The fonds consists of two North-West Territories Public School Leaving Examinations booklets from June 1897 and June 1898. The Department of Education in Medicine Hat was part of the North-West Territories until the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were created out of the Territories in 1905. Although the first schools in Alberta were founded by Catholic and Protestant missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century, the North-West Territories School Ordinance of 1884 established a dual confessional system of Catholic and Protestant schooling based on the Quebec model. A photocopy of a group photograph including Ms. Ireland and her father, Thomas, owner of the local brewery, is also included.