Gate of former GM North Plant site in Oshawa

“Sam McLaughlin’s name continues to loom large over the city of Oshawa.  But the stories of working people offer alternate versions of history.  Spaces in the city ought to be made for commemorating and remembering these stories,” historian Christine McLaughlin (no relation to Sam) recently argued during her talk at a local library in Toronto.  McLaughlin’s presentation, “Producing History in an Auto Town: Oshawa After World War II,” explored the “highly political process” of how people have made and understood the historical memory of General Motors in Oshawa. 

McLaughlin’s talk is available here for audio download.

The presentation was the last talk of the 2011 History Matters lecture series, which gave the public an opportunity to connect with working historians and discover some of the many and surprising ways in which the past shapes the present.  This year’s talks focused on two themes: labour and environmental history.  Podcasts from other talks from the series can be found here.

Over the past few weeks, cities across Canada have evicted Occupy protesters from camping overnight in public parks.  Opinion remains divided over the tactics of the amorphous movement.  One lawyer recently defended the group by arguing in court that the occupation of Toronto’s St. James Park was a “physical manifestation of the exercise of … conscience.”  In other words, the medium is the message.  But some residents living in the area expressed that they felt threatened, and local businesses complained about a loss in revenue.  A Toronto judge ruled that the reasonable limits clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms overrides the protesters’ particular means of freedom of expression.  Last Wednesday, police evicted the final protesters from the park.

The use of public space for political protest has a long and contested history in Canada.  Historian Craig Heron recently presented a timely talk entitled “Labour on the March: 150 Years of Labour Parades in Toronto.”  He began his presentation by pointing out the Occupy movement’s uses of the street.  For example, protesters in Toronto had used their bodies to form a “99” (as in “99 percent”) at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Streets while media helicopters hovered above.  People move through streets to communicate a message, Heron argued.  Historically, parades have been an “extremely important form of mass communication,” and it was one way in which labour demanded respect within wider Canadian society during the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Heron’s talk comes from research for his 2005 book The Workers’ Festival: A History of Labour Day in Canada, which he co-wrote with Steve Penfold.  The talk is available here for audio download.

The presentation was part of the 2011 History Matters lecture series, which gave the public an opportunity to connect with working historians and discover some of the many and surprising ways in which the past shapes the present.  This year’s talks focused on two themes: labour and environmental history.  Some of these presentations are now available in our podcast section. Stay tuned for recordings of subsequent talks from the series.

Historical Geographer Richard Harris recently presented a talk entitled “The Making of Dufferin-St. Clair: 1900-1929” at a local library located in this Toronto neighbourhood.  Following his talk, a room full of community members shared their personal memories of the area’s social and physical development.  Harris’s talk comes from research for his book, Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto’s American Tragedy, 1900 to 1950 (1996), which examined the rise and fall of working-class home ownership in Toronto’s suburbs.  The Dufferin-St. Clair neighbourhood, also known today as Corso Italia, is a key location in the book.

Harris’s talk is available here for audio download.

The presentation is the fourth talk of the 2011 History Matters lecture series.  Now in its second year, the series gives the public an opportunity to connect with working historians and discover some of the many and surprising ways in which the past shapes the present.  This year’s talks focus on two themes: labour and environmental history.

The next History Matters lecture takes place this Thursday, when Craig Heron will discuss the history of labour parades in Toronto.  Click here for more details.

Toronto Public Library is pleased to announce the 2011 History Matters series.

This year these lectures focus on two themes—labour and environmental history in the Toronto area and beyond. Part of TPL’s Thought Exchange programming, these lively talks will give the public an opportunity to connect with working historians and discover some of the many and surprising ways in which the past shapes the present.

The series has been curated by Dr. Lisa Rumiel, SSHRC Post Doctoral Fellow at McMaster University. Dr. Rumiel is also the Book Review Editor for Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. We are especially grateful for the generous grant provided by The History Education Network (THEN/Hier), which has made the series possible.

