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Canadian National Railway Records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

John C. L. Andreassen
John C. L. Andreassen
Affiliation:
System Archivist, Canadian National Railways
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Abstract

A progress report on the attempts being made to organize the records of a major North American transportation corporation so that they will be available and useful to historians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 1: Special Transportation Issue , Spring 1965 , pp. 115 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 In “foreword” to Stevens, G. R., Canadian National Railways, Vol. I, Sixty Years of Trial and Error, 1836–1896 (Toronto and Vancouver, 1960), p. xiii.Google Scholar

2 CN Headquarters Library, “A Selected Bibliography of Canadian Railways,” Special series, No. 25 (Montreal, May 1963), 5 pp.Google Scholar

3 Vol. I: Sixty Years of Trial and Error, 1836–1896 (Toronto and Vancouver, 1960) and vol. II: Towards the Inevitable, 1896–1922 (Toronto and Vancouver, 1962).

4 Regulations to Govern the Destruction of Records of Railroad Companies, Issue of 1957 Prescribed By the Interstate Commerce Commission, Effective October 1, 1957 (Washington, 1957); Canadian National Railways Form 3173 Revised Regulations to Govern the Destruction of Records (For Use in Canada Only), Effective January 1, 1961 (Montreal, 1961); Canadian National Railways, Services and Regulations of the Records Servicentre (Montreal, 1963); See also: Wheelan, Robert B., Corporate Records Retention; Volume 2, A Guide to Canadian Federal and Provincial Requirements (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

5 “Within competitive limits” is used here in recognition of the fact that the CN is charged with operating as if it were a corporation owned by private shareholders. The usual public records acts concerning accessibility of records do not apply in any activity involving business competition. Compare with Hawkins, David F., “The Development of Modern Reporting Practices among American Manufacturing Corporations,” in Business History Review, vol. XXXVII (Autumn, 1963), pp. 135–36.Google Scholar

6 This committee consisted of Lome C. Perry, Public Relations, Chairman; Miss Helen Dechief, Headquarters Librarian, Secretary; Anthony Clegg, Research and Development Department; Norman Lowe, Public Relations, St. Lawrence Region: William Gray, Records Centre Management Consultant; John Donaldson, Supervisor, Records Servicentre, and Peter Collins, Records Servicentre Assistant.

7 This committee consists of Vice-President, Research and Development; Vice-President and Executive Assistant to President; Secretary of the Company; and Director, Public Relations.

8 Chairman, W. H. Bailey, Assistant to Vice-President, Research and Development; Lome C. Perry, Public Relations; Helen Dechief, Headquarters Librarian; G. F. Chadwick, Headquarters Administrator; John C. L. Andreassen, Archivist; and other officers throughout the System when necessary.

9 Research and Development File 3025–6–1.

10 Ormsby, W. C., “Reference Service in the Public Archives of Canada,” American Archivist, vol. XXV (July, 1962), pp. 345–51.Google Scholar

11 Canadian National Railways, “Record of Archival Deposits,” Nos. 1–7, February 12-August 5, 1963.

12 The Archivist served as Secretary of the CN Integrated Data Processing Policy Committee during the first year of his assignment. That committee is composed of: Vice-President and Executive Assistant; Vice-President, Research and Development; Vice-President, Accounting and Finance; Vice-President, Sales; and Vice-President, Transportation and Maintenance. By action of the Committee, the Archivist was directed to undertake with the Co-ordinator of Data Processing, a study of the implications of data processing on records retention requirements. A study was begun on July 29, 1963.

13 The CN Accounting Department published on October 15, 1962, Hopper, A. B. and Kearney, T., Synoptical History of Organization, Capital Stock, Funded Debt, and Other General Information, as of December 31, 1960 (Montreal, 1962), 800 pp.Google Scholar This was a revision of a work by A. B. Hopper of the same title issued October 15, 1937, 360 pp. Both were designed for internal administrative use only.

14 The Archivist has been made responsible for currency of the CN Synoptical History.

15 In CN Management Bulletin, vol. VI, no. 4. For management and supervisory personnel.

16 It should be noted that under CN Research and Development Department auspices and supervision, there has been developed in Montreal a substantial Headquarters Library containing a remarkably fine collection of scientific and technological literature on transportation and related fields. This “special” library has a professional staff of four librarians. Plans for the establishment of a library on each of the five regions are underway with the first recently being set up in Winnipeg. The Headquarters Library will buttress these new regional facilities.