Category Archives: Historians and their Collections

Collecting – and Curating – Eclectic Canadiana

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Close-up photograph of a brown piece of wood. There is a brass plate affixed with these words embossed on it: “From the teak of H.M.S. Ganges, the last sailing ship to serve as a seagoing flagship.”

Forrest Pass Collecting made me a historian. A few months ago, in the course of my work as a curator at Library and Archives Canada, I came across a letter from Francis Parkman to Dominion Archivist Douglas Brymner and it made me smile, because my first “acquisition” as a child philatelist had been a stamp commemorating “Francis Parkman – American… Read more »

Language, history and British automobiles: where schoolwork and hobby connect

A silver-beige car with chrome grille parked on a black road. There are trees visible behind the vehicle.

Ian McCallum As a PhD student, I work with all aspects of the Munsee language, an Indigenous language spoken in southwestern Ontario. This involves research, teaching, documentation and the creation of resources. As a student, I study best practice in language learning and revitalization methods that can support community-based initiatives. As both a researcher and a student, language work can… Read more »

Scaling Down History: A Hobby

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A miniature model of a Civil War battlefield, featuring model soldiers with Union and Confederate flags.

Sean Campbell When I was a kid, my family would sometimes visit the model train exhibit at our local tourist office in North Bay, Ontario. When I stepped into the four train boxcars, welded together and crafted into four distinct rooms, it felt like shifting into a different world. But this large layout spread over four boxcars made me feel… Read more »

A Historian’s Collection, or Understanding my obsession with royal commemoratives

China cups and saucers with royal portraits on them.

Gillian Leitch I have always collected things.  I think it is a part of what has made me a good researcher, the desire to see and have many examples of something that interests me and from which I can create a larger narrative. Certainly, as a historian I have collected documents, information and knowledge about my research interests of immigration,… Read more »