This fonds contains documents and images related to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European settlement in Essex and Kent counties. These include an Irish immigrant’s personal journal of settling in Essex County with his two sisters (1850). The journal primarily details Jasper Golden’s travels (Atlantic crossing, St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Kingston, Niagara, Buffalo, Detroit, Windsor) but also includes later details about time spent in Malden, Anderdon, and the now-lost port of Albertville (near Kingsville). There are also official records of infrastructure and property in Howard Township (1909), and organizational and research material related to an effort to preserve the Walker family’s rare fieldstone-clad Kent County farmhouse as a historic site. (David and Ann Walker were Scottish immigrants who settled in Harwich Township, Kent County in 1845, with their original grant of farmland remaining in the family until 1972.) The fonds also includes approximately 448 slides depicting pre-1900 homes, buildings, furnishings, objects, weapons, and equipment in Kent and Essex counties, from a Canada Council-funded project to document these artifacts. There is also a short history of Buxton, Ontario, and slides of a memorial to Shawnee chief Tecumseh.

This collection brings together a variety of small, ephemeral publications intended to appeal to wives, mothers, and other domestic workers. The bulk are from the first half of the 20th century, consisting of advertisements for domestic goods with helpful tips for housekeeping, a household account book (unused), and booklets outlining medicinal uses for household items such as yeast. One brochure offers information about converting sewing patterns, as part of Canada’s transition to metric measurements, 1970-1980. A leaflet originally included in a Toronto newsmagazine ca. 1930s-1940s features a knitting pattern for an infant's coat and bonnet.