Spadina Sweatshops: Jews and Gender in Toronto’s Labour Movement, 1900-1939
Ruth Frager (Dept. of History, McMaster)
Wed. Sept. 14, 7 pm
Lillian H. Smith Branch
239 College Street 416-393-7746

Three Mile Island to Bhopal: the Life and Work of Environmental Activist Rosalie Bertell
Lisa Rumiel (McMaster University)
Thurs. Sept. 29, 7 pm
Parkdale Branch
1303 Queen Street West 416-393-7686

Imagined Futures for the Lower Don: A History of Big Ideas for a Small River
Jennifer Bonnell (University of Guelph)
Wed. Oct. 12, 7 pm
Riverdale Branch
370 Broadview Ave. 416-393-7720

The Making of Dufferin-St. Clair: 1900-1929
Richard Harris (McMaster University)
Thurs. Oct. 20, 7 pm
Dufferin St. Clair Branch
1625 Dufferin Street 416-393-7712

Labour on the March: 150 Years of Labour Parades in Toronto
Craig Heron (York University)
Thurs. Oct 27, 7 pm
Beeton Auditorium, Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge Street 416-395-5577

Learning About e. coli From Walkerton
Joy Parr (University of Western Ontario)
Wed Nov. 2 , 2 pm
Northern District Branch
40 Orchard View Blvd. 416-393-7610

Building Postwar Toronto: When Planning and Politics Collide
Stephen Bocking (Trent University)
Mon. Nov. 7, 7 pm
Annette Branch
145 Annette Street 416-393-7692

Producing History in an Auto Town: Oshawa After World War II
Christine McLaughlin (York University)
Wed., Nov. 16, 6:30 pm
Pape/Danforth Branch
701 Pape Ave. 416-393-7727

Note: talks from the 2010 Toronto Public Library History Matters lecture series are available for download in our podcast section.  ActiveHistory.ca hopes to post all the upcoming Fall 2011 talks as podcasts too.

Used with the permission of Toronto Public Library

Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, brother of city mayor Rob Ford, recently ignited public controversy over potential cuts to the city’s public library services when he claimed not to know much about author Margaret Atwood, who had spoken out against possible cuts to services and closures of library branches. Councillor Ford’s insistence that Atwood “get democratically elected” so that she could have a say in deciding library funding policy in the city was ludicrous, particularly given the Toronto Public Library’s history.

Much of the financial backing that spurred the construction of public libraries in Toronto, and Ontario more generally, in the early twentieth century came from retired American industrial steel magnate Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropy, more specifically his fund dedicated to public libraries. Though public libraries had been slowly gaining in support throughout the late nineteenth century, it was Carnegie’s funds that provided a valuable boost to public library growth. Carnegie’s grants helped build 125 libraries in Canada, 111 of which were in Ontario. In Toronto alone, libraries such as Yorkville (1907); Queen and Lisgar (1909); the Central Reference Library (1909); Riverdale (1910); Wychwood (1916); High Park (1916) and Beaches (1916) were built using Carnegie grants. Three more—Western Branch/Annette Street (1909), Weston (1914), and Mimico (1914)—would be absorbed into the Toronto Public Library system when the city merged with nearby communities.

Carnegie’s grants did not come without strings, however. Proposals had to meet three conditions: a suitable site had to be found and approved, ten percent of the grant value had to be guaranteed by the municipality for annual operating costs and, most importantly, the library had to be free to its citizens. Not everyone cheered Carnegie’s benevolence. Nationalists opposed the American influence that Carnegie represented. Labour activists accused Carnegie, whose steel fortunes had been built in an industry marked by labour strife such as the disastrous strike at a Carnegie-owned Homestead Steel Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1892 where 11 strikers were killed and 145 wounded, of using money earned from the exploitation of workers to fund his charity. In Toronto, the Council of Allied Printing Trades and the Toronto District Labour Council both officially opposed the city taking any Carnegie Grant, with some even calling it “blood money”.

Ultimately, Carnegie won over Toronto city council, and even some opponents, with a popular call to the cause of self-help and hard work. Libraries, he argued, provided the ‘means by which those who desire to improve may do so.” Carnegie’s praise of the self-educated man, using the library as a means of bettering his lot in life was echoed by Toronto Chief Librarian George Locke in 1930:

“There is a large, and what ought to be an influential, division of education known as the public library, an educational institution with no entrance requirements, no fees, no instructors and no examinations. It has books and trained persons whose duty it is to help people to help themselves.”

Lorne Bruce, who has written extensively about public libraries in Ontario, argues that it was Carnegie’s grants which provided a needed boost to the nascent public library movement and often forced many communities to adopt free public library models in order to receive funds. After receiving the funds, however, many public library administrators, both professional and elected, shaped community libraries to suit local needs and demands such as open access to collections, multipurpose space, outreach services and specialized collections such as children’s departments.

In spite of Carnegie’s conservative views of economic forces and capital being the product of hard work and thrift, without the funds he provided, Ontario’s public libraries might not have grown as quickly as they did. Local control of libraries, provided in Carnegie’s grant requirements, remained a countervailing force against libraries becoming beholden to private interests throughout the years of Carnegie’s influence and beyond.

