Active History

The Future of the Library in the Digital Age? Worrying about Preserving our Knowledge

September 29, 2014 1 Comment

By Ian Milligan

Yesterday afternoon, in the atrium of the University of Waterloo’s Stratford Campus, a packed room forewent what was likely the last nice weekend of summer to join Peter Mansbridge and guests for a discussion around “What’s the future of the library in the age of Google?” It was aired on CBC’s Cross Country Checkup on CBC Radio One, available here. It was an interesting discussion, tackling major issues such as what local libraries should do in the digital age, issues of universal accessibility, and whether we should start shifting away from a model of physically acquiring sources (notably books) towards new models for the 21st century. Historians, and those who care about history, have much to contribute to these sorts of conversations. Those who know me or have read my writings over the last three years know that I’m not a luddite. But I came away worried about some of the assumptions made in the conversation, and what they mean for us who write about the past.

A big crowd of folks who care enough about libraries to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon in a university building lobby.

I don’t want to rehash the conversation, as you could rewatch it, but a brief summary of some of the main themes might help. The broadcast began with Peter Mansbridge asking the major question “Digital technology is changing the way we store information, and how we learn from it. Does it make sense to stack printed books in costly buildings when virtual libraries are just a mouse-click away?” Mansbridge was joined by Christine McWebb, director of academic programs at the Waterloo Stratford Campus, and Ken Roberts, former chief librarians of the Hamilton Public Library and a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s Expert Panel on the Future of Libraries and Archives in Canada. Continue reading →

Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History by Sean Kheraj

September 26, 2014 1 Comment

By Lani Russwurm

It would be difficult to overstate the significance of Stanley Park to Vancouver’s identity. Visiting the park is obligatory for tourists, and locals from across the spectrum use it frequently for a myriad of activities. But the feature that distinguishes Stanley Park from most other large urban parks is its large forest that serves as a refreshing natural oasis in the midst of the city, and a reminder of what the rest of Vancouver might have been like before we paved it over.

On the other hand, despite the aesthetic feel of Stanley Park’s forest, it is not much more “natural” than my houseplants, a point amply made in Sean Kheraj’s Inventing Stanley Park. Kheraj isn’t the first to puncture the myth that the Stanley Park forest is pristine or ancient (a theme addressed in a Museum of Vancouver exhibition a few years ago), but neither is he content in simply myth-busting. As an environmental history, Inventing Stanley Park explores the dynamic and fascinating relationship between nature and culture that forged the Stanley Park we know today. Continue reading →

A Healthy Custom

September 25, 2014 2 Comments

By Andrew Nurse

Nurse - Sept 2014 “What Use is History?” This is the question asked by a 1958 article in The Royal Bank of Canada Monthly Letter. I will confess that I have no particular soft spot for the Royal Bank (even though, I suppose, it technically owns the house in which I live), but I was intrigued that a bank’s newsletter addressed this issue. It is, I’d suggest, yet another sign that history — or, more precisely arguments for its relevance — never go out of vogue. Even more intriguing, however, were the answers. The article is marred by the language of the time that will periodically sound very odd to our ears. There is much, too, in this short piece (four pages) with which a great number of people — particularly practicing historians — will disagree. Yet, there is also a surprising breadth of vision and, more importantly, an effort to catalogue precisely why history is not simply interesting but important to public culture.

I was drawn to this piece because I have a friend who teaches a course called “The Use and Abuse of the Past” and I thought it might make a good reading for course. It might. But, as I looked over it, it struck me as an interesting place to begin a wider discussion of active history, its meanings and implications. I’m going to venture into what are for me uncharted waters and so I’ll encourage you to offer comments, corrections, additions, subtractions, and anything else you have to offer in the comments below. My subject is a big one: what use is Active History? This RBC newsletter article helps us a bit because it can highlight the differences and similarities between the way we see history and its uses today and the way the anonymous author saw the same matters in 1958. Continue reading →

Introducing The Home Archivist

September 24, 2014 3 Comments

By Jessica Dunkin

This is the first in a series of posts called The Home Archivist, in which a professional historian discusses her experiences with a private collection of 19th-century letters.

In the two years leading up to their wedding on June 29^th, 1891, Amelia Wilkinson and John MacKendrick exchanged letters almost daily. Unlike most collections of courting letters, this one has survived along with more than two decades of the family’s correspondence. At some point after 1918, the letters were packaged into a box and dispatched to the attic of the MacKendrick family home in Galt, Ontario. They remained there until John and Amelia’s eldest daughter, Norah, passed away in 1984. At that point, the letters were moved to the family cottage in Windermere, Ontario. Eventually, the collection travelled to Bob and Marge MacKendrick’s home in Milford, Connecticut. Bob is the grandson of Amelia and John.

