Category Archives: History and Everyday Life

Walking History: Jane’s Walk in Toronto and Vancouver

68 cities recently took part in Jane’s Walk, an annual weekend of free walking tours honouring the vision of urbanist Jane Jacobs.  Ordinary people, Jacobs argued, can learn about and improve their surroundings by observing their daily environments at street level.  These walks also bring out the histories of place through members of the local community – walk leaders and… Read more »

Should We Embrace the Short URL?

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The increasing number of primary and secondary sources made available by various online archives and databases continue to aid researchers and enrich the historical community as a whole. But they have also created challenges for more conventional forms of resource sharing in a community where print arguably remains the standard. While websites have generally made a more concerted effort to… Read more »

May Day in Hamilton, Ontario

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The first of May, celebrated in many nations across the world as Labour Day or International Workers Day, has a long tradition of worker’s activism and protest.  This year was no different, as protestors around the world rallied to send various messages to governments. May Day is not officially recognized as Labour Day in northern North America, despite its North… Read more »

Remembering and Commemorating a Complicated Past

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In this post, I look at controversies surrounding a statue of Nellie McClung, due to her early-20th century support of eugenics.

Jane’s Walks: community history tours

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Since 2007 people have come together once a year to celebrate and remember the life of Jane Jacobs by leading or participating in walking tours of their local communities.  As Jacobs argued, walkability is essential for urban communities.  These tours seem to be a truly fitting monument to Jacob’s legacy.  The walks began in Toronto, but have since spread well… Read more »

Street History

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Often the public face of history is seen in museums or government issued historical plaques; but important historical narratives also exist outside of these structures, and they often tell stories that otherwise remain obscure or hidden by more official ways of historical story telling. I call this way of sharing the past street history.

A Century of Neglect: Epidemic Tuberculosis in Native Communities

by Jane Whalen The 2010 Quality of Life Index boasted that Canada’s “health care and living standards are among the highest in the world.”  Ask your average Canadian and they would probably agree.  Ask an Aboriginal person and you would be in for quite a shock. Third world conditions exist in Canada – what an outrageous claim to make about… Read more »

Space and Historical Imagery: Making History Accessible

This post quickly looks at some neat new internet-based websites that attempt to make historical imagery accessible to the general public.

Walking Tours: Brooklyn and Beyond

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By Teresa Iacobelli Relocating to a new city can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. Recently I have made the move from Ottawa, Ontario to Brooklyn, New York, and in the short time that I have been here I have felt a slew of emotions ranging from awe to frustration. Living in a city of this size can… Read more »