HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Dave Leonard was born in Fairview, Alberta to Grace and Bill Leonard in 1945. The Leonards came to Peace Country from Iowa in the 1930’s and resided in Hines Creek, Webster, and Whitelaw. After WWII, Bill took land under the Veteran’s Land Act and choose two quarter sections at Teepee Creek. Grace and Bill also had two other children: Donna and Ann.
In his youth, Dave joined the Air Cadets, and reported for thee Prairie Herald- Tribune.
In 1964, he moved to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta. In 1968, he graduated with a BA in History. In 1969, he graduated with an MA in History. Following his graduation, he worked for two years as an archivist at the Provincial Archives of Alberta. In 1971, he moved to England to attend the University of Sheffield to pursue a PHD in Modern Irish History. Dave graduated in 1975. Dave returned to Edmonton and served as Assistant City of Edmonton Archivist. In 1978, he became the First Territorial Archivist of the North West Territories. He held this position for two years until he returned to Edmonton to head the government records program at the Provincial Archives of Alberta. From 1993 to 1996, Dave served as Provincial Archivist of the Provincial Archives of Alberta. In 1996, he transferred to the Historic Sites Services as Project Historian for Northern Alberta.
Throughout the 1980s, Dave was an active member of the Society for the Protection of Architectural Resources in Edmonton. He also volunteered for the Historical Society of Alberta, Alberta Records Publication Board, and the Archives Society of Alberta. He has also taught archives and records management a the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies. David Leonard received the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2007.
David is the author of the following publications:
The Lure of the Peace River Country: A Fostered Dream: Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 1992.
Through the Mackenzie Basin: An Account of the Signing of Treaty No. 8 and the Scrip Commission, 1899, Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1999.
The Last Great West: The Agricultural Settlement of the Peace River Country to 1914, Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 2005.
Delayed Frontier: the Peace River Country to 1909, Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 1995.
The Grande Prairie of the Great Northland 1805-1951: The Evolution of a County, 1805-1951, Grande Prairie: County of Grande Prairie #1, 2005.
On the North trail: the Treaty 8 diary of O.C. Edwards, Calgary: Alberta Records Publication, 1999.
The Electoral History of the Peace River Country of Alberta 1905-1993: a Narrative and Statistical Account of Each Provincial Election and By-election to be Contested in the Peace River Region of Alberta to 1993, [Edmonton : Historic Sites Service, Alberta Community Development?, 1996]
The Grande Prairie During the Fur Trade Era 1824-1910, Grande Prairie: Grande Prairie Museum, 2002.
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SCOPE AND CONTENT: | The fonds consists of 134 photographs of the Alberta communities of Bluesky, Waerhole, Spirit River, Rycroft, Sexsmith, Buffalo Lake, Grimshaw, Berwyn, Brownvale, Dunvegan, Bear Lake, Glenleslie, Cutbank Lake, Valhalla, Edmonton, Whitelaw, Berwyn, Glenleslie, Cutbank Lake, Tangent, Eaglesham, Codesa, Wanham |