Local reaction can be gauged from the steady stream of donations from Grey county families, more than White expected. He is gladdened by the response. He was especially excited by the gift of the manuscript of Richard Rorke's Forty Years in the Forest. This is a pioneer memoir of Collingwood and Tecumseth townships, first published more than a century ago. It is still available in a new edition from the archives.
Most documents offered to the archives are less famous but equally welcome.
Even gifts of individual postcards, letters or business ledgers would find a home there. Many people do not realize that these records can be valuable tools for historical researchers in the future, and their offerings to archives benefit many people whom they will never see. The archives' reading room is also named for Hubbert. The archives has a reference library of local and social history materials, but many of Hubbert's books concern early Ontario education and may not be suitable for the archives' permanent collection. For the moment they are housed where the public can browse among the old textbooks.