What does all this have to do with the Ford brothers and their dismissal of public concern with public libraries? Recent media coverage of a marathon session of city council held for public hearings into possible budget cuts, particularly to libraries, highlights citizens’ connection to libraries as vital spaces both for self-improvement and pleasure. Particularly striking however, was a moment at 2 a.m. of the proceedings, when 14 year old Anika Tabovaradan had her turn at the microphone. Tabovaradan spoke about using her local branch for research and studying and how crucial it was for her schooling.

“I’m no taxpayer,” she said, gasping for air, “but when I get to use the computers in the library and do my homework, I’ll be able to get a good job someday … and when the day comes to pay taxes, I’ll be glad that you supported people paying the extra taxes to keep the system going.”

Her testimony reveals the pervasive and continuing power of the image of the public library not just as a space for the arts, but as a space for self-improvement and shaping future citizens, in this case defined as tax payers. Cutting accessibility to these resources, then, is not simply a case of needing to know who Margaret Atwood is, or why she should matter, but rather how we view social mobility, progress and the public good. If Margaret Atwood and the many citizens who testified at city council can’t convince the Fords of the importance of free public libraries, maybe the ideas and spirit of another “unelected” figure, one of the most successful businessmen of his period, can.

Further Reading:

Lorne D. Bruce, Free Books for All: The Public Library Movement in Ontario, 1850-1930 (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1994).

Margaret Penman, A Century of Service: Toronto Public Library, 1883-1983 (Toronto: Toronto Public Library, 1983).

Siobhan Stevenson, “The Political Economy of Andre Carnegie’s Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates,” Library and Information History, Vol. 26, No. 4 (December,2010), 237-257.

The most common question I get when people ask where I live is: “Why are you still living there?” I live near Jane-Finch and York University in Toronto, a neighbourhood better known for its crime and distance from key services than its rich cultural and community life. Over the past five-and-a-half years, however, I have learned that my neighbourhood’s bark is worse than its bite. I like where I live and a recent Toronto Public Library history project does a really great job at demonstrating some of the reasons why.

Over this past summer and fall the York Woods branch of the Toronto Public Library has been engaging with seniors and high school students to create the Black Creek Living History project. This project aims to tell the story of my neighbourhood through its people and resources. By giving voice to the everyday stories from this community this history-based website helps to demonstrate why thousands of people have chosen to call Jane-Finch/York University home and reinforces the sense of community in this neighbourhood.

At the heart of this project are interviews with local seniors conducted by high school students. The interviews tell the story of the community’s transformation from a small agricultural community to one of the most culturally diverse neighbourhoods in Toronto. The people being interviewed describe migrating to the community from elsewhere in Canada and around the world, the growth of suburban Toronto and public housing, the important role that green space played in drawing people to the community, and the impact of the growth of York University (one of Canada’s largest universities) in their backyard.

In addition to the oral histories, the library ran three guest lectures and a bus tour on the history of northwest Toronto. In the videos available on the website Wendy Rowney, the interpretive co-ordinator at Black Creek Pioneer Village, discusses the 19th century history of the area. Jay Todd, director of Park Management at Downsview Park, discusses the development of Downsview, Ontario which grew in the 20th century due to the creation of a military base and airplane factory in the neighbourhood. Finally, Barbara Myrvold, a specialist on local history at the library, shares some of the library’s resources and practices of the local historian.

Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of this online resource is the collection of photographs detailing the rapid transformation of this neighbourhood. Within a decade and a half the area was transformed from an agricultural space to a suburban space with a growing university nearby. Although perhaps more dramatic and significant than in many other areas, the photos tell the story of suburban growth; its themes played out similarly throughout urban North America.

But where suburbs tend to disrupt the connections to the past through the landscape, the Black Creek Living History project does an excellent job at demonstrating the deep and continuous history of this neighbourhood. The project reminds us that today’s borders and boundaries, often determined by urban planners in the 1960s and 1970s, were once seen as important points of connection. It serves as a good reminder that the way in which we engage with everyday places changes over time based on community and planning decisions.

The Black Creek Living History project is a great example of how community history can be told over the internet. Projects like this provide the opportunity to engage community members in creating the site’s content, the flexibility to present information in a variety of formats, and present your community’s past to a broad audience. Perhaps most importantly though, they creates a resource that can challenge us to think more deeply about where we live and the way past decisions have shaped how we go about our daily tasks and our sense of community.

