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Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 12:29:58 -0400
From: "J. Leonard" <[log in to unmask]>
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Organization: CITY ARCHIVES: PETERBOROUGH
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Subject: PTBO ARCHIVES ACQUIRES ROY STUDIO FONDS
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MAY 26, 2000.

MEDIA RELEASE

CITY OF PETERBOROUGH ACQUIRES ROY STUDIO PHOTOGRAPH FONDS

The City of Peterborough is very pleased to announce the acquisition of
the Roy Studio Photographic fonds. This nationally significant archival
fonds was recently purchased for subsequent donation to the City, by Mr
Jim Balsillie, a former resident of Peterborough.  Jim Balsillie is
Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Research in Motion (RIM), a
Waterloo-based wireless communications company.  As a way to acknowledge
the generosity of Mr Balsillie, the acquisition shall be officially
called: "The Balsillie Collection of Roy Studio Images".

City staff are now completing negotiations for the formal acquisition of
the entire fonds, through the Culture and Heritage Division. The City
Archives in the Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives (PCMA) will
be responsible for the day-to-day management, cataloguing and
preservation of this vast body of photographic negatives.  Staff  have
developed a comprehensive management plan for the fonds.  Later this
month, the fonds will be re-located from the basement of the former Roy
Studio on Hunter Street, to a new storage space that has been created at
the Peterborough Public Library (PPL).

The Roy Studio opened in 1896.  Three generations of Roy family
photographers documented virtually every facet of daily life and work in
Peterborough and area.  As a result, a comprehensive, nationally
significant fonds comprising well over 300,000 glass plate and film
negatives have survived in the original studio location in downtown
Peterborough.  Subject matter captured on film include: local industry,
entertainment, cottage life, sports, architecture, public events and
weddings.

Efforts to acquire the Roy Studio images began in the Spring of 1994.  A
fire in an adjacent Hunter Street building in September 1994, nearly
resulted in the destruction of the negatives. This was followed be a
fundraising campaign launched in October 1995.  Unfortunately, the
campaign was not successful. In recent years the owners of the fonds
(Rob Roy and John Lyon) made various attempts to sell the negatives
privately.  In January 2000 Mr Balsillie entered into negotiations with
Roy and Lyon.

The Balsillie Collection is the single largest and most important
acquisition ever accepted by the PCMA. This major acquisition, along
with the recent purchase of over 70,000 photo negatives from the Parks
Studio, gives Peterborough one of the largest photographic collections
in Canada.

For more Information:

Ken Doherty (Manager)  or  Jim Leonard (City Archivist), Peterborough
Centennial Museum and Archives, 300 Hunter Street East,    P.O. Box 143,
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, K9J 6Y5.      phone: 705-743-5180    /
fax: 705-743-2614