Series comprises the administrative records of the Charles Camsell History Committee, as well as historical records collected by the Committee to write the book The Camsell Mosaic. These records include minutes, correspondence, reports, publications, maps, newspaper clippings, photographs, audiotapes, cinefilms, and a videocassette.

This series relates largely to the administration of parishes, missions and other localities within the Province of Alberta-Saskatchewan, covering the area of Alberta and portions of western Saskatchewan. The records in this series vary according to each mission and parish, but can include codices historici which are daily journals written by the Oblates about the parishes and missions and its surrounding communities, libri animarum which are records of families, histories of given names, dates of births and deaths and marriages accumulated by Oblates, correspondence with the Provincial or the Bursar, correspondence with the local diocese, property and land records, financial reports and accounts, list of personnel, histories of the parish, newsletters, church bulletins, diaries, press clippings and scrapbooks.

Community material can include brochures, censuses, interviews, records of construction, press clippings, advertisements, articles, local planning or committee records, newsletters, genealogy records, project files, weather related material, school yearbooks, bulletins, and pamphlets specific to the locale.

The series also includes textual records and images of various Indian Residential Schools and their surrounding communities, such as Assumption, Brocket, Cardston, Cluny, Desmarais, Fort Chipewyan, Grouard, Dunbow, Hobbema [Maskwacis], Joussard, St Albert, Blue Quills, and Sturgeon Lake in Alberta. As well, some records relate to the following Saskatchewan schools, Delmas, Duck Lake, Onion Lake, as well as St. Patrick’s orphanage at Prince Albert.

The series includes numerous photographs, negatives and transparencies of local communities, subjects and activities. These include images of missions and churches and convents, residential schools, hospitals, buildings, industry and settlements. Images relate to members of the communities, students, teachers, clergy and nuns. Events include family and community celebrations, religious events, marriages, sports such as hockey, skiing, diving and ice carving, activities such as the Queen’s visit, the Papal visit, gardening, floods, oil work, burials, fires and other experiences of the communities.

The records pertain to the following locations: Albertville, SK, Aldina, SK, Ardmore, AB, Assumption, AB, Athabasca, AB, Athabasca Landing, AB, Atmore, AB, Banff, AB, Barnegat, AB, Barrhead, AB, Batoche, SK, Battleford, SK, Beacon Hill, SK, Bear Lake, BC, Beaver Crossing, SK, Beaver Lake, AB, Belloy, AB, Big River, SK, Blackfoot Crossing, AB, Black Lake, SK, Bonnyville, AB, Boyle, AB, Breynat, AB, Brocket, AB, Brosseau, AB, Buffalo River, NWT, Cabana, SK, Calgary, AB, Calling Lake, AB, Canmore, AB, Canyon Creek, AB, Cardston, AB, Carlton, SK, Carstairs, AB, Chauvin, AB, Christopher Lake, SK, Cluny, AB, Cochin, SK, Cochrane, AB, Cold Lake, AB, Crowsnest Pass, AB, Cut Knife, SK, Dapp, AB, Delmas, SK, Denholm, SK, Desmarais, AB, Donnelly, AB, Driftpile, AB, Duck Lake, SK, Duhamel, AB, Dunbow, AB, Dunvegan, AB, Edmonton, AB, Edson, AB, Egg Lake, AB, Eleske, AB, Elizabeth Colony, AB, Elk Point, AB, Faith, AB, Faust, AB, Fish Creek, AB, Fishing Lake, AB, Fond du Lac, SK, Fort des Prairies, AB, Fort Kent, AB, Fort MacLeod, AB, Fort McMurray, AB, Flat Lake, AB, Frenchman’s Butte, SK, Frog Lake, SK, Gleichen, AB, Goodfish Lake, AB, Goodridge, AB, Grand Centre, AB, Grande Cache, AB, Green Lake, SK, Grouard, AB, Gunnar, SK, Gurneyville, AB, Hafford, SK, Hinton, AB, Hobbema [Maskwacis], AB, Holyoke, AB, Hussar, AB, Ile-à-la-Crosse, SK, Jackfish Lake, AB, Joussard, AB, Kikino, AB, Kinuso, AB, Lac Athabasca, AB, Lac Athabasca, SK, Lac Brochet, MB, Lac Caribou, MB, Lac-en-Long, AB, Lac La Biche, AB, Lac La Nonne, AB, Lac La Salle, SK, La Corey, AB, Lac Ste-Anne, AB, Lac Vert, SK, Lafond, AB, Lashburn, SK, Lebret, SK, Leduc, AB, Legal, AB, Le Goff, AB, Lethbridge, AB, Linaria, AB, Maidstone, SK, Maillardville, BC, Makwa Sud, SK, Mallaig, AB, Marshall, SK, McLennan, AB, McLeod, AB, Meadow Lake, SK, Medicine Hat, AB, Midnapore, AB, Milo, AB, Morinville, AB, Muskeg Lake, SK, New Kiew, AB, North Battleford, SK, Okotoks, AB, Onion Lake, SK, Ouelletteville, AB, Paddle Prairie, AB, Philomena, AB, Paradise Hill, SK, Park Valley, SK, Pascal, SK, Paynton, SK, Peace River, AB, Pickardville, AB, Pincher Creek, AB, Plamondon, AB, Poundmaker, SK, Prince Albert, SK, Radway, AB, Red Deer, AB, Richard, SK, Rivière-Qui-Barre, AB, Saddle Lake, AB, St-Albert, AB, St-Antoine, SK, St-Brides, AB, St-Cyr, AB, St-Edouard, AB, St-Joachim, AB, St-Laurent, SK, St-Lina, AB, St-Paul, AB, St-Paul des Métis, AB, St-Vincent, AB, Sarcee Reserve, AB, Saskatoon, SK, Shell River, SK, Smoky Lake, AB, Spirit River, AB, Standoff, AB, Star City, SK, Stony Rapids, SK, Sturgeon Lake, AB, Sweet Grass, SK, Taber, AB, Thérien, AB, Trappers Lake, AB, Trochu, AB, Vancouver, BC, Vegreville, AB, Venice, AB, Vermilion, AB, Victoire, SK, Vimy, AB, Wabamun, AB, Wabasca, AB, Wakaw, SK, Warspite, AB, Waseca, SK, Waugh, AB, Westlock, AB, Wetaskiwin, AB, Whitecourt, AB, White Star, SK, and Winterburn, AB.

