Helen Creighton collected songs, stories and folklore mainly in Nova Scotia. She collected for a short time in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The Nova Scotia Archives (NSA) houses the Helen Creighton fonds, which include the bulk of her recordings, photographs, correspondence, manuscripts and notes etc. As of 2021, many items in the Creighton Collection have been digitized and available online.
The Canadian Museum of History (CMH) and The Library of Congress (LOC) also have materials collected by Creighton while she worked under their sponsorship. In addition, Mount Allison University holds a collection of Creighton recordings. While NSA, CMH and the LOC have separate searchable online catalogs, there does not yet exist any one master list of recordings, and other than by obtaining copies and listening, it is difficult to determine which entries are duplicates held by more than one archives.
Copies of selected recordings from the Nova Scotia Archives are available to the public in the non-circulating reference collection at the Alderney Gate branch of Halifax Public Libraries. For information about using the other collections referenced here or obtaining copies of materials, contact the specific archives.
- Nova Scotia Archives: Helen Creighton: Folklife, an ONLINE Resource: audio recordings, textual, photographic records
- Canadian Museum of History
- Library of Congress Catalog Record: Helen Creighton collection of Nova Scotia recordings
Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog Search - Mount Allison University Archives
- Halifax Public Libraries: Helen Creighton Collection
“From Acetate Disc to Digital Audio: Tracing the Copies of Helen Creighton’s Sound Recordings.”
Barrett, Creighton. 2009. Canadian Folk Music, Vol 43, No 2.
Songs From The Helen Creighton Collection, Big Turnip Records, Bandcamp, 2021