Langley’s archives offer a glimpse into the community’s history, but moreover it offers a glimpse into its people’s past.
Many people go looking for family photos, an obituary, information about local organizations, or details about the property their house sits on?
If so, archives are a great place to start, suggested Langley Centennial Museum curator Kobi Christian, who noted there are nearly 200 archival institutions like Langley’s that exist throughout the province.
Archives – collections of historical documents and records – have been compiled by the museum since the facility’s early beginnings and are a central part of its work, she explained.
One of the first community museums in Canada to digitize interviews of its oral history collection, the museum also has digital media, film, and sound recordings in its collection, in addition to traditional paper-based records and photographs.
Among those are back issues of the Langley Advance (now Langley Advance Times), the community newspaper which has proudly been serving Langley since 1931.
All the various forms of archives are accessible to anyone doing research, Christian said.
“Staff at the museum like to think of archival materials as just one part of a larger function: the provision of community history resources,” she added. “Newspaper clippings files, microfiche reels of the local papers, and a growing library of local history publications are also available for use.”
If the museum doesn’t have the information people are looking for, staff can usually point them in the right direction or help them start their research online, Christian elaborated.
Langley Centennial Museum’s archive collection, which includes a database of cemetery records, can be searched online at museum.tol.ca/museum/Portal/explore.aspx.
Anyone with a topic they are interested in researching or a question they would like help in answering can contact the Langley Centennial Museum at curator@tol.ca or 604-532-3536.
