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Archival description
Amerikan Laulajat fonds
Fonds · 1956 - 2002

An umbrella organization for Finnish male choruses in North America.

The records relate to the organization's administration and finances, and to major events including nine performing tours of Finland and performances in North America.

Member choirs have included:
Chicago: Sibelius Male Chorus
Detroit: Finlandia Male Chorus
Florida: Male Singers of Florida
Los Angeles: Finnish Male Chorus
New York: New Yorkin Laulumiehet
Sault Ste Marie: Sault Finnish Male Chorus "Kaleva"
Sudbury: Sudburyn Laulumiehet
Thunder Bay: Mieskuoro Otava Male Choir
Toronto: Toronton Mieslaulajat
Vancouver: Vancouverin Mieslaulajat

Bay Street Project

Records and reference material from five major research projects sponsored by the Finlandia Club and other organizations.

  • Bay Street Project I: A study of Finnish immigration to Canada
  • Bay Street Project II: A study of Finnish settlements in the rural Thunder Bay District
  • Bay Street Project III: A study of sports and athletics in the Finnish community in Thunder Bay
  • Bay Street Project IV: A study of religion and churches in the Finnish community in Thunder Bay
  • Bay Street Project V: A study of the arts in the Finnish community in Thunder Bay, including literature, theatre, and music
Cairine Budner fonds
Fonds

Records were created, held, or gathered by Cairine Budner over the course of her association with the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society, and other local heritage organizations and sports organizations.

The fonds includes

  • Records of the operations of the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society

  • Records of the operations of the Thunder Bay Historical Society, Thunder Bay Art Gallery (National Exhibition Centre), Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame

  • Oral history interviews created with the TBFCHS and Multicultural History Society of Ontario

  • Historical photographs and documents gathered from the community, including sports photographs, records of the Finnish Building Company, and minutes of the Nahjus Athletic Club

Fonds · 1911 - 1981

Records of the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö [Finnish Organization of Canada], Vapaus Publishing Company (responsible for publishing Vapaus and Liekki and other publications), Suomalais-Canadalaisen Amatoori Urheiluliiton [Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation], co-operatives, and more.

Includes meeting minutes, reports, financial statements, and correspondence related to the operations and administration of these organizations. Also includes a variety of document and pamphlets related to socialism, communism, and the peace movement in Canada and worldwide.

The Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada) is the oldest nationwide Finnish cultural organization in Canada. For over a century the CSJ has been one of the main organizations for Finnish immigrants in Canada with left-wing sympathies and, in particular, those with close ties to the Communist Party of Canada. Through the early to mid 1920s, Finnish-Canadians furnished over half the membership of the Communist Party and some, like A.T. Hill (born Armas Topias Mäkinen), became leading figures in the Party. Beyond support for leftist political causes, the cooperative and labour union movements, many local CSJ branches in both rural and urban centres established halls – some 70 of which were built over the years in communities across Canada – that hosted a range of social and cultural activities including dances, theatre, athletics, music, and lectures. The CSJ is also known for its publishing activities, notably the Vapaus (Liberty) newspaper.

The CSJ underwent several changes in its formative years related to both national and international developments. Founded in October 1911 as the Canadan Suomalainen Sosialisti Järjestö (CSSJ; Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada), the organization served as the Finnish-language affiliate of the Canadian Socialist Federation which soon after transformed into the Social Democratic Party of Canada (SDP). By 1914, the CSSJ had grown to 64 local branches and boasted a majority of the SDP membership with over 3,000 members. One year later the organization added two more local branches but membership had dropped to 1,867 members thanks, in part, to a more restrictive atmosphere due to Canada’s involvement in the First World War and an organizational split that saw the expulsion or resignation of supporters of the Industrial Workers of the World from the CSSJ.

In September 1918, the Canadian federal government passed Order-in-Council PC 2381 and PC 2384 which listed Finnish, along with Russian and Ukrainian, as ”enemy languages” and outlawed the CSSJ along with thirteen other organizations. The CSSJ successfully appealed the ban in December 1918 but dropped ”Socialist” from its name. The organization operated under the name Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö until December 1919. The SDP, however, did not recover from the outlawing of its foreign-language sections, leaving the CSJ without a political home. Stepping into this organizational vacuum was the One Big Union of Canada (OBU), founded in June 1919. The CSJ briefly threw its support behind this new labour union initiative, functioning as an independent ”propaganda organization of the OBU” until internal debates surrounding the structure of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union affiliate and the OBU decision not to join to the Moscow-headquartered Comintern led to its withdrawal shortly thereafter. In 1924, CSSJ activists including A.T. Hill helped to found the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada (LWIUC).

Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution that toppled the Tsarist Russian Empire in November 1917, and following the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) as an underground organization in May 1921, the CSSJ rapidly became an integral part of the nascent Communist movement in Canada. Reflecting this change, in 1922 the organization was renamed the Canadan Työläispuolueen Suomalainen Sosialistilärjestö (FS/WPC; Finnish Socialist Section of the Workers’ Party of Canada) – the Workers’ Party of Canada being the legal front organization of the CPC. In 1923, Finnish-Canadian Communists formed a separate cultural organization, the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada Inc.), to serve as a kind of ”holding company” ensuring that the organization’s considerable properties and assets would be safe from confiscation by the government or capture from rival left-wing groups. With the legalization of the CPC in 1924, the FS/WPC became the Canadan Kommunistipuolueen Suomalainen Järjestö (FS/CP; Finnish section of the Communist Party of Canada). Between 1922 and 1925, membership in the CSJ through its various transitions also doubled as membership in the Communist Party. This arrangement ended in 1925 when the FS/CP was disbanded following the ”bolshevization” directives of the Comintern. These directives demanded that separate ethnic organizations in North America be dissolved in favour of more disciplined and centralized party cells. It was hoped that this reorganization would help attract new members outside of the various Finnish, Ukrainian, and Jewish ethnic enclaves that had furnished the bulk of the CPC dues paying membership in Canada. From this point onwards, the CSJ officially functioned as a cultural organization but maintained a close, albeit sometimes strained, association with the CPC. The 1930s represent the peak of the CSJ size and influence, occuring during the Third Period and Popular Front eras of the international Communist movement. During this period CSJ union organizers assisted in the creation of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union – a unit of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of the American Federation of Labor, successor to the LWIUC – and the reemergence of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Sudbury and Kirkland Lake. CSJ activists also helped to recruit volunteers for the International Brigades that fought against nationalist and fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Finally, in the 1930s some 3,000 CSJ members or sympathizers embarked on the journey from Canada to the Soviet Union to help in the efforts to industrialize the Karelian Autonomous Soviet. Hundreds of Finns in Karelia would later perish in Stalin’s purges.

Despite the CSJ’s active support for the Canadian war effort, the organization was still deemed to be a threat to national security by the federal government and again outlawed in 1940. All FOC properties were seized and closed. The Suomalais Canadalaisten Demokraattien Liitto (SCDL; Finnish-Canadian Democratic League) served as the FOC’s main legal surrogate until the organization was legalized in 1943. The rapid decline of the FOC following this period is apparent from the fact that of the 75 locals in operation in 1936, only 36 remained active in 1950.

Further reading:
Edward W. Laine (edited by Auvo Kostianen), A Century of Strife: The Finnish Organization of Canada, 1901-2001 (Turku: Migration Institute of Finland), 2016.
Arja Pilli, The Finnish-Language Press in Canada, 1901-1939: A Study of Ethnic Journalism (Turku: Institute of Migration), 1982.
William Eklund, Builders of Canada: History of the Finnish Organization of Canada, 1911-1971 (Toronto: Finnish Organization of Canada), 1987.

Canadan Uutiset fonds
Fonds · 1935 - 1975

The correspondence, receipts, newspaper clippings, and several articles of the Canadan Uutiset, a Finnish-language newspaper based in Thunder Bay.

Collections

Original records and research collections arranged by a variety of subjects and creators.

  • Bay Street Project research materials
  • Business & industry
  • Genealogy, people, & families
  • Greeting cards
  • News articles
  • Einar Nordstrom collection (phonographs & transcripts)
  • Organizations (including Suomalainen Osasto (Finnish Association), Finnish Building Company, Canadan Teollisuusunionistinen Kannatus Liitto (CTKL), Canadan Uutistoimisto (CUT), Vapaus Publishing Company, Tyolaisnaisten Liitto, Port Arthur Finnish History Society, Port Arthur Finnish Language School)
Finlandia Club collection
Collection · 1903 - 1965

Collection is organized into the following series:
I. Hoito Restaurant
II. Port Arthur Workingmen’s Association: Imatra no. 9
III. C.T.K.L. (Canadian Industrial Unions: Port Arthur’s Finnish Association)
IV. C.U.T. (Canadian News Service) and C.T.K.L.
V. Finlandia Club
VI. Finnish Socialist Local no. 6: Port Arthur
VII. Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union of the One Big Union
VIII. New Attempt Temperance Society
IX. Finnish Athletic Club: Nahjus
X. Finnish Building Company
XI. Miscellaneous

Fonds

The Finnish Building Company was formed in 1909 and raised funds for the construction of the Finnish Labour Temple (Big Finn Hall) at 314 Bay Street.

CA ON00159 P004 · Fonds · 1930-1985

The Finnish National Society of Sudbury fonds attests to the role of the Finnish National Society of Sudbury, at the regional and national level, in preserving the Finnish culture and also to their role in helping with immigrant adjustment. The records not only document the social and cultural activities sponsored by the group between 1930 and 1980, but also the administrative part of its existence.

