Mission Statement

The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website is an ambitious, non-commercial, public history project that aims to provide school students and the general public with a wide range of authoritative information on the province's history, culture, and geography. It is based at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Faculty, graduate students, and professional writers contribute articles, while undergraduate students provide support as research assistants. A list of present and past staff can be found on the site's Staff page. A list of authors can be found on our Contributors page.

History and Organization

The Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website was officially launched on November 25, 1997 as a joint project of the Memorial University's Smallwood Centre for Newfoundland Studies and the C.R. Bronfman Foundation of Montreal.

The website is organized around eight major themes: Indigenous Peoples, the Arts, Economy, Exploration and Settlement, the First World War, Government and Politics, Natural Environment, and Society and Culture. Many articles are also available in French. Tables of contents for each section provide a complete list of the topics covered. The site is also searchable.

There are more than 1,500 articles on the website and a wide range of visual materials, which include photographs, maps, artwork, and archival documents. Archival audio and video clips have also been digitized and made available. In 2015, the website was extensively redesigned. That same year, it launched a series of short in-house documentaries (some of which are available in French), which explore various aspects of Newfoundland and Labrador history.

A website, by its very nature, is a work constantly in progress and the Heritage Website will continue to grow in the coming years as its staff and contributors add more content.

Support

The website is a free and non-commercial tool of public education that is made possible only by the active involvement of partners inside and outside the university. Without them, the website would not exist.

At Memorial University, the website has received vital assistance from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Maritime History Archive, the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, the Archives and Special Collections Division, the Queen Elizabeth II Library, the Digital Archives Initiative, the Folklore and Language Archive, the School of Music, the Institute for Social and Economic Research, the English Language Research Centre, the Faculty of Medicine Founders' Archive, and the Open Learning and Information Network, among others. Various student employment programs have allowed us to hire assistants whose work has been invaluable.

Provincial and federal government agencies and departments have given us essential support. The provincial Department of Education, and The Rooms Provincial Archives, Art Gallery, and Museum have been extremely helpful. The website has also received backing from the Canada/Newfoundland COOPERATION Agreement on Human Resource Development and the Parks Canada Division of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada has awarded us grant money and so has the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Comments and Questions

General questions on Newfoundland and Labrador may be directed to numerous organizations. A list of some of these institutions are found on our Comments and Questions page.

If you wish to leave a comment or ask a question about the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website please contact us by email at comments@heritage.nl.ca.

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