Fonds consists of a photo album created by William Smaill, Superintendent of the Winnipeg Aqueduct Construction Company, Ltd. The album contains photographs of the aqueduct’s construction, company men and their families, recreation, camps and homes used during construction, the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway, and the surrounding landscape (Shoal Lake, Whitemouth River, Indian Bay, Birch River). There are also several photos of Winnipeg during Decoration Day 1914, photos of Mayors T.R. Deacon, Thomas Sharpe, and R.D. Waugh, and two photos of an Anishinaabe camp at Kekekoziibii Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

The photos are heavily annotated. The annotations consist of names, locations, descriptions, and sometimes the section or specific mile of the aqueduct. A few photos appear to be missing and there are several loose pages with similar content. The photos are arranged somewhat chronologically – photos from 1914 generally precede photos from 1915 – but there are many exceptions.

The Greater Winnipeg Water District fonds contains the records of the GWWD Administration Board and the GWWD Board of Commissioners.

The fonds also contains some records relating to water supply prior to the incorporation of GWWD.

The fonds is arranged into six series: Minutes and Reports; Communications; Financial Reports and Information; Agreements and Contracts; By-laws; and Photographs.

Series 66: Minutes, 1914-1960
Series 67: Communications and Reports, 1912-1960
Series 68: By-laws, 1913-1960
Series 69: Agreements, and Contracts, 1914-1923
Series 70: Financial, 1914-1962
Series 175: Photographs, 1913-1919

Additional records from Water and Waste received in 2015 are available.

Annual reports of the Department of Health for the years 1917-1921. Provides information and statistics on Department initiatives and public health within the City more generally, including diseases (including the “Spanish Influezna” or “Spanish Flu” outbreak), inoculations, education campaigns, food quality, scavenging and waste disposal, deaths, and general saniation. Also includes information about budgets and finances within the Department.

Glass lantern slides taken by L.B. [Lewis Benjamin] Foote of the tourists taking the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway to and enjoying leisure time at Shoal Lake. The Greater Winnipeg Water District hired Foote to take these photos.

Minutes of the Board of Administration of the Greater Winnipeg Water District from 1913-1916. Minutes record administrative decisions made, votes taken, and motions presented. The minutes are arranged by meeting date, but some minutes are accompanied by related correspondences from earlier or later dates, as well as documents recording specific motions, cards that record how members of the board voted, and shorthand notes. Some minutes are typed while others are handwritten. The minutes were originally bound, but have been removed from their binding and placed into folders. An index is included at the beginning, with subjects arranged alphabetically pointing to numbers that correspond to numbers in the left margin of the minutes. The index was designed to be used for the entirety of the minute book and therefore does not specify which individual meeting the numbers refer to.

Consists of photographs taken by GWWD employees during the building of the Greater Winnipeg Aqueduct that brings water from Shoal Lake to Winnipeg.

Photographs from the construction of Branch 1 of the Greater Winnipeg Water District aqueduct.