The fonds consists of incorporating documents such as the original charter of the Society, and the 1932 letter Patent for the Loyal Finns of Canada; membership records, minutes, financial records, correspondence, newsletters, plays and photographs. It also contains newspaper clippings and leaflets.

Finnish National Society of Sudbury
Finnish Radio Tapes
Collection

Recordings of radio programs produced in Finnish.

Finnpraxis Project

Collected records related to organized labour and the Finnish community in Thunder Bay. Include records related to the Canadan Suomalaisen Jarjesto (Finnish Organization of Canada), Vapaus Publishing Company, Canadan Farmarien Yhteysliitto (Farmers' Unity League of Canada), Lumber & Agricultural Workers Industrial Union of Canada.

Also includes forms and notes related to oral history interviews.

Kajander Family fonds
Fonds · 1900 - 1970

Einar and Hilma Kajander were immigrants from Finland, and were active in local organizations. Their son Art was a lawyer, and later Finnish Consul. Grandchild Ann is faculty at Lakehead University.

These photographs depict the Kajander family and their friends, in and about the Port Arthur area, approximately 1900 to 1970. The photographs include studio portraits and candid photographs printed at a variety of sizes. The images primarily depict family life and outdoor recreation.

Einar Kajander (1882-1973) and Hilma (Muhonen) Kajander (1886-1965) met in Canada and married in Port Arthur in 1909. Einar worked as a miner, and later opened a grocery store in Port Arthur. Both were involved with local sports organizations and the Finnish Labour Temple, and Hilma sang in Oras Choir.

Aatto Arthur Kajander (1913-1998) attended university in Toronto, was a lawyer in Thunder Bay for 55 years, and served as Finnish Consul appointed in 1957. He was also heavily involved in music and outdoor activities.

Miscellaneous

Articles, clippings, research notes, correspondence, copies of organizational minutes, diaries, and other materials not categorized elsewhere in the TBFCHS collection. Includes materials related to the Finnish Building Company, Otava Male Choir, and a diary of the Finnish Civil War.

Oiva W. Saarinen fonds
CA ON00159 P123 · Fonds · n.d.; 1884-2013 (predominant 1920-2000)

The Oiva W. Saarinen fonds attests to his research interests on the Finnish Communities in North America, as well as on the urban development of single-industry towns in Northern Ontario, and also to his documentary productions. It also informs us about Saarinen's involvement in different associations and organizations within the Finnish community of Canada. The fonds contains notes, articles, research papers and publications he produced in the course of his research activities, and documentation. Further to documenting the immigration of Finns to North America and Northern Ontario, and their role in the development of cities such as Thunder Bay and Sudbury, the studies, reports and photocopies of archival materials also cover the early settlements and economic activities of the different regions. For instance, in the sub-series “History of Finnish Settlement on Lake Panache,” lumbering, as well as environment aspects of the presence of the dam, land claims by Indigenous and their presence, are also addressed and documented. In the sub-series “Finns in the Sudbury Area,” the annotated maps, the assessment rolls, and lists from Vernon's, or reports on mining in the region, inform us about the Finnish community and their activities in the region. The short stories and testimonies, and recollections of members of the Finnish community in Sudbury, also provide significant primary sources of information.

The papers and publications are divided in 3 Series: I: Oiva Saarinen publications; Series II: Books and other materials and Series III: Books and other materials on Economic and Urban Development. Series II is divided into 9 Sub-series:
Sub-series A: Books and other materials on Finland;
Sub-series B: Finnish-American Literature;
Sub-series C: Vapaus, Foc, and other left-wing Literature;
Sub-series D: History of Finnish Settlement on Lake Panache and materials related to Indian Land Claims;
Sub-series E: Finnish Religious Groupings in North America;
Sub-series F: North American Finnish Literature and Writers;
Sub-series G: Finns in Canada and in the United States (excluding Ontario);
Sub-series H: Finnish-Canadian Ontario Material (excluding Sudbury);
Sub-series I: Finns in the Sudbury Area.

Saarinen, Oiva W.
Photographs

Photographs are divided into seven subseries:
A - Architecture
B - Arts (Theatre, music, dance, arts, crafts)
C - Business & industry
D - Churches
E - Communities in Northwestern Ontario
F - People, families, & genealogy
G - Organizations

Raija Warkentin fonds
Fonds

Records of an oral history project conducted with people who travelled to Soviet Karelia. Includes approved and unapproved transcripts, audio cassette recordings, agreements with researchers, and related documentation.

Many of the documents include information that interviewees wish to be kept private. Access will be restricted, except for approved transcripts, and when appropriate measures or agreements are in place.

Collection

A vast and varied collection of records documenting the experiences of Finnish immigrants to Northwestern Ontario. Includes correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, interviews, published material, and ephemera. The photograph collection is extensive and covers a wide range of subjects.

The records are arranged into the following series:
A - Bay Street Project
B - Finnpraxis Project
C - Collections
D - Photographs
E - Miscellaneous
F - Finnish Experience