Communities, Cultural Affairs and Labour Minister Carolyn Bertram recently visited with students from Stone Park Intermediate School who were working on research projects at the Public Archives and Records Office in Charlottetown.
The students, from Jerry Campbell’s grade seven social studies class, were working on research projects through a program called “A Living Archives: An Exploration of Island Heritage in the Digital Age.” Through this program, groups of Island students visited the Public Archives, PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation’s sites and the Archives and Special Collections section of Robertson Library at UPEI to research life in rural Prince Edward Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“I was pleased to visit with the students and hear about their individual research projects,” said Minister Bertram. “It was exciting to see the students immersed in an exploration of Island life around the turn of the 20th century, the era in which Lucy Maud Montgomery’s famous story Anne of Green Gables takes place.”
She noted that the timing of these projects is quite appropriate. “Throughout 2008, we will be inviting Islanders and readers worldwide to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of L.M. Montgomery’s most famous novel,” she said.
The Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island offered the program in partnership with the University of Prince Edward Island, the Provincial Department of Education, the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation, Smart Technologies and the Eastern, Western and French School Districts.
The Public Archives and Records Office provided a $6,000 in-kind contribution for the project.