also included are family property documents including a map issued by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 1955, entitled Terrestrial Ecozones and Ecoregions of Canada, with handwritten notation indicating the location of the Oliver Property which was donated to Trent University by Marjorie McLean Oliver in 1998.

Fonds consists of original textual materials and photographs relating to various camps (Brown Bag Program), camp songbooks, three VHS tapes, one of a speech by John Jorgenson, one entitled "Choosing a Suitable Camp", and one, "Camping in Ontario (Our First Century)". Also included are annual reports and slides from Moorelands Camp, conference and international congress materials, OCA constitution and by-laws, and administrative records, correspondence, and minutes of the various committees and board of governors of the Ontario Camping Association. Included also are articles written by Charles Plewman on the subjects of Tom Thomson, Taylor Statten, and the formation of the OCA.

Collection consists of 103 slides of various nature areas on the Symons Campus, Trent University, taken October 1996 as a record of the vegetation in 1996 for future comparison of vegetation change. The slides are accompanied by an index.

This collection consists of 14 photograph negatives of Peterborough Normal School, undated, and portraying people and the grounds of the school. The negatives are enclosed in a J.J. Gilfillan, Orono, Ontario, photographer's envelope, with the name Calvin Hamm, Orono, Ontario written on it. Calvin Hamm was born on March 28, 1909 at Orono, son of Ernest Hamm and Florence Hughson. He was appointed Principal of the Morley Consolidated School at Stratton in September 1935 and received his B.A. at Western University in June 1943. He later taught high school in Fort Frances (taken from a typed information enclosure which accompanies the collection). Also included is a Peterborough Normal School Christmas Card, undated; a Peterborough Normal School Literary Society invitation, 1930; and a photograph of the "Floating Bridge, Bridgenorth, Chemong Lake, 1933."