Graham Guest, archivist with the Northern Saskatchewan Archives, did what he does best – research, plan out, copy and digitalize a myriad of resources from northern Saskatchewan to share with community members and beyond on Archives Week, the first week of February annually.
And this year was no exception.
Guest organized six exhibits, ranging from northern Saskatchewan through to Northern Village of Air Ronge, home of the Archives.
Mel Jamieson was a trapper in the Wollaston Lake area for 40 years, where he also opened a lodge. Doreen Probert gifted the Archives with “a large collection” of Jamieson’s photographs. Jamieson’s lodge changed hands and was purchased by Sharon and Brian Elder, who owned the lodge from 1975 to 1999.
“They raised it to a five-star tourist outfitting resort,” Guest said in an interview with the Northern advocate.
After the Elder’s retired they moved to Saskatoon. Recently they came to La Ronge to the Archives to donate, what they thought would be a good museum piece, an old beaded jacket that had belonged to Jamieson.
As the area does not have a museum at the moment, Guest organized the photos into an exhibit for the archives with a side hope that a museum might be organized in the area sometime in the future.
Another exhibit featured a historic collection of photos featuring the history of Robertson Trading over the Years. Alexandra Robertson, daughter of Scott and Karen Robertson, emailed the photos to Guest, who printed enlargements of them and made a display. The photos were donated to the Archives by the Robertson family.
Another display, entitled, Lost in the Fire, feature the Saskatchewan Craft Council 2010 display, many of which were lost in the fire that destroyed Robertson Trading in June 2025.
Margaret and John Irving have been long-time historians in the La Ronge area for many years. They received the Everett Baker Award for Outstanding Community Historical Research Over the years the Irving’s have donated much of their research and models to the Archives.
The Stanley Mission fur trading, 1920s exhibit featured photos taken by Réveillon Frères post manager by Lois Dalby, who worked for the Department of Northern Saskatchewan for many years, donating much of her work to the Archives.
Kemp also wrote a book, Northern Trader, which was published in 1956. It had no illustrations.
“I offered copies of the photos to the University of Regina Press and they published the new edition in 2014 with photos,” Guest said.
Along with the displays, which lined the outside of the PNLS community room, there were tables with many large photo albums full of different collections organized over the years. Many people spent some time perusing through the binders exploring the contents throughout the week.
The Archives, housed in PNLS, are available at other times and folks can explore photographs, audio/video recordings and documents that preserve the” history and voices of northern Saskatchewan.”
Our Legacy, which is made up of digitalized northern recorded offers visitors an opportunity to explore cultural materials pertaining to northern Saskatchewan that are housed in the University of Saskatchewan digital archive.
“We are for the whole north,” Guest said, adding the Archives include collections from Uranium City, Stony Rapids, the Westside, Sandy Bay, and Cumberland House.
