Algoma (Ont. : District)

Elizabeth ("Betty") Buchanan received her Masters and PhD from McMaster University. Her work focuses on kinship ties, community, and rural life in Northern Ontario. She lived much of her life in Dayton, Ontario - a rural farming community in Huron Shores, Township. Buchanan was involved in a number of local organizations including the Iron Bridge Historical Museum Committee. It should also be noted here that her maiden name was Sills, which is the name her thesis was published under. Within the fonds she uses both names interchangeably depending on the time period.

The Algoma Herbarium was founded in the late 1960’s by botany faculty at Algoma College, currently Algoma University (AU). The herbarium contains over 2,000 plant specimens and is housed at the university’s main campus in the Essar Convergence Centre labs, Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario.

The AU herbarium is operated and maintained by student interns and volunteers, and thus functions primarily as an educational tool, with many specimens being donated by the courses taught at the university. In addition to donations from AU students, the herbarium has also accepted specimens from faculty collections, such as the Antunes Lab. The AU herbarium contains over 80 years of data, with its oldest specimen dating to 1940. The majority of the collection represents species from the Algoma district in Northern Ontario.

This archive contains photos and written records of the specimens comprising the AU herbarium collection. These data have been made available for the purpose of completing research projects in fields such as conservation, invasive species management, and genome sequencing. Please direct any inquiries to Shannon Rowell-Garvon (Shannon.rowell-garvon@algomau.ca), who currently manages the herbarium and supervises all interns and volunteers.

This oral history project was organized through Algoma University College and funded by the Federal Government. The recordings took place in the Winter/Spring of 1970.