The New Iceland Research collection subseries began from a research project Robert Ásgeirsson pursued for a potential documentary film called “The Twelve Year Republic,” about New Iceland, Manitoba. He began looking for photographic evidence from the first years of the community in the 1870s and early 1880s but ultimately found that most of the photographs were from the turn of the 20th century. He accumulated research information, correspondence, publications and photographs (copies and originals) from community members of the Icelandic National League (INL) in Manitoba and the Provincial Archives of Manitoba. Many of the photographs depict the lifestyle of New Icelanders.

He wrote a proposal for the documentary but ultimately, the project did not come to fruition. Ásgeirsson gave the photographs to the Gimli Museum in 1975. What remains in the subseries are the textual research documents kept in subject files in their original order, and copies of the original photographs of New Iceland Ásgeirsson collected during his original project. This subseries is the first collection created by the Icelandic Archives of British Columbia and was the inciting force of its collecting practices in the future.