When one thinks of archives, they often think of things that have long since passed into history.

Perhaps they think of items that are 50 or 100 years old. However, an important part of archiving is identifying recent material that will become historically significant in the future.

This was part of the task of a recent placement student from Seneca at the Humber Archives, Soraya Bausells. Bausells, who’s taking the Library and Information Technician diploma program, came to the Humber Archives in Fall 2023 to learn about cataloguing and digitizing.

Part of her work involved cataloguing a donation of photographs from John Davies’ time as Humber’s President. Davies was Humber’s third President from 2007 to 2012, and the Archives has two photograph albums created in 2012 to honour his retirement. The catalogue of photographs added to the Archives can be explored online.

The albums uniquely document Humber’s achievements during these five years, bringing together many of Davies’ achievements and the growth of Humber. Photographs cover milestone events such as the opening of the Ecology Centre at North Campus in November 2007, students in the Wireless and Telecommunications Program making contact with the International Space Station in February 2009, and the opening of the Centre for Justice Leadership at Lakeshore in November 2009, among many others.

The Archives have catalogued 295 photographs from these albums and made a small selection available online for those who wish to explore them from the comfort of their home while learning more of Humber’s not so distant past.