A glimpse of 'Winter in Waterloo' from the past

The Waterloo Public Library (WPL) is showing a glimpse of the city's past witha collection of old archived photos and postcardscalled 'Winter in Waterloo'.

Some of the photos date back to the 1860s and safe-kept in the Ellis Little Local History Room at the main branch of Waterloo Public Library on Albert Street.

"We've been building this collection since the 80s," said Janet Seally, the manager of information services and local history at WPL.

"A lot of our items, most do come through donation. I had collections arrive in the mail from someone in Alberta who use to live in Waterloo," she said.

The Ellis Little Local History Room is home to a wide collection of archived books, magazines, documents, maps and 2,500 photographs that have been donated from locals over the years.

Canadian Beauties

This is an example of one of the many postcards at the WPL. Seally explains that peoplecould have a postcard created from a favourite photo and send it off to friends and relatives.

On the front this postcard it says "Canadian Beauties" while the back reads: "W.D.E Godfrey begs Mrs. Sherwood Ewald (Alberta Mae Dotzert), also Mrs. Jacob Ewald to accept his most heartfelt thanks for the beautiful cushion and wishes them both a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

Waterloo Park toboggan slide

This is a toboggan slide in Waterloo Park. "It looks like a dangerous one, probably a lot of fun," said Seally. It was a wooden slide high up on the hill where children could slide down onto the lake. A second one was created in 1959.

King Street Christmas decorations

This postcard, of King Street in Kitchener, shows a view of Christmas decorations on King Street at Gaukel Street in the 1930s. Budd'sClothing Store is on the right, while Liggett'sRexal Pharmacy is on the left. Printed at the bottom, it reads: "Night View of King Street decorated at Christmas time, Kitchener, Canada,"photographed by L. Suffolk.

Seallysaid they don't have any Christmas postcards of the city of Waterloo, however, she hopes that someone one day will donate some to the library.

Bruegeman Family in horse-drawn sleigh

This postcard shows six young girls in a sleigh, the daughters of John and Sarah Bruegeman. Seally points out that in the old Seagramfactory is visible in the background. "Sometimes when looking at old photos you see little details and are able to figure out where the picture was taken," she said.

Toboggan party

Workers at theWPL wereable to digitally fix this photo of a tobogganing party since the original, believed to have been taken in 1910s, has ink stains. "It's really interesting to see what people wore andhow people had to stand in the early photos because of the exposure time," Seally said, pointing out that two of the women are blurred.

Waterloo hockey team

A group photograph of a Waterloo hockey team dressed in uniform. "[The hockey photos] are very popular," Seally said. "There are lots of people that love the early history of hockey, including our former prime minister Stephen Harper."

She explains that in this photo there are a few of the Seagram family members, Joseph H. Seagram, cover point (standing second from the left), and Edward F. Seagram, captain of the team (sitting second from the left).

TheRitzerchildren

A portrait of the children of JohnRitzerand MarieSophiaLotzRitzer. From left to right: Clayton, William, Alberta and Olive.Seallyexplains that this would have been a studio photo, which was expensive at the time. The photo was taken by Addison C.Moyer, a photographer in Waterloo between 1896 and 1929.

Central School Hockey Club

This photo was taken in 1937 of the Waterloo Central School hockey team, 15 years before the schoolwas demolished. MacGregor Senior Public School was later built on the property.

Seally said that the boy second from the left, Nicholas Sadowsky,used to come to the WPL as an adult on a regular basis before he passed away several years ago. "One day I realized he was in one of our photos and he thought it was great fun, andhe still went for coffee with a couple of these school fellows that were still in Waterloo," she said.