Michael Moir
BA (Toronto), MA (Guelph)
Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections
305 Scott Library
Email: mmoir@yorku.ca
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Tel: +1-416-736-2100 ext. 22457
Fax: +1-416-650-8039
Michael Moir began his career as an archivist in 1982, and served as Records Manager/Archivist for the Toronto Harbour Commissioners from 1984 to 1995. He was appointed Manager of Archival Services by the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, and became the Director, Corporate Records Systems and City Archivist for the new City of Toronto in 1998. Michael joined York University in July 2004, and taught a course on “Specialized Archives” at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information in 2005 and 2006. His research interests include the history of Canadian shipbuilding, and port and harbour management in Canada during the 19th and 20th centuries.
He served as President of The Champlain Society from 2004 to 2010. When not attending meetings or filing old paper or electronic files, Michael serves as Pipe Major of the Scarborough Pipes and Drums and the Pipes and Drums of 32 Service Battalion, a Canadian Army Reserve Unit.
Publications
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“Planning for Change: Harbour Commissions, Civil Engineers, and Large-Scale Manipulation of Nature,” chapter 1 in Gene Desfor and Jennefer Laidley (Eds.), Reshaping Toronto’s Waterfront, 23-48. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.
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“From Feast to Famine: Shipbuilding and the 1912 Waterfront Development Plan,” chapter 4 in Gene Desfor and Jennefer Laidley (Eds.), Reshaping Toronto’s Waterfront, 97-122. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.
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"Sandford Fleming's Model Harbour," The Fife and Drum 14, no. 2 (March 2010): 3-4.
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“Halted by the Archive: The Impact of Excessive Archival Restrictions on Scholars” with Ruth Panofsky, Journal of Scholarly Publishing 37, no. 1 (October 2005): 19-32
- “Finding Aids and Photographs: A Case Study in the Use of Analog Optical Disc Technology to Improve Access to Historical Images,” Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993): 74-86
- "Toronto's Waterfront at War, 1914-1918," Archivaria 28 (Summer 1989): 126-140
- Dictionary of
Canadian Biography
- Clarke, Lionel Herbert (grain merchant, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, first Chairman of The Toronto Harbour Commissioners)
- Davidson, John Irvine (merchant, first Commanding Officer of the 48th Highlanders of Canada)
- Polson, Franklin Bates (shipbuilder)
- Smith, Alexander Mortimer (soldier, wholesale grocer, militia officer, politician)
- Sutherland, Murdoch (Presbyterian minister and missionary to the Intercolonial Railway in Nova Scotia)
- Wickett, Samuel Morley (municipal politician and reformer)
Presentations
- The development of unique research collections at York University Libraries: new approaches to old stuff, presented to Library Forum of York University Libraries, 14 April 2009
- Archives and the Web, presented to Research Frontiers, York University Libraries, 3 April 2008
- Shipbuilding and the Waterfront Plan of 1912, presented to the Changing Urban Waterfronts Seminar Series, University of Toronto, 4 February 2008
- Municipal Archives and Museums: Perspectives on Partnerships, presented to the Ontario Museums Association annual conference, Peterborough, 21 October 2004
