Archival Collections

The archives currently holds approximately 100 collections (material created or collected by one individual, family, company or organization). Interesting material can also be found in our ephemera collection, miscellaneous items that were donated individually, rather than as part of a collection.
Our ledgers primarily contain business records of stores, ranches or mining companies. We also have guest registers for hotels and road houses.
Our map collection is focused on mining and community development in the Quesnel area.

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Quesnel and the Cariboo have been served by a number of newspapers over the years.
- The Cariboo Sentinel (Barkerville) 1865 - 1875
- The Ashcroft Journal 1895 - 1906
- The Cariboo Observer (Quesnel) 1908 - the present
- The Quesnel Advertiser/Northern Pictorial 1953 - 1960
- The Quesnel Nugget 1980 - 1982
- The Quesnel Barker 1984 - 1986
- The Quesnel Advocate 1994 - 1998
- The Quesnel Advisor 2002 - 2010
News of the Cariboo was also reported in the British Colonist in Victoria 1858- 1980
A fairly complete run of these papers are available in our archives. Three of these papers are now searchable on line.
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- The Quesnel Museum has copies of interviews preserved at the BC Archives to provide local access to researchers. The memories of many of the subjects reach back to the 19th or early 20th Century. (Researchers must contact the BC Archives to obtain copies).
- Local historian Branwen Patenaude conducted interviews during the 1970s and 1980s, primarily focused on the road houses of the Cariboo Wagon Road.
- In 2006 the Friends of the Museum initiated a project to interview seniors and long-time residents, recording their life stories and memories of Quesnel.
- Video interviews have been recorded with local Chinese and First Nations Elders and pioneers of Quesnel’s Indo-Canadian community.
- A Canada 150 project documented the growth of social services and community organization in Quesnel since the 1960s through interviews with key participants.
We are working to index these interviews and integrate them in the searchable database.
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There are over 25,000 photographic images in the collection. The development of Quesnel is documented from the 1860s to the present. The collection includes portraits of area residents and records social and recreational activities, the development of transportation, agriculture, forestry and mining in the region. The images have been digitized and indexed so that they can be easily searched and accessed at the archives. Contact us to make an appointment or for more information.
View sample images from our most significant Photography Collections
Some of the publications available for use in the archives include:
- Cariboo and Northwest Digest 1945 - 1960
- Catalogues: Eaton's 1927,1931,1952, 1965-7, 1969-76 and Sears 1959,1965-86, 1991-2, 2000, 2002
- Local Author's Collection
- Locally produced Cook Book Collection
- Magazines: Children's Activities for Home and School Dec. 1938 - June 1944; Girls Own Paper & Woman's Magazine intermittent issues 1893 - 1917, 1918 - 1922; Good Housekeeping intermittent issues 1925-1949
- Ministry of Mines Annual Reports 1874 - 2001
- Quesnel Phone books 1960 - present
- Ruth McClounie Collection of Elementary School Books used in BC Schools
- Yearbooks of local schools: Cariboo Secondary School 1961-2, 1968; Correlieu Secondary School 1982-3,1987-1993, 1995-1998, 2018-19; Maple Drive Junior Secondary School 1979-1984, 1986-2003; Quesnel Secondary School 1951-2, 1954-60, 1966, 1968-9, 1971; Wells Barkerville School 1975, 1977-78