The Youth Crew is for students in Grades 9 to 12 who want to earn volunteer hours or support their local library.
Youth Crew meets every Tuesday from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the Bracebridge Library. No registration is required.
SEARCH THE
LOCAL HISTORY
Resources
The Bracebridge Library’s print collection has books on and by local authors and historians. Some indexes for obituaries and cemeteries are also available.
Historical newspapers available on microfilm include:
- Northern Advocate (select papers from 1869 and 1870)
- Bracebridge Gazette (1903-1956)
- Muskoka Herald (1888-1955)
- Herald-Gazette (1957 to 1996)
- The Bracebridge Examiner (1996-2017)
Some dates may be damaged and/or missing.
Photographs and postcards include collections from multiple local authors and historians. Select photographs and postcards have been digitized and have been posted on the Muskoka Digital Archives.
Statistics and Census information available include:
- Census on microfilm for Muskoka and Parry Sound for the years 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901.
- The registers for the Muskoka Mission (1865-1875) and the Uffington Mission (1884-1923) were copied from the records of the Anglican Diocese of Algoma.
- The registers of the Nazareth Lutheran Church at Germania (1873-1994).
Additional Census information can be found through the Government of Canada.
Vertical files include newspaper clippings about people, places and events. They are organized by individual, family, and theme. Subjects can be found in the Bracebridge Library’s online catalogue.
The Muskoka Collection has archival material from multiple local authors and historians. The collection includes material from:
- Redmond Thomas Collection: 7 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, ephemera, and photographs.
- Dorothy Coate Collection: notes, photographs and clippings about people, places and events from Rosseau and surrounding areas.
- Lillie M. Johnson Collection: 2 microfilm reels consisting of clippings about people and events (1933-1963).
- Gladys Bennett Collection: dramatic scripts and newspaper clippings by a locally well-known newspaper columnist, teacher, and world traveller.
- Working notes for A Good Town Continues (2000), including material that was not published.
- Woodchester Villa Scrapbooks on the history of the Bird family and the creation of the Woodchester Villa Museum.
Rene Caisse and Essiac
Rene M. Caisse (1888-1978) was a Bracebridge resident who worked as a nurse and researcher. She famously developed Essiac, a drinkable herbal remedy. The name Essiac is the letters of Rene’s last name spelled backwards. She practised from her cancer clinic on Dominion Street in Bracebridge from 1934 to 1942. The Bracebridge Library is proud to house a collection of donated documents, correspondence, photographs, and more that pertain to Rene Caisse and her research. Thank you to Misty McPherson for the donation.
The Living History Project
The Bracebridge Library, through funding provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, created The Living History Project in 2011. The library has 80 recordings from Bracebridge residents who share their family history, memories, and experiences. While these recordings are not available for checkout, they can be listened to at the library upon request.
Tweedsmuir Scrapbooks
The Tweedsmuir Scrapbooks contain histories collected by the Women’s Institutes of South Macaulay, Bracebridge, and Haystack Bay (Lake of Bays). These histories provide invaluable information for researchers and people interested in local history.
Muskoka’s history series on YouTube
Learn about Muskoka from local historians on the Bracebridge Library’s YouTube channel.
Videos include:
• Settling in Muskoka with Kenneth Veitch
• Muskoka’s War Memorials with Gary Denniss
• Muskokans and the Great War with Patrick Boyer
