By Nicole Adams, Local History and Genealogy Librarian at the Oshawa Public Library
Exploring history from home has never been easier. We have been building our online collections for years and are always looking for new ways to engage the community and build our knowledge.
Digitized Collections at Internet Archive
We are in the process of digitizing some gems from our local history collection and are making them available online through the Internet Archive. A particular highlight is the Oshawa City Directories from 1921-1969. City directories contain a wealth of information for genealogists, researchers, and everyday history enthusiasts. These books tell the story of our past by including names and information about residents as well as businesses in Oshawa through the years. Inside you’ll find addresses and occupations of householders, complete business directories, and much more
This is your first step to finding newspaper articles in our collection. We have not yet scanned all our papers and made them available online, but this index lets you search for a topic or person and get the dates when articles or notices about them appeared in the Oshawa papers. Usually, we can scan and email scans to you. However, the actual papers are still on microfilm which we can only access when the library is open, so requests will be filled once we re-open to the public.
The Oshawa Museum has made the earliest newspapers, from 1862 to 1930, available online through the Canadian Community Digital Archives. The Oshawa Public Library will be working to continue this project and provide access to Oshawa’s newspapers from 1930 to 1970.
Globe and Mail Newspaper Archive
Since our newspapers are not yet online, a great resource to help fill in the gaps is the Globe and Mail Newspaper Archive, which you can access for free with your Oshawa Library card.
Don’t have a card yet? Get one now!
We maintain a growing photograph collection of historical events, places, and people of Oshawa. Explore the collection, leave comments or questions and help to build our image collection by donating copies or scans of your photographs.
Do you ever wonder exactly where old Oshawa photos were taken and what the area looks like now? Using #HistoryPin we have pinned some of our images of old Oshawa to Google Street View, so that you can scroll back through time. You can also add images of your own to the project.
Research Inquiries
If you require assistance in pursuing or identifying local history or genealogy information available within the Oshawa collection, you are invited to submit a request https://oshlib.ca/contact
Contact:
Nicole Adams
Local History and Genealogy Librarian
Oshawa Public Libraries, Local History Room
65 Bagot Street, Oshawa, ON L1N 1N2
905-579-6111 ext. 5243
Durham Region Area Archives Group 