The other day my friend Katherine Taylor (AKA One Gal’s Toronto, author of the terrific Toronto: City of Commerce 1800-1960) showed me her stunning photos of shipwrecks around Garden Island, Ontario, one of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, south of Kingston and northwest of Wolfe Island. Now I’m feeling like I deserve …
A quick post to say that today I learned of the Tulsa Race Massacre which took place 100 years ago on May 31 and June 1, 1921. Not just learned about, but of. Despite having a decent awareness of American history, and having lived one state away from Oklahoma in Colorado for 13 years, I’d …
Above: “The King’s Helmet from Sutton Hoo” by The British Museum, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. © The Trustees of the British Museum One of the most popular exhibits in The British Museum is found in Room 41: Sutton Hoo and Europe AD 300–1100, featuring artefacts from the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk. …
Seeking to maximize my museums-per-day on a recent visit to Kleinburg (see also McMichael Canadian Art Collection), I was delighted to discover that a new facility has appeared on the main street: the Pierre Berton Heritage Centre. The centre is in a newly restored historic site, the City of Vaughan-owned Gothic Revival style former Kleinburg …
For archivists, genealogists, etc., too. If you’ve ever cursed Thoughtless People Of The Past, you may enjoy this most perfect tweet I saw this morning. Couldn’t possibly express it better myself. Ok, so. On behalf of all historians, in all eras, I have three simple things to ask of you all: 1) keep diaries & …
My collection of Ontario historic plaques photos has reached 250! Yesterday, in fact, was an 11-plaque day, bringing the total to 262. Created last December 2017 as a test collection for an Omeka software demonstration website, my plaques project has turned into a fun and mildly obsessive little hobby. I began with about 60 photos, …
Last week I was in Washington D.C., on the way to a conference in Baltimore. It was my fifth time in D.C. since a first memorable class trip from Toronto at the impressionable age of 13, which included a heartbreaking visit to the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. As on previous D.C. trips, I …
Warning: if you’re a London enthusiast, this post may sidetrack your day. A previous blog post was primarily about digital collections of London in images (photographs, prints, drawings, etc.). This post looks at the wider world of digital collections about London, including maps, in ten outstanding examples. As a parameter, I’ve included only collections that do not …
I was lucky to have the opportunity to attend the Archives Association of Ontario’s (AAO) recent workshop on Research Methods for Genealogy and Local History, held at the Archives of Ontario in Toronto. The full-day workshop was intended to guide information professionals on how to support their users’ genealogical and local history research needs. Working with …
Like many people, I love watching history on television. Bring on the Lucy Worsleys, the David Starkeys, the Tony Robinsons, Dan Snows, Michael Woods, Simon Schamas (especially the Simon Schamas), and the Horrible Histories too. The medium does have its downsides, including potentially invoking the stereotypical Famous Historian in the 1975 film Monty Python and the …