This sub-series consists of various publications from Alberta and Saskatchewan, and includes periodicals such as yearbooks, “Entre Nous,” “Études oblates,” “First Nations periodical,” “Indian Record,” “Kainai News,” “La Revue du Sacré-Coeur (Kitchitwa Miteh),” “La Voix,” “Le Canada Ecclésiastique,” “Le canadien-français,” “Le Franco,” “Les cloches de St-Boniface,” “Message de l’Immaculée,” “Missions de la congrégation des Missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée,” “Monthly Cree Review (in Syllabics),” “Nuna. Inuinain Makperaksan. Magazine for Eskimos,” “Revue apostolique de Marie Immaculée,” “Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française,” “The Camsell Arrow,” “The Evening Journal,” “The Indian Missionary Record,” “The Native People,” “Vie indienne,” and “Western Catholic Reporter.”

This series consists of photographs, negatives, slides and transparencies of various subjects taken in or related to the communities of Canada in the Province of Alberta-Saskatchewan. The images were created or collected by the Oblates in the course of their administrative work or personal lives, and the records often reflect their secular interests. The breadth of the subject matter is immense and unique and documents many aspects of western and northern Canada and its peoples. Subjects may include Oblates and religious actors in the various communities, missions, as well as religious events and activities.

The images show communities and activities and include local landscapes, indigenous camps, missions, waterways, fauna, fishing, churches and buildings, indigenous people and families, transportation, hunting, fur trade, trapping, colleges and schools, Indian Residential Schools and students, museums, sports, industries and farming. There are also visiting cards, stereograph cards, school albums and scrapbooks.

The subjects also focus specifically on the various communities the Oblates served in the geographic area of Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, as well as France, Italy, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

This sub-series consists of administrative records of the Provincial of the Province of Alberta-Saskatchewan, in dealings with bishops, vicars and communities of religious women, those administrators of dioceses, archdioceses, vicariates and other bodies. The records in this sub-series consist of correspondence, circulars and memoranda on spiritual and theological issues, business matters and concerns in the communities related to education, finances and individuals.

The topics of the records vary according to the bodies involved, but specifically, the records deal with some common themes, including administrative concerns and pastoral duties, diocesan and ecclesiastical affairs, the administration of the missions, residential schools and the parishes, conflicts between Anglophones and Francophones, as well as the day to day administrative work of these bodies and their interactions with the Oblates.

Oblate Run, Operating Dates: 1893-1970s
The mission at Lac La Biche was established in the 1850s, with a school attended by Indigenous children established shortly after. Roman Catholic missionaries established a boarding school at Lac la Biche in 1891, and this became a residential school known as Notre Dame des Victoires (or Lac La Biche Mission school). This school ran from 1893 until 1898, at which point the school buildings were moved to the Saddle Lake First Nation, and the school was renamed Blue Quills. The residential school was relocated once more in 1931 to a location near St. Paul, Alberta. The school was operated by the Oblates until the 1970s, after which Blue Quills become Canada’s first residential school controlled by First Nations people.

The records consist of histories in French and English about the Saint-Emile Parish of Legal and the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) in Legal, as well as images of Legal, including a tractor, farm machinery, church interiors and exteriors, a log cabin, and lumbering. There are also photographs that depict Aboriginal children at the Blue Quills Residential School of Saint-Paul between 1959 and 1966, and group portraits, snapshots, and depictions of school events and groups such as the Sea Cadets. Some of the subjects are identified and all of these photos are dated. The material covers the period from the beginning of 20th century to 1994.