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"Report concerning the Canada Archives"/ "Rapport concernant les Archives canadiennes", Ottawa, 1904-1935.
Title of the report varied, for example: Report concerning the Canadian Archives / Rappport concernant les Archives canadienne (1904, 1905); Report of the Work of the Archives Branch (1908, 1910, 1912)/ Rapport sur les travaux de la division des Archives (1908, 1909, 1910, 1912); Report of the Work of the Public Archives / Rapport sur les travaux relatifs aux Archives publiques (1913, 1914 and 1915); and Report of the Public Archives / Rapport des Archives publiques (1917 and 1918, 1921, 1922 and 1923, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935).
A.G. Doughty as Dominion Archivist submitted an official report on the Canadian archives to Parliament almost annually from 1904 to 1934 through the minister responsible for the Archives. These were published by the King's Printer in both languages.
Not all of the annual reports of the archives were presented as a stand-alone publication. In his first two reports, those for 1904 and 1905, Doughty set out his vision for the archives and its programs. As his attention then shifted to publishing extensive volumes of documents, the formal report on the archives became a brief note ranging from a few paragraphs to a few pages included as a subsection under the "Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada" (1906, 1907, 1909). Reports, for up to and including 1923, with appendices as applicable, were printed as Sessional Papers.
While the format of the report may have changed over the years, the Archivist provided the Minister of Agriculture, and after 1911, the Secretary of State, an overview of the work and activities of the archives for a specific reporting period, generally over the past year(s). These reports highlighted important milestones including, for example, the mandate and vision for the archives, the acquisition of state and private papers, and the new archives building. The annual reports of his predecessors presented calendars of important documents, largely being copied overseas, but Doughty preferred publishing the full texts and these made up the bulk of his often voluminous reports. Distributed widely to libraries, they opened new areas for serious study. The influential series on the constitutional documents was first published in English as Volume III to Report concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905 and the "Calendar of the Durham Papers" appeared as Appendix B to the combined report for 1922 and 1923,
The reports published as stand-alone publications as well as the reports appearing in the Sessional Papers were reviewed in both print and digital formats. Print copies held by Queen's University were reviewed; select images are pictured above. Digital copies available through Canadiana, and Internet Archive (archive.org) were also reviewed.
See Also: Caron-Houle, Françoise,"List of Archives Reports with Reference to Activities", Guide to the reports of the Public Archives of Canada, 1872-1972, Ottawa: Information Canada, 1975, pp. 12-14; and Caron-Houle, Françoise, "Liste des rapports des Achives et des rapports d'activities", Guide des Rapports des Archives publiques du Canada, 1872-1972, Ottawa: Information Canada, 1975, pp. 12-14.
[Martin, Chester], Index to Reports of Canadian Archives from 1872 to 1908, Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 1, Ottawa: C.H. Parmelee, 1909; and [Martin, Chester], Index aux rapports de la division des Archives canadiennes depuis 1872 jusqu'à 1908, Publication de la division des archives canadiennes, No. 1, Ottawa: C. H. Parmelee, 1910.
