This archival collection is composed of textual and graphic materials related to the Hudson's Bay Company, the fur trade in Canada, and early European settlement in Canada. The collection includes correspondence between high-ranking employees at Hudson's Bay Company fur trade posts, personal correspondence between settlers or Hudson's Bay Company employees and their families, and Hudson's Bay Company reports, proclamations, contracts, and others records. The involvement of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian fur trade is also described throughout this collection. With a few exceptions, most items within the collection were created during the early- to mid-1800s.
The Life, Events, and Players in the North-West is comprised of several smaller collections within Bruce Peel Special Collections that contain materials related to the history and culture of the north-west of what would become Canada.
The Frontiersmen Collection is organized by country—Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and India—and includes correspondence, financial and legal records, meeting minutes, newsletters, and a variety of military forms, as well as photographs, maps, banners, and medals. It is home to the official Charter Certificate for the founding of the Legion of Frontiersmen Canadian Division, whose headquarters are located in Edmonton. The highlight of the collection is a group of nine field diaries penned by Roger Pocock dated 1905-1917. This collection is closely related to several others housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections, specifically the Sir Samuel Benfield Steele Family Archive and the Roger Pocock Archive. It continues to grow thanks to ongoing donations.
Legion of Frontiersmen
