What Happens When Incomplete Evidence Becomes an Image?
Based on an evolving creative practice, artist Feimo Zhu explores how public historians might make decisions about how to work with historical materials and narratives more transparent.
Category Archives: Public History
On the Useless History Degree
By Sarah Kittilsen As a tour guide, I answer a lot of questions. Some are related to the tour itself, but many are not. Guests ask about my life just as much as, if not more than, they ask about the history of Montreal. I wasn’t surprised, then, when a woman turned toward me one summer morning and asked, “So,… Read more »
Returning to Woodside: Changing Perspectives on a Historic House
Shannon Stettner Exterior of Woodside National Historic Site. Photograph by the author, December 2025. Last December I visited Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of Canada’s tenth Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King (WLMK). It was my first visit to the house since 1998 when I was a public history graduate student at the University of Waterloo. Back then,… Read more »
Save Our Signs: Preserving Censored Histories in America’s Largest Outdoor Classroom
By Amelia Palacios, Molly Blake, Jenny McBurney and Kirsten Delegard; co-founders of Save Our Signs On the corner of Sixth and Market streets in Philadelphia sits a contested site at the heart of the origin story Americans tell one another. Nearly two decades ago, this particular National Park Service (NPS) site was the focal point for heated debates about the… Read more »
Nova Scotia’s Rural Museums Remain at Risk!
By Erin Isaac and Cady Berardi In the weeks after a sudden February announcement that twelve provincial museums were slated to close in Nova Scotia, murmurs began to circulate that some of these sites might be rescued. The controversial decision to remove these rural sites from the Nova Scotia Museum followed significant budget cuts to several provincial departments including the… Read more »
Rounding Up: Reflections on 10 years of Unwritten Histories
By Andrea Eidinger Roundup, noun: The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition, Online edition, 2005 The very first “roundup” appeared on Unwritten Histories on April 24, 2016. My original idea was that there was so much cool stuff being published online, and more people needed to know about it. The first one was 650 words long. Little did I imagine that… Read more »
The Legacy of Unwritten Histories
By Stephanie Pettigrew When I first started my PhD in 2013, I left a very comfortable, established community of support in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, made up of friends I had known since middle school, of family. I had a general sense of knowing my community and being known by it. When I arrived in Fredericton, I found myself not… Read more »
Repost: Rural Museums Matter: The Ross-Thomson House & Store
ActiveHistory.ca is on it’s summer hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in mid-August. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our most popular and favourite posts from the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers.Originally published on March 6, 2026By Erin Isaac and Cady Berardi The thoughts and sentiments shared in this essay are our… Read more »
Bridging the Gap: The Legacy of the Soviet “Revisionist Turn”
Perhaps the principal legacy of revisionism, then, is the light that it shed on the quotidian experiences “from below” that were occluded by earlier, state-centric ideas of repressive regimes. One role of historians in the present is to bridge the gap between inherited simplifications and more nuanced understandings; by advancing academic arguments in more accessible forms historians can foster more meaningful public engagements with history and its uses in the present. When we look at Russia today, we cannot turn away from its suppression of free speech nor its persecution of political critics, but we should also acknowledge the limits of this vision. We must consider, to invoke a Russian concept, that individual and independent “existence” (byt) are also aspects of Russian life.
The Continuing Relevance of Museums in Canada
This summer, the Government of Canada helped to promote visits to museums through the Canada Strong pass. While initially focused on seven of the country’s nine national museums, other provinces and territories also opted to offer reduced and free admission. Ultimately, