What are archives?

​Archives are the places that house the historical records of an organization or person that are deemed to be of value.

Why use archives?

​Archives provide researchers and the general public with continued access to historically significant documents. Archives keep the past alive and allow us to revisit it, providing us with access to documents that offer a multiplicity of insights that can help us better understand the present moment in some way. In academia, archives are especially critical, providing scholars with direct access to primary documents that can assist their ongoing research.

John M. Kelly Library Archives

This project would not have been possible without the archival collections at the John M. Kelly library. The John M. Kelly archives are exceptionally robust in the areas of Christianity and Catholicism and included the collections most relevant to our research: the Henri J.M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection, the Sheila Watson fonds, and the Marshall McLuhan Collection. These collections inspired our project and reminded us of the immense knowledge housed in, and thus the importance of protecting, our universities archives.
 
Link to John M Kelly special collection: ​https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/library/collections-2/special-collections/
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