Jay Young, a PhD student in history and ActiveHistory.ca steering committee member, recently gave a talk called “A Public Technology: Building Toronto’s Yonge Street Subway”.  The lecture is part of the Toronto Public Library’s History Matters series.

The lecture discussed various episodes surrounding the building of Toronto’s original Yonge Street subway line during the late 1940s and early 1950s, with particular attention paid to the impacts of construction on local merchants and residents, and the immediate reactions of Torontonians towards the subway after it opened in 1954.

Young’s talk is available here for audio download.

The next History Matters lecture take place Thursday, October 21st, when Susana Miranda delivers a talk titled “Keeping the City Clean: Portuguese Women in Toronto’s Cleaning Industry, 1970-1990″. Click here for more details.

Historian, journalist, and musician Stuart Henderson recently presented an engaging talk at the inaugural History Matters lecture series, sponsored by the Toronto Public Library.

In front of a standing-room audience, Henderson’s ”Making the Scene in 1960s Yorkville” discussed the fascinating dynamics of a hip community of beatniks, hippies, and greasers that made up one of Canada’s most infamous counter-cultural neighbourhoods.

Henderson’s talk is available here for audio download.

The next History Matters talk takes place Tuesday, September 28th, when Craig Heron talks about the history of booze in Toronto.  Click here for more details.

After a month long vacation, AH Announcements is back!  The following upcoming events may be of interest to our readers (click on ‘continue reading’ below for full descriptions):

1)  Thought Exchange (History Matters) – Sept 14, 2 p.m.

2) The Toronto Beer Quest – Sept. 26, 11 a.m.

3)  Approaching the Past: The Past through Place – Sept 30, 7 p.m.

4) This week in the Active History blogosphere!

If you have an announcement that you would like included in this weekly dispatch, please e-mail info@activehistory.ca.

1)  Toronto Public Library is launching an historical lecture series this fall – THOUGHT EXCHANGE (History Matters). The series aims to develop dialogue and exchange between active Toronto historians and the broader Toronto community through a series of lively, relevant talks and discussion. The first talk is: ‘Making the Scene in 1960s Yorkville.’  Historian-musician-journalist Stuart Henderson explores Toronto’s 1960s counterculture.  September 14, 2 pm, Yorkville Branch, 22 Yorkville Ave.  (416-393-7660)

2)  The Toronto Beer Quest is an urban adventure that combines beer, history, and a chance to get to see the city.  Discover the history of brewing in Toronto, while racing around the city, during the Toronto Beer Week.  For more information check out last week’s blog post by Mirella Amato (see link below).

3)  Julia Roberts will be leading the next Approaching the Past workshop.  Professor Roberts will discuss using places, such as taverns, as entry points for teaching the past.  The event will be held at Montgomery’s Inn on September 30th at 7 p.m. For more information visit Approaching the Past or e-mail approachingthepast@gmail.com.

4)  This was still a bit of a vacation week in the AH blogosphere, mais nous avons eu l’action dans le blogue HistoireEngagee! (our partner francophone site):

-     HE: Luc Nicole-Labrie: A Reminder for Young Historians in the Media

-     AH: Mirella Amato: Exploring Toronto’s Rich Beer History

And here are the links to some posts that went up while we were on vacation (if you didn’t bring us with you to the beach):

-    AH: Colin Tyner: The Reenactment of Wartime Pasts in Yasukuni

-     HE: Carl Pépin: From Courcelette to Kandahar: The Québécois in Combat

-     AH: Adam Crymble: Time Machine Being Built South of the Border

-     HE: Luc Nicole-Labrie: Joseph Knight Boswell’s Brewery: 1843-1887

-     AH: Theresa Iacobelli: Place and Time: Old Photographs and New Technology

-     HE:  Luc Nicole-Labrie: Jean Talon’s Brewery: 1670-1675

-     AH: Brittany Luby: Integrating History and Fashion: an interview with Dorothy Grant

-     AH: Christine McLaughlin: Lessons of the Past: Equity, Equality and Education

-     HE: Luc Nicole-Labrie: Lamontagne, the Mayor of Québec: 1965-1977

-     AH: Megan Arnott: Memories of L’Anse aux Meadows

-     AH: A.J. Rowley: Can We Redeem File-Sharing After the Download Decade?