The MacKendrick Family, c. 1910 (Source: Bob and Marge MacKendrick)
Top from Left: Norah (1893-1984), John (1859-1956), Amelia (unknown-1928), Bruce (1892-1938)
Bottom from Left: Bessie (1898-1926), John (1900-1972)

The Box’s Journey

In August 2014, I (temporarily) acquired the MacKendrick letters. Although Marge and Bob had lived with the box for many years, they had only opened it a few times and when they did, they found the task of deciphering nineteenth-century handwriting daunting. Thus, they were unsure of what the letters contained. They assumed, however, that because of John’s active involvement with the American Canoe Association (ACA)—he was a member from at least the early 1880s until the 1910s and was elected Commodore in 1896—there might be something of interest for me in the letters. My doctoral dissertation, “Canoes and Canvas: The Social and Spatial Politics of Sport/Leisure in Late Nineteenth Century North America” (Carleton University, 2012),” explored the annual encampments and regattas of the ACA from 1880 to 1910.

When the MacKendricks first offered the letters to me in April 2014, I was both thrilled and terrified. Continue reading →

A Canadian Observing the Great War Centenary in London, UK

September 23, 2014 2 Comments

Poppy Arch, University of London, Queen Mary campus. Photo by author.

Poppy Arch, Tower of London. Photo by author.

By Christopher Schultz

A kangaroo burger beckoned from the menu. It was a small taste of the exotic in London’s Mile End area, which is known primarily today as the site of Queen Mary, University of London’s main campus. After the third of four long days discussing “Perspectives on the ‘Great’ War,” an exotic burger seemed like a nice reward.

Fortunately, a newly made Australian friend was with me and our five other colleagues from England, Canada and the United States, and so I asked: “What does it taste like?”

“Blood,” she replied, a look of disgust crossing her face. “It’s got so much iron in it that it just tastes like blood.”

Blood and iron? The Great War in meal form. I ordered it. Continue reading →

Bringing the Legacy of Residential Schools into the Classroom

September 22, 2014 5 Comments

Project of Heart gestures of reconciliation

By Krista McCracken

Teaching about an emotionally charged, important topic like residential schools can be daunting, especially if like many Canadians you weren’t exposed to residential schools in any great depth during your own education. My job includes the delivery of educational programming relating to residential schools. This most commonly takes the form of historical tours of the Shingwauk Residential School site, presentations, or workshops focusing on the history of residential schools. All of these activities can be engaging and are worthwhile. But from my experience the most impactful way of learning about residential schools is talking with residential school Survivors and Elders.

The inclusion of oral history and providing students the opportunity to speak with someone who attended a residential school can have profound impacts. It brings history alive, it sparks the realization that residential schools didn’t happen in some distant past, and help make the history much more tangible and relatable to students.

I’m fortunate to work for an organization that has strong ties to a group of Survivors – the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA). The CSAA have been instrumental in preserving the history of the Shingwauk Residential School and they have built a network of Survivors that support education initiatives. But not everyone has the same relationship with survivors or access to communities. Approaching the topic of residential schools can be challenging for teachers, particularly those with little exposure to First Nation, Métis, or Inuit communities. Educators may want to teach their students about residential schools or invite an Elder into their classroom but have no idea where to start.

There are some excellent educational resources and programs that educators can turn to when looking to incorporate residential schools in their classrooms. The following list is by no means exhaustive but is meant to serve as a starting point for educators and those interested learning more about residential schools. Continue reading →

New Paper: Debating Canada’s Future: A Night at Montreal’s Sohmer Park, 1892

September 19, 2014 No Comments

As the media has made clear over the past several weeks, what took place in Scotland yesterday resonates strongly with past independence movements in Canada. What has been less apparent in these discussions, which usually focus solely on the Quebec referendums in 1980 and 1995, are the deep roots in which Canada’s political future was debated. One of those lesser known moments in this history occurred at the tail end of the nineteenth century when Canadians debated whether to stay the course as a Dominion within the British empire, acquire greater independence from Britain, or amalgamate with the United States. In recognition of yesterday’s “no” victory, ActiveHistory.ca is proud to publish Aaron Boyes paper “Debating Canada’s Future: A Night at Montreal’s Sohmer Park, 1892.”

