Harper's archival collection includes one million photos and personal items

Former prime minister Stephen Harper has launched an archival collection at Library and Archives Canada that includes more than one million photographs and personal items such as a quilt and a hockey card. The acquisition also contains about 400,000 digital records and an oral-history video series from roughly 50 hours of interviews that will be released to the public in 2030.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper has formally launched his archival collection at a public panel that included historian Arthur Milnes and archive leaders Élizabeth Mongrain and Darrel Reid. Library and Archives Canada calls the transfer its largest digital archive acquisition to date. The collection brings together a wide range of material from photographs and sound recordings to plaques and personal items. Harper also recorded extended on-camera interviews that form an oral history of his life and time in office. Key details: - The collection includes more than one million photographs and about 400,000 digital records. - It contains roughly 4,000 sound recordings and varied media such as plaques, architectural drawings and temporary tattoos. - Personal items in the archive include a quilt and a hockey card. - Stephen Harper recorded about 50 hours of video interviews at his home in Alberta; those recordings are described as an oral history to be made public in 2030. - Library and Archives Canada says thousands of records are already available online, including photos, audiovisual files and speech transcripts. Summary: The transfer represents a major expansion of Library and Archives Canada's holdings and adds a large, varied set of materials documenting Harper's public and private correspondence. The oral-history interviews are scheduled for public access in 2030, while many photos, audiovisual files and transcripts can be viewed online in the meantime.