This fonds consists of typewritten transcripts of some of the pages of from the Memoirs of Sidney Bellingham which relate to his experiences and thoughts of life in the pioneer days.

This fonds consists of records encompasing three generations of the Boyd family of Bobcaygeon. The fonds has been divided into the following series: photographs and glass negatives; Reverend Henry C. Avant; Mossom Boyd; Mossom Martin Boyd (Mossie); Lillian de Grassi Boyd; the De Grassi papers which are records of Dr. Alex De Grassi, Lillian Boyd's father, a physician from Lindsay, Upper Canada; Gardiner Cust Boyd; Mildred Boyd; Winnett (Brownie) Boyd; Laurence Chadwick Boyd; Mossom de Grassi Boyd; A. Sheila Boyd; stamps; artifacts; business which deals with the Boyds interests in lumbering; agricultural papers which deal with the Boyd's farming interests in buffalo and cattle; and, estate papers. The strength of this fonds lies in its completeness. Nothing was thrown away and there are grocery lists, laundry lists, staff salary books, furniture receipts, party and wedding invitations, school report cards, ship and railway timetables, diaries and approximately 20,000 pieces of correspondence. This has resulted in a remarkable record of a large household from the 1880s to the 1980s and an invaluable source for social and business historians.

Items include two George Stevens flyers and one envelope that advertise the export of Canadian unleached hardwood ashes, to be used as plant food.

This item is a notebook written by William Howden and kept between 1860 and 1903 on the subject of animal husbandry. It contains various recipes for horse medicine and newspaper articles on stallions available for stud.

This item is a minute book of the Agricultural Society of the Township of Smith. This item includes minutes of meetings from January 1855 to October 1904; lists of officers; lists of successful competitors at agricultural shows; and broadsides advertising agricultural shows. The book contains (pasted to the inside back cover) a letter dated May 11, 1887 from A. Blue of the Ontario Department of Agriculture who acknowledges that the Smith, Ennismore and Lakefield Agricultural Society has been duly recognized and incorporated. Reference is made to a certificate from the West Peterborough Electoral District [Agricultural] Society recognizing the Smith Township society.

Fonds consists of 27 diaries of William Thornton Cust Boyd dated 1878 through 1917. Five of the diaries, 1884-1888, include financial records. The diaries recount the private and public life of Boyd, and include references to his wife, Meta, and their children, and social activities with family and friends including boating excursions and picnics. He refers throughout to Richard Birdsall Rogers (1857-1927), superintending engineer of the Peterborough Lift Lock, in social and business terms, and the two often conduct business relating to the Trent Valley Canal. Activities which Boyd participated in regularly include yachting and boating (on the "Calumet", "Ogemah", and "Ajax"), curling, hunting, gardening, tree planting, playing cards, skating, canoeing, and attending the theatre. He recounts details of the illnesses, deaths and funerals of acquaintances and family members, including his step-brother, Mossom (Mossie) Martin Boyd. Boyd recounts in detail the building of his house by John E. Belcher ([184-]-1915), architect, civil engineer, and surveyor. This house is now operated as Case Manor Nursing Home. The diaries speak of local and federal politics, World War I, and the activities of the church. They also detail the activities of the Lindsay, Bobcaygeon and Pontypool Railway Company, the Trent Valley Navigation Steamship Company, and the day-to-day operation of the family lumbering and cattle/buffalo enterprises.

The fonds consists of an account book of the general store of G.A. Gibson, Kent Street in Lindsay, Ontario for the period of May 1888 to December 1888; four diaries, May 1898 to July 1906, in which Gibson records the chores performed daily by himself and his family as well as money received (for the sale of produce) and money spent. The fonds also contains one additional diary, January 1910 to April 1914, which records chores and events on the farm. It is possible that the diary was written by Gibson's wife, Alice, but written as if Gibson had written it himself.

The microfilms are copies of the 1851 and 1861 decennial nominal census for Peterborough County and parts of Prescott and Prince Edward Counties. Also included (reel 4) is the 1851 census for the Townships of Minden, Stanhope, and Dysart. Genealogical resource.

This collection consists of publications of the Canadian Rose Society and Canadian Peony Society, as listed below.

In box 1

• The Canadian Rose Annual, published by the Canadian Rose Society: 1965, 1975, 1982; 1983; 1985-2003
• The Canadian Rose Book, A collector's Item, limited edition, Canadian Rose Society, 1980
• Colour Classification of Garden Roses, The Canadian Rose Society, 1993
• Guidelines for Judging Roses, The Canadian Rose Society, 1981
• Horticultural Judging Standards, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, [198-?]
• American Rose Annual, 1986

In box 2

• The Rosarian, published by the Canadian Rose Society: 1977 (spring, summer), 1982 (summer), 1984 (fall), 1985 (spring, summer, fall), 1986 (fall), 1990 (spring, summer, fall), 1991 (summer, fall, winter), 1992 (spring)
• Canadian Rosarian: 1992 (summer, autumn), 1993 (spring, summer, autumn), 1994 (spring, summer, autumn), 1995 (spring, summer, autumn), 1996 (spring, summer, autumn), 1997 (spring, autumn), 1998 (spring, summer, fall), 1999 (spring, summer, fall), 2000 (fall)
• The CRS CommPoster, the newsletter of the Canadian Rose Society, vol. 1 nos. 1 and 2 (2004)
• The Peony - C to C, published by the Canadian Peony Society, vol. 1-6 (1998-2003)
• The Peony in Canada, published by the Canadian Peony Society, 2001

This fonds consists of 45 issues of the magazine: Canadian Horticulturalist and Beekeeper which was published in Peterborough, Ontario from 1881. Four additional issues (March, 1897, November, 1897, March, 1898 and January 1899 were donated in 1993 by Jean Cole via the Friends of the Bata Library) and in 1994, additional issues (May 1890-June 1896, scattered) were added courtesy of the Friends of the Bata Library.

