Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Guelph Mercury fonds
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
[1960?] - [1999?] (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
ca. 45,000 photographs : negatives ca. 9,000 photographs : prints
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The first edition of the Mercury (then the Wellington Mercury) appeared under the direction of George M. Keeling, ex-editor of the Advertiser, on September 17, 1853. For some time Guelph had three daily newspapers, including the Herald and the Advertiser, all of which, by 1924, had amalgamated into the Mercury. In 1862, James Innes, acting editor of the Advertiser, partnered with John C. McLagen and purchased the Mercury. The two bought a property at 77 Macdonell Street, east of Wyndham Street. The Mercury remained at this location until the 1950s when it moved to its present location at 8-14 Macdonell.
Under James Innes' direction, the paper changed from a weekly to daily distribution in July 1867. Innes sold his interest in the newspaper to J. McIntosh in 1905 and the paper expanded further in 1924 when McIntosh bought the competing Herald. He then sold out to James Playfair in 1929. Less than 20 years later, Thomson Newspapers Crop bought the Mercury where it remained until it was bought in 1995 by Hollinger Inc. and then in 1999 by Sun Media. As of 2004, the Guelph Mercury is owned by Torstar Corporation, and is part of a group called the Grand River Valley Newspapers. Although the Mercury existed in several forms before Confederation, the newspaper printed its last edition in January 2016.
Custodial history
Prior to transfer to the Guelph Public Library, the Guelph Mercury had unbroken custody of these records.
Scope and content
Fonds consists primarily of photographic negatives and prints created by the Guelph Mercury in the course of its journalistic activities. In addition to images that appeared in the newspaper, this fonds includes other images that were taken for newspaper stories but were never actually used.
The photographs are arranged into 18 artificial series by subject. The Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials serves as a basis for this arrangement.
Due to the size of this collection not all of the negatives have been described and or digitized.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
These records have not been fully processed and access to some images may be restricted during processing. Please contact the Guelph Public Library archivist for more details.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Donor-held copyright in these records has been transferred to the Guelph Public Library. Permission of the Guelph Public Library is required for publication.
A smaller set of Canadian Press photographs were found within this collection. These images have not been released as it is not clear the Guelph Public Library holds copyright to these photographs.
Finding aids
See series descriptions for more details on available listings for these records.