-     AH: Lisa Rumiel: History Matters: A lecture series connecting Toronto historians with the city and its people

by Lisa Rumiel

Runnymede Branch Public Library ca. 1930 (City of Toronto Archives)

On Tuesday, September 14^th the Toronto Public Library (TPL) will kick off its 6 part History Matters lecture series.  As you might have guessed from the title, the idea for the series was inspired by what’s been going on over the past couple years with the folks at Active History – both at the blog and the 2008 conference.  My goal for organizing the series with the library was to encourage the development of community and exchange between active Toronto historians and the broader Toronto community.

The idea to use a public history lecture series for building these connections came from my own experiences as a first time university lecturer.  After spending 6 years working towards my doctorate, in my relatively tiny little field of nuclear history and my even tinier corner of that particular history, I felt a little disconnected from why it is that history matters.  My dissertation was about the role of activist-oriented physicians and scientists in the American anti-nuclear movement, but while writing it I always had this nagging feeling that maybe my life would have more meaning if I was doing what these activists were doing, rather than writing about them – at what felt like a turtle’s pace.  When I started regularly lecturing to undergraduate students – about the history of medicine and the history of science – I was energized.  It was immediately clear to me why it is that history matters – not only the finessed (and sometimes inaccessible) historical arguments that academic historians love to make, but stories about the past.  For me, active history has come to mean using what happened in the past to inspire people to look outside themselves and their small corner of the world, to develop empathy for their fellow human beings, and to learn from both the good and the bad that has been done in the past.  Since my students over the years seemed to get a lot out of learning about history and because lots of the people in the public places where I wrote most of my thesis seemed interested in the history I was studying, I figured the patrons of the TPL might also enjoy learning more about history from some really cool Toronto historians.  It also helped that the TPL has the largest public library system in Canada and a staff that is totally committed to developing interesting and engaging programming for library patrons across the city!

The theme of the series is Toronto history and will begin with a talk by Stuart Henderson at the Yorkville Branch, where he’ll discuss the history of hippies in the surrounding neighbourhood.  Subsequent talks will be given by the eminent Canadian labour historian, Craig Heron, Active History.ca’s own Jay Young, Susanna Miranda, Jennifer Bonnell, Megan Davies, and David Reville.  The talks cover a wide range of historical subjects, including the history of booze, the Toronto Transit Commission, Portuguese cleaning women, homelessness in the Don Valley, and the impact of deinstitutionalization on Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.  The TPL did its best to have the location of each talk correspond with the topic.

See the full speakers list, with titles, dates, and times below.  If you’re in the Toronto area, I hope you’ll consider coming out to some of the talks.  With the exception of Henderson’s talk, which will take place at 2pm, all of them are scheduled in the evening.  ActiveHistory.ca plans to record and post these lectures on the website so those not able to attend the talks will still be able to hear them later on.  I would also appreciate people posting the program listing far and wide to help with marketing efforts.

Editor’s note: ActiveHistory.ca is happy to provide web support to anyone who wishes to start a History Matters lecture series in their own locale.  Please contact us at info@activehistory.ca if you are interested.

The Toronto Public Library Presents: Programs for the constantly curious…

History Matters

Connect with Toronto historians at these lively lectures showcasing current research on Toronto’s past and discover some of the surprising ways history matters to everyone in our city today.

Making the Scene in 1960s Yorkville
Stuart Henderson
Tues. Sept. 14, 2 pm
Yorkville Branch
22 Yorkville Ave. 416-393-7660

I’ll Drink to That: Booze in Hogtown
Craig Heron
Tues. Sept. 28, 7 pm
Annette Street Branch
145 Annette St. 416-393-7692

A Public Technology: The Building of Toronto’s Yonge Street Subway
Jay Young
Thurs. Oct. 14, 7 pm
Beaches Branch
2161 Queen St. E. 416-393-7703

Isolating Undesirables: Prisons, Pollution and Homelessness in Toronto’s Don River Valley, 1860-1932
Jennifer Bonnell
Thurs. Oct. 14, 7 pm
Bendale Branch
1515 Danforth Rd. 416-396-8910

Keeping the City Clean: Portuguese Women in Toronto’s Cleaning Industry, 1970-1990
Susana Miranda
Thurs. Oct. 21, 7 pm
Bloor/Gladstone Branch
1101 Bloor St. W. 416-393-7674

Locating Parkdale’s Mad History: Back Wards to Back Streets, 1980-2010
Megan Davies and David Reville
Thurs. Nov. 4, 7 pm
Parkdale Branch
1303 Queen St. W. 416-393-7686

Organized by the Toronto Public Library, with the assistance of Dr. Lisa Rumiel, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, McMaster University