CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Historical documents and artifacts belonging to St. Peter’s Cathedral will soon be available digitally thanks to the hard work and dedication of some of its congregational members.
The members of the St. Peter’s Cathedral archive committee took it upon themselves 12 years ago to begin the tedious project of sorting through all of the documents and artifacts that were previously stored in the church tower.
The church, located in downtown Charlottetown, has archives dating back to when it was built in 1869.
“For almost 150 years, they have been opening the door, throwing the stuff in and then shutting the door quick,” said Michael Smitherman, chairman of the archive committee. “When it all came down here, it was in garbage bags.”
Soon, all of those documents and artifacts will be digitized on a website thanks to funding provided by Library and Archives Canada (LAC).
It recently announced funding to 39 projects across Canada, including $99,558 to St. Peter’s Cathedral to help preserve its archives.
The money is part of a two-year project with the majority of the funds going towards hiring a part-time consultant archivist to work with the archive committee to catalogue, preserve, digitize and prepare periodic displays of priority archival documents.
The website will be available sometime in 2019, in celebration of the church’s 150th anniversary.
“If you don’t know your past, you cannot move forward. If you know the history of your church, for instance, then this to me motivates you to build on what was in the past and to be at least as good as the people that built the church.”
-Michael Smitherman
Smitherman, who is 90 years old, is one of the original members of the archives committee.
When the committee formed in 2006, members had their work cut out for them. They had to bring down bag after bag of documents and artifacts to the basement of St. Peter’s Cathedral to begin sifting through all of the uncatalogued documentation.
They started by dividing the documents into decades, beginning in the 1860s.
“What we have been doing over the last 12 years is sorting through all the documents, cleaning up some of them that were pretty dirty with soot, getting them in some kind of order and also into some kind of protection.”
They are now protected in archival grey boxes and filing cabinets in a room that is temperature regulated.
The documents and artifacts range from copies of sermons and private correspondence to photos of reverends and field holy communion kits.
The committee started off with 10 members, but now there are only four members who meet once a week to continue sorting through the documentation.
Smitherman says he has enjoyed being part of this committee.
“I have always been interested in history,” said Smitherman with a smile. “I like trying to make the connections with people in the past and what they accomplished.”
Smitherman also feels it’s important to preserve history.
“If you don’t know your past, you cannot move forward. If you know the history of your church, for instance, then this to me motivates you to build on what was in the past and to be at least as good as the people that built the church.”
Smitherman says there will be opportunities for volunteers in coming years to manage the archives since archives are always coming in.
“Archives itself is a living thing,” said Smitherman. “You have to, every once in a while, go over the stuff you have and if it perhaps is no longer relevant, you have to decide whether it’s time for it to go or whether it’s too valuable to go and should be kept for all of time.”