Sohmer Park Pavilion

On July 1 2017, we, the people of Canada, will celebrate our country’s 150^th birthday. Over the past several years federal, provincial, and municipal governments have been gearing up for this historic event by planning elaborate celebrations to mark the triumphs of our great nation. Yet this confidence and pride in Canada was not always evident. In fact, in the 1880s and 1890s, a mere twenty years after Confederation, there emerged serious discussions concerning the country’s political future. The country was stuck in a prolonged and seemingly unending economic depression despite numerous attempts to solve it.[1] Linguistic strife, which had been decreasing in the first two decades after Confederation, once again became a national issue, thanks in large part to the execution of Louis Riel in 1885. On top of these issues, a unique and distinct Canadian nationalism was struggling to develop, which enabled regionalism to dominate Canadian identity. At the same time, Canada was faced with several international dilemmas with the United States, based largely on the rights of fishermen in and around Canadian waters. These internal and external pressures led some people to determine that Confederation was a failure. This article explores one of the more forgotten episodes in Canadian history. On November 28 1892, a sizeable crowd attended a political conference at Sohmer Park in Montreal. The topic of this conference: Canada’s future. If Confederation was a failure, as many had come to believe, what was the best option for the young Dominion moving forward? [read more]

In addition to our group blog, ActiveHistory.ca strives to provide timely, well-written and researched papers on a variety of history-related topics. If you have a paper that resonates well with our mandate please consider submitting it to us. For more information visit our Papers Section or contact papers@activehistory.ca. All of our papers are peer reviewed to ensure that they are accurate and up-to-date.

The Power-Politics of Pulp and Paper: Health, Environment and Work in Pictou County

September 18, 2014 1 Comment

“Pictou” by Phil Holmes. Licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.5.

Lachlan MacKinnon

In recent months, concerns surrounding pollution at the Northern Pulp mill in Abercrombie, Nova Scotia have prompted extensive local debate and filled the pages of provincial newspapers with columns and op-ed pieces. Controversy erupted in June, after Northern Pulp announced that the mill was shutting down operations to deal with a wastewater leak. Pictou Landing First Nation chief Andrea Paul and the band council immediately announced a blockade of the site’s access road; for Paul, the effluent leak was only the latest issue in a series of disputes relating to the disposal of waste in the area of Boat Harbour adjacent to First Nations lands. She told a gathering of protesters at the blockade, “In 1991, ’95, ’97 and 2008 we were promised they would clean up Boat Harbour . . . If we back down now, we’ll be in the same situation we were in before.”

Although the blockade ended and the plant was soon reopened after the provincial government agreed to introduce a bill “enacting into law timelines for the cessation of the use of the Boat Harbour Effluent Treatment Facility,” by August another environmental issue had emerged. It was revealed on 1 August that a study completed in October 2013 found that emissions from Northern Pulp “contained nearly twice the particulate matter allowed under provincial regulations.” Within days of the announcement, a protest group comprised of more than 100 people gathered in the nearby town of Pictou to demand a clean up of the mill and outline concerns over public health. Resident Wendy Kearley told a CBC news reporter that she has not been able to leave her home without a respirator in several years. Nova Scotia Minister of Health and Wellness Leo Glavine downplayed the health effects of the particulate matter; “We only have anecdotal information,” he told reporters, “we have nothing really substantial from the scientific community or medical community to indicate that we have a problem that needs to be addressed right at this moment.” Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Fifty-One: The History of Women in Science and Engineering

September 17, 2014 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

By Sean Graham

This is the second episode in our series of podcasts recorded at the 2014 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. The conference was held May 22-25 at the University of Toronto.

The 2014 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians that was held in Toronto was a remarkable event for a variety of reason, not least of which was the incredible scope of the research presented. While the conference broadly dealt with women’s history, there were plenty of sub-fields on display. From the history of sexuality to health to class, the conference was a terrific display of the tremendous diversity within the historical profession.

As someone who never had extensive exposure to women’s history, one of the most interesting panels I attended during the conference was the one discussing the history of women in science and engineering. Of particular interest were the stories of early pioneers in these fields and the struggles not only to thrive in a competitive environment, but also to overcome the culture that attempted to restrict their access to professional opportunities. These women were not only talented scientists and engineers, but also leaders in the women’s movement and opened doors for future generations. Their stories are full of sacrifice and struggle.
Continue reading →

Over the Top: The Archives of Ontario’s WWI Onsite Exhibit

September 16, 2014 1 Comment

Exhibit 1 By Timothy Humphries

Before 2009, the Archives of Ontario had been housed in five different locations. Remarkably, not one of them provided an exhibit space. This became a must-have when a sixth location was sought in 2006. Now onsite exhibits can be created regularly to showcase the Archives’ many rich and varied collections. This requires investing significant amounts of time and thought into the design of each new exhibit. Because when it comes to creating an exhibit, there are no instructions, no templates, no cheat sheets – nothing but a blank canvas awaiting an imprint from the myriad possibilities that the imagination can conceive. This was the case for the World War I exhibit, particularly since it was the first exhibit of archival materials to be curated in-house. Continue reading →

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