This item is an account book of Alvin Bee, Concession 1, Lots 26, 27, 28 of Hope Township, relating to expenditures for his farm. Also included is a 1907 tax notice.

Collection consists of pamphlets, flyers, newsletters, and government reports regarding agricultural policy, issues, and regulations, especially pertaining to the Durham County region. Subjects include soil conditions, pesticide and herbicide use, etc.

Fonds consists of correspondence, tax receipts, pamphlets, and invitations found in a home purchased by Martha Hendriks in 2001. The home is located at 1202 Morton Line, Cavan, Ontario and was owned previously by a farmer named Daniel Nill (1915-[1985]). Included are letters written by Frances [ ], New York, to Daniel Nill between 1933 and 1940. Also included are letters, agreements, pamphlets, etc. associated with John Mason, William Mason, Orlie Mason, and G.A. Mason. These items are dated between 1886 and 1915.

Collection consists of nine Boyd family photograph albums, 14 glass plate negatives, and several strip negatives. The images depict the lives and activities of the Boyd family of Bobcaygeon, Ontario, and include lumbering scenes, Trent Canal steamboats, buffalo/Hereford animals, and travel excursions. Also included are three "Gypsy" photographs (Peterborough, 1909), and photographs of winter sporting activities. Several photographs depict family members; many are unidentified. Also included in this collection are copies of the wills of WT.C. Boyd and Mossom Boyd.

This is a microfilm collection of farmers diaries from Upper Canada dating from 1799 to 1894.

This collection consists of 278 slides taken by Rosemary McConkey during her work as a nutritionist in Malaya (1962) and in Nigeria (1965). McConkey was part of a team of medical personnel and scientists from the University of Ohio who undertook surveys of nutritional needs in these two areas. McConkey has supplied a detailed listing of the slides (below) and has also included a 45 r.p.m. recording of the national anthem of Malaya "Negara Ku,", six books relating to the two areas and a map of Malaya. A complete listing of all slides prepared by Rosemary McConkey is available in the Reading Room

The fonds consists of correspondence received by Emmett Sheehy relating to cases of various prisoners in which Sheehy was interested and to the sale of Canadian wheat to Britain, from 1931 to 1939. Correspondents include W.L. Mackenzie King, Mitchell Hepburn, Maurice Dupre and Hugh Guthrie. Also included is a crown land grant to Joseph Aiott, Smith Township, 1852.

This item is a deed of the sale of land, 1861, to John Wilson, a yeoman of the Township of Manvers, in the County of Durham.

This 73-page typewritten manuscript is an anecdotal record of the information McBain amassed about the properties in northeast Cavan Township. It includes a record of the hamlet of Springville west of the Cavan-Monaghan boundary and of Fairmount (formerly Morrow), a crossroads on the 12th Line, and references to Ida and Mount Pleasant on the middle road. There are in-depth references to properties and families on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th lines east of the middle road to the Monaghan boundary.

This item is a spiral bound, privately printed genealogy of the McIntyre family of Otonabee.

This collection consists of a copy of the pamphlet "Deed of Settlement of Pugets Sound Agricultural Society" [printed in 1912], a photocopy of pages of an article with the title "Exile in the Wilderness" by Jean Murray Cole, University of Washington Press, 1979, which refers to this Society, and a letter dated January 6, 1994 from Anne Morton to Hugh Anson-Cartwright with enclosures which establish the date of printing of the pamphlet as approximately 1912.

This item is a photocopy of an 1840 report written by Henry Ruttan, Sheriff of Newcastle District, as a response to the circular letter of Lord Sydenham. Discussed in the letter are the militia, the roads and other internal improvements, the land granting system, the state of education; the (projected) union of the two provinces and responsible government. Several uncritical pages are missing.

This fonds consists of 18 audio cassette recordings on local history topics made primarily by Enid Mallory. Ms. Mallory interviewed people throughout Peterborough County, many of them descendants of pioneer settlers. The topics include pioneer settlement, Riel Rebellion, Cavan Blazers, Warsaw, early stores (Choate, Lakehurst, Buckhorn), farming, cheese factories, Young's Point, Keene, the lumber industry, and the Chemong Bridge.

This fonds consists of a number of issues of a handwritten newspaper, written weekly by agricultural students of Colonel Samuel Strickland of Lakefield, Canada West. The issues are scattered and topics covered include agriculture, local events, local gossip, and politics. Also included are four letters of George M. Douglas relating to the newspaper.

This item is a photograph album with captions describing the harvesting of wild rice by Indigenous people on Rice Lake.