Fort Malden National Historic Park Archives Guide
Description
Since its establishment in 1941, and particularly during its early years of operation, Fort Malden National Historic Park has acquired variety of manuscript materials, both relevant and irrelevant to its themes. In keeping with the early procedures for the receipt of items into the collections, much of this material is in the form of now untraceable loans, creating potentially permanent custodial situation. Whether thematically relevant or irrelevant, much of the material is historically invaluable and there exists an ethical obligation for its proper care and accessibility to legitimate researchers.
Through grant from the 1983 Career Oriented Summer Employment Programme (COSEP), the proper arrangement, description and storage of the archival holdings were made possible. In addition to dealing with historic documents, this project also addressed the issue of internal records related to site development and acquisitions, which are necessary in the day to day management of the Park. It was key objective to establish an effective, cost-efficient system which would satisfactorily carry out our obligations while minimizing handling costs.