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Please note that the Archives of Ontario remains open to the public during the ongoing labour disruption taking place at York University involving staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

Picket lines may be set up at York University roadway entrances and your arrival may be delayed. Please check your local transit websites for the most up-to-date information and any temporary changes in bus stops.


Please note the Archives of Ontario will be closed at the following times:
•   March 29 – Good Friday
•   April 1 – Easter Monday


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You can search our archival, library, and art collections in one place.
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If you have inquiries, please reach out to us by email at reference@ontario.ca or by phone at 416-327-1600 / 1-800-668-9933 Toll-Free Number (Ontario only).

Click to know more about Family History
 

Follow this link to learn how to trace your family history using the records held by the Archives of Ontario

 
Click to know more about Education
 

The Archives of Ontario brings education to life with resources and online lesson plans

 
Click to know about What We Have
 

Explore the Archives' collections using our research guides and various Databases

At Centre Stage...



Moses Brantford Jr. Leading an Emancipation Day parade down Dalhousie Street, Amherstburg, Ontario, [ca. 1894]

The Archives of Ontario is pleased to launch its new online exhibit “Slavery and Abolition in Upper Canada.” The exhibit is a refresh and a reframing of the Archives’ 2007 exhibit “Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada.” We hope that through this exhibit, we can encourage a greater understanding of the history of slavery and the lasting impact it has had on Black communities in the province.

A cardboard box with a mini-inflatable, light wand, iron-on patch, magnet, deck of playing cards, pin, customized ViewMaster, postcard book, air freshener, exhibition catalog and poster.

How do archives become art? Find out by visiting the exhibition Archives by Artists, on now in our Reading Room. Curated by the DisplayCult collaborative Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher, the exhibition features the work of Canadian and international artists who have imaginatively rethought the archive from the 1960s to the present.

Image: Nick Cave and Bob Faust, Nick Cave: Soundsuits Boxfolio, 2006. Photo: James Prinz, courtesy of the artists.

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Indigenous communities, organizations or family members trying to locate death records, or registrations of deaths, for children who attended Indian Residential Schools can now request a search for death records at no cost through the new centralized one-window process. Learn more here.

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Find thousands of high-resolution images from our collections on Wikimedia Commons through our GLAM-Wiki webpage .  All images are free to use, but we ask that you please credit the Archives of Ontario.