Thanks to a partnership with the University of Alberta Libraries, data on grain elevators in Canada collected by the Canadian Grain Commission beginning in 1912 is now freely available online. Fully searchable, digital copies of these records from 1912 to 1998 are openly accessible via the University of Alberta Libraries’ website, Peel’s Prairie Provinces.
These records contain lists of licensed elevators, their locations and capacity in Western and Eastern Canada.
Peel’s Prairie Provinces is a website dedicated to preserving western Canadian history and Prairie culture. It features an online bibliography of books, pamphlets and other materials related to the development of the Prairies, as well as a searchable, full-text collection of many of these items.
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Digitization and hosting of the Canadian Grain Commission’s print records was provided by the University of Alberta Libraries.
Grain Elevators in Canada was first published in 1912 and is one of the Canadian Grain Commission’s oldest reports.
“Grain Elevators in Canada is a window into the history of Prairie communities,” said Christine Wallmann, an information technician with the Canadian Grain Commission.
“The history and economy of the Prairies was linked to the grain trade. Many of the requests we get for information come from community historical societies, and data such as the number of elevators or who owned the local elevator can help historians better understand Prairie life.”
The University of Alberta Libraries’ website, Peel’s Prairie Provinces can be found here.
