Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery

ca. 170 metres of textual records

1446 reels of microfilm (textual records)

ca. 84,000 photographs

11 film reels

61 videocassettes

Fonds consists of records collected by the Multicultural History Society of Ontario.

The first 53 series are comprised of photographs. Each series represents a different ethnic group and each sub-series a different donor or subject based collection. The remainder of the fonds (Series 54 to 85) is made up of textual materials, with each series also arranged by ethnic group, each group representing a series.

Photographs in the fonds include original prints, copy and contact prints, photocopies, slides, original and copy negatives. The photographs depict people, activities and events representing fifty-three ethnic and cultural groups within Ontario, from the late nineteenth century to 1980. Subjects include portraits of individuals, employment activities, religious activities, entertainment and organizations.

The fonds includes textual records of individuals and organizations, arranged according to ethnic or cultural group. This material consists of correspondence, diaries, newspapers, organisational files, certificates and ephemera pertaining to nationalist, religious, political, and social activities of individuals and organizations of the various ethnic groups.

Fonds also includes a small amount of motion picture film and video.

Ethnic groups represented in the fonds are arranged under the following series headings: Americans, Armenians, Austrians, Belgians, Blacks, Bulgarians, Byelorussians, Chinese, Croatians, Czechs, Danish, Dutch, Estonians, Filipinos, Finnish, Franco-Ontarians, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians, Islamic, Italians, Japanese, Jewish, Koreans, Latvians, Lebanese, Lithuanians, Macedonians, Maltese, Melkite, Mennonite, Miscellaneous, Native Peoples, Norwegians, Pakistani, Polish, Portuguese, Romanians, Russians, Scandinavians, Scottish, Sephardic, Serbians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Spanish, Sri Lankans, Swedish, Swiss, Turkish, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, and Welsh.

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO) is a not-for-profit educational institution which collects, describes and maintains material related to the ethnic and cultural development of Ontario.

Click on the link(s) below for more information.

Multicultural History Society of Ontario

Some access restrictions apply for photographic portion of fonds. Consult sub-series descriptions for details.

Copyright held by creator. These materials cannot be published without permission of the copyright holder. See sub-series descriptions for copyright statements.

Fonds includes 1446 reels of microfilm arranged according to ethnic group. Please consult series level descriptions for details. Microfilm is shelved in the Reading Room according to an "MFN" number series.

Some of the photographs from this fonds are available in digital format in the Archives of Ontario Visual Database. Consult the series level descriptions for more information.

Accession numbers 14955, 15203, 21210, 25983

Inventories, based mainly on ethnic group, have been created for various portions of this fonds. Descriptions of photographic series and sub-series are available in the Archives Descriptive Database. Refer to individual sub-series for the availability of online lists. Textual records have several inventories based on ethnic group, and an overall appended index.

The Description Hierarchy button above shows the records described on this page in the hierarchical context of the collection to which they belong. This structure will appear below and your current position within the hierarchy will be identified in the list by highlighted text. You can use this button to navigate through the different levels of description (e.g. fonds, series, sub-series, files and items, as applicable).

For fonds, collections and series with an online listing, select the Description Hierarchy button to view lower levels of description including files or items within the collection.

For files and items, select the Description Hierarchy button to see related files and items within the same group of records as well as higher levels of description that make up the hierarchical context.