Croatian Collection
Croatian Women at the Croatian Hall, ca 1959, Donated by Frank Starzomski, PH-05008
The peak of Croatian immigration to Canada occurred during the 1920s and 1930s, when young men traveled the country looking for work. The steel plant and the coal mines in Sydney and its vicinity offered employment even during the depression years and drew thousands of immigrants to Cape Breton island. This collection documents the lives and stories of Canadians of Croatian descent and some aspects of the history of their community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The collection includes series of interviews, photographs, family documents, and other materials collected by Jelka Vukobratovic and Jana Zoric over the course of their fieldwork in Cape Breton in the fall of 2013.