Fonds consists of colour slides of Nova Scotia places (both urban and rural), street parades, mines and oil drilling rigs (1944-ca.1975); a few photographic negatives of Saint John, New Brunswick and the Joe Howe parade in Halifax (1975), and staff of the Department of Mines (1947); a set of 16 film strips (photographic negative) of “Mining Methods” by Messervey, likely used by him in teaching mining (no date); and 3 film reels.
Two of the film reels were produced by Messervey for the Department, the first “Mine Rope Tester” (2 minutes) shows a man operating a machine (ca.1950s), and the second one “Spring Tonic” (11 minutes) shows a fishing trip at Tangier Grand Lake (ca. late 1940s) created as a promotion to tourists. It includes captions for the silent scenes and gives the names of the hunters and cameramen at the end. The third reel is of the Royal Visit of George VI and Elizabeth “the Queen Mom” of United Kingdom (5 minutes) showing decorated Halifax streets, the royal party’s arrival at Halifax Citadel grounds with crowds around and ends with the royal steam ship leaving Halifax Harbour (1939).
J.P. Messervey