The Harriet Irving Library (HIL) at UNB is the repository of The Loyalist Collection, which is the largest collection of Loyalist papers in Canada. This collection contains various British, American and Canadian primary sources from c1760-1867, focusing specifically on the American Revolution and the early years of Loyalist resettlement in British North America.
The origins of The Loyalist Collection can be traced to the formation of the Programme for Loyalist Studies and Publications in the late 1960s. This initiative was an international agreement between UNB, the University of New York, the University of London, and the American Antiquarian Society to identify, list and microfilm all Loyalist primary sources in the three respective countries. By 1976, approximately 700 reels of microfilm had been deposited at the HIL.
In 1982, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) awarded the UNB library a three-year $50,000 grant to expand the collection. As a result of this grant, the aforementioned Programme, and purchases made by the UNB History Department and private donors, The Loyalist Collection grew, and there are now over 3200 microfilm reels and 700 microfiche in The Collection.
Many of the records in the collection are family papers that chronicle the Loyalist refugee experience throughout the North Atlantic world. The collection is also arranged into four other categories - church records, military records, public records, and special collections. The web address for The Loyalist Collection is www.lib.unb.ca/collections/loyalist/.
The University of New Brunswick and the LRN are indebted to UNB reference librarian Kathryn Hilder for assembling and organizing The Loyalist Collection. She is also responsible for designing and composing The Loyalist Collection Inventory, which she continues to compile in her personal time.
A recent addition to The Loyalist Collection is The Marianne Grey Otty Database, which contains vital data on NB Loyalists.
For inquiries about The Loyalist Collection, contact Christine Jack, Manager of Microforms at HIL: mic@unb.ca
For comments and suggestions about The Inventory, contact Kathryn Hilder at: hilder@unb.ca