Nova Scotia Archives

Communities

Nova Scotia is know for its pride of place and community spirit.

     



The Way We Were: Nova Scotia in Film, 1917-1950

Calling all early film and home-movie fans! From the extensive collection of archival footage held at the Nova Scotia Archives, we've selected 87 films that highlight the first forty years of amateur and professional filmmaking in Nova Scotia. Watch the Virtual Cinema here on our Website or on our new YouTube channel…. You'll be amazed and amused at what you find!


Fishing Fundy Waters

A selection of 44 black-and-white photographs from the early 1950s, honouring and celebrating the people of southwestern Nova Scotia and the work of John Collier Jr., one of America's leading twentieth-century photographers.


Photographs by A.E. Cornwall, Hantsport and Area collected by B.R. Alexander

Photographer A. E. Cornwall gives us a vibrant view into life in Hantsport and its surrounds at the turn of the century, capturing the people and industry of these thriving communities both in formal portraiture and in more casual shots.


New Ross: From Family to Community

Correspondence, newspaper clippings, deeds, etc. accumulated by Captain William Ross, the diaries of Edward Ross, the second son of William and Mary, and land papers relating to the military settlement and the property in New Ross.


Nova Scotia Community Albums: Coward Album, Bridgetown

Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to be part of the Nova Scotia Community Albums project. The Coward Album of Bridgetown includes photographs and postcards of houses, businesses, churches, County Home, streetscapes, school and students, individuals, vessels, bridges, cartoons, buggies, horse racing (1890s) and snow drifts following the great snowstorm in 1905.


Nova Scotia Community Albums: Letson Album, Port Medway

Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to be part of the Nova Scotia Community Albums project. The Letson photograph album of prints held at the Nova Scotia Archives depicts buildings, houses, and properties in the village of Port Medway, Queens County, Nova Scotia.


Nova Scotia from the Air: The Richard McCully Aerial Photograph Collection, 1931

You've never seen Nova Scotia like this before….!  Join Harold Reid and Marty Fraser as they fly over Nova Scotia during the summer of 1931, taking aerial photographs along the way – 221 black-and-white images showing 39 different communities from Amherst to Yarmouth, and across from Truro to Halifax and down the South Shore. Maybe your own home property is included!


Township Records at the Nova Scotia Archives

Detailed information about the contents of 34 township books or record collections  documenting the early history and founding families of Nova Scotia's oldest English-speaking communities. Use this database to plan in-depth family or community history research, and visit the Selected Items section to explore original documents digitized for online viewing.


'Seeing Yarmouth': Celebrating 250 Years of Community Life

Hop aboard the 'Seeing Yarmouth' touring car from the early 1900s and take a drive around town! Over 60 historical photographs, presented here in a partnership with the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives to celebrate the community's 250th Anniversary.


An Acadian Parish Reborn

Calling all those with family links to Yarmouth County! Explore this wonderfully rich research product created by the Argyle Township Court House and Archives, and hosted on this website — a searchable database providing the names of all Roman Catholics baptized, married or buried, 1799-1849, in the predominantly Acadian French township of Argyle.


Lunenburg by the Sea

Take a second look at this virtual exhibit from 2003 – we've added an 88-page souvenir booklet, Lunenburg by the Sea: Views of Lunenburg Nova Scotia, published back in 1896 when the Academy on the hill was new!


Chipman Family Papers: Planters of Cornwallis

The year 2010 marks the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the New England Planters in Nova Scotia. To celebrate this milestone, we are pleased to present an online resource built around the Chipman family papers, one of the largest and most significant document collections surviving from the Planter period.


'Canada's Ocean Playground': The Tourism Industry in Nova Scotia, 1870-1970

Take an armchair vacation back in time! Nine virtual exhibits present 6700 digitized images for you to explore — historical photographs, film clips, graphic art and dozens of early travel brochures, timetables and guidebooks, all telling the story of tourism's first century in Nova Scotia. View the Cabot Trail under construction, canoe the backwoods with Mi'kmaq guides, take a tour of Keltic Lodge, and much more. 'Ciad Mile Failte' ... Enjoy!


Nova Scotia Information Service

We're pleased to present this significant searchable image database for you to explore — 2200 photographs, 1945 to 1970, capturing Nova Scotia and its people at mid-century, plus a selection of eye-catching colour film clips produced in the 1950s and 60s.


Halifax and Its People / 1749-1999

This is our first virtual exhibit, developed to commemorate Halifax's 250th anniversary. It presents some 150 images from our holdings, with accompanying captions and text, and is designed as an educational, reference and general-interest tool.


Ports and Harbours

Take a time-tour of Nova Scotia's ports and harbours, via photographs, artworks, postcards, sea charts and early government records. Explore at least three centuries of the interface between land and sea, from Mi'kmaq petroglyphs to colour photographs, featuring wharves, shipping piers, shipyards and slipways, customs houses and merchants' stores, fishing fleets, fish plants, ferry services and all manner of related activities carried out at the water's edge.


Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia

Published in 1967, and still the best source available for basic, reliable and easily accessed information about Nova Scotia's cities, towns and villages. Over 2300 entries, searchable by community name or by county. Each entry provides community highlights, including first settlement, first churches, first schools, primary industries, significant events and notable citizens.


Cape Breton Island Petitions 1787-1843

Search this database to access the personal names and information contained in 3,340 petitions from Cape Breton Island (1787-1843).


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Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/virtual/

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