Lambton County Archives Blog

The Imperial City

Sarnia is celebrating its 100th year of incorporation as a city in 2014. There are numerous events, tributes, and celebrations occurring all year long and the Sarnia Centennial Celebration Committee is promoting many on their website. The Lambton County Museums department is also joining the celebrations! The feature exhibit at the Lambton Heritage Museum (LHM) this year is Sarnia: We Built This City which explores how Sarnia has changed, the challenges it has seen, and where the City is going...

Sarnia Historical Film Footage on YouTube: 1941 Wartime Parade and 1950s Home Show

I received a very interesting donation several weeks ago and I'm happy to be able to share it here! The digital donation is a combination of the work of a father and son both passionate about the history of Lambton County.

The father-son duo is George and Derek Smith. George L. Smith was responsible for much of the material that now makes up the Lambton Room's collection. He was an avid collector and wrote many books and booklets on Lambton history including the popular "A History of Sarnia in Pictures"...

Local History Gem! The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection

The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection is one of the most interesting and accessible collections at the Lambton Room. It is comprised of over 58,000 negatives of photographs that appeared in the Sarnia Observer in the 1950s and 1960s. In this blog post, I'm going to examine what makes this collection so interesting, and take a look into the future by acknowledging a recent donation from the Observer with new decades of material!

[IMAGE] Sarnia Observer Negative: Sep. 29, 1950, SCITS Blue...

Summer Fun at the Beachers' Club: 1914-1928

[IMAGE] Rare photo of the Beachers' Club.
With spring just around the corner and our recent blast of warm weather, I know that many of us are looking forward to summer and all the activities we'll be able to enjoy. I recently dug up some interesting material from the Beachers' Club, a group of young Sarnian gentlemen who "believed that summers were endless, nights filled with music and pretty girls and that the days of youth would never end." (Red Wilson from the Observer, July 28, 1978).
The Beachers'...

The Story Behind Sarnia's Art Movement

Gallery Lambton is physically changing locations and adopting a new name; the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery is slated to open later in 2012. Have you ever wondered where and when Sarnians first had an opportunity to be inspired by great art? The answer lies in the efforts of a local women's group who fund-raised for Red Cross during WWI and the networking skills of local lawyer Norman Gurd.

Gurd followed his father Robert Gurd into legal practice, pursuing his studies in Toronto and returning...