Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Essex County Historical Society
Parallel form(s) of name
- Essex County Historical Association, Essex Historical Society, ECHS, ECHA, EHS
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1896 - [2019?]
History
The Essex County Historical Society (ECHS) was a volunteer-based, non-profit, registered charity dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and heritage of Ontario’s southernmost county. Founded in 1896 as the Essex County Historical Association (a member organization of the Ontario Historical Society founded in 1888), the group absorbed the Essex Historical Society in 1957 and renamed itself the Essex County Historical Society in 1983. In 2018 members included educators, archivists, genealogists, writers, businesspeople, and a variety of others with an interest in local history. It held regular meetings six times a year in addition to special events. The ECHS issued a regular newsletter and produced local history publications as well as “Radio Sketches” and audio recordings over the years. Beginning in 1979 it awarded the annual Botsford Scholarship to a senior undergraduate History student at the University of Windsor, and from 1987 its annual Lajeunesse Award recognized distinguished achievements in service of local history. As of 2022 the status of the ECHS is unclear – it may be defunct.
Sources: Essex County Historical Society, “About Us,” [August 2018], via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20180818181702/http://essexcountyhistoricalsociety.com/about-us/ ; Ontario Historical Society, directory and map, https://ontariohistoricalsociety.ca/directory-and-map/ (both accessed 13 January 2022).