A guide to citing archival records from the Archives of Ontario.
Citing your Sources
The Department of History prefers that students use Turabian citation style in your essays. This style is published in Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Copies of this manual are available at the Chancellor Paterson Library, or at the Bookstore.
Citing a journal article:
Cook, Terry. 1997. What's Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift. Archivaria 43: 17-63.
Citing an archival document:
It is important to cite archival records in a way that they can be found again by other researchers, particularly as they are usually unique items that cannot be found elsewhere.
Citations of archival records should include:
Author or creator's name
Title or description of item
Date of the document's creation
Collection name
Box number and file number
Repository name (all uses of archival records should credit Lakehead University Archives)
An example in Turabian style:
Memorandum from the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers, 1965, Box 4, File 2, Douglas Fisher Fonds, Lakehead University Archives.
Citing an archival resource found online:
Cite the archival record as you would ordinarily, then add the reference URL and date accessed at the end of the citation, as you would for other web resources.
