New Brunswick Schools: A Guide to Archival Sources

Terrence Paris is Public Services Librarian at Mount St. Vincent
University in Halifax.

To help address the neglect of historical research on primary and
secondary education in New Brunswick, Moore and Schwenke, under the
direction of Ernest Forbes, have searched 24 archival repositories in
that province, and have described the primary materials—manuscripts,
official records, and correspondence—on schools and teaching. Each of
the 548 entries provides the name and local reference number of the
collection in which the materials were found, the volume and form of the
materials contained therein, the finding aids available, the dates
covered, and a brief description of historical background and content.
The entries are in either English or French, as appropriate to the
language of the majority of the materials described. The references in
the index of geographical and personal names and subjects are to the
entry numbers for particular repositories.

The guide is handsomely produced and well organized. It would have been
a pleasure to have seen more vignettes of 19th- and early 20th-century
schools and their pupils; only two old photographs are reproduced. This
guide will provide much needed assistance for all scholars researching
the social and cultural history of the Maritimes.