Deschâtelets-NDC Archives

BRIEF HISTORY
The Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) was founded in 1816 in Aix-en-Provence by Saint Eugène de Mazenod. In 1841, at the behest of Monsignor Ignace Bourget, bishop of Montreal, the missionary Oblates arrived in Canada.

The Deschâtelets-NDC Archives, as the historical and administrative records of the Oblates, attest to their missionary activities since their arrival in Canada. The Archives are composed of two principal collections: the Deschâtelets collection and the provincial archives of Notre-Dame du Cap (NDC). 

DESCRIPTION OF FONDS AND COLLECTIONS
The Deschâtelets-NDC archives contain documents concerning the history of the Canadian Oblates and, more specifically,  the missions they carried out in eastern Canada and abroad. The Deschâtelets collection is an invaluable resource for research on the history of the Oblates in Canada. It is the product of the work of many Oblates who, over the course of the last century, crossed Canada searching through archives, gathering all that they could find related to the Oblates. The Notre-Dame-du-Cap Archives is the repository for the administrative records of the Provincial Oblate. In recent years, archives concerning Father Victor Lelièvre have enriched the collection while still more are currently being catalogued, like the archives of missionary Rémi Cadieux and the collection of administrative archives.

Time span covered by archives: 1841-2019
Technical specifications and geographic maps: 200
Iconographic documents: 200,000
Text documents: 1,000 m.l.
Hours of audio recordings: 1,000
Hours of video recordings: 1,000
Number of fonds: 5

MANDATE AND MISSION
The Deschâtelets-NDC Archives are the historic and administrative records of the Oblate missionaries. The archives’ mission is to acquire, process, conserve, disseminate, and improve accessibility to the documents created and received by the Oblates of the Notre-Dame-du-Cap province in the course of their missions and activities.

The Archives contain documents concerning the history of the Canadian Oblates and, more specifically, their missionary work in eastern Canada and abroad. The Oblates have preserved an archive since arriving in Canada in 1841 and continue to acquire documents and add new materials in order to reflect their missionaries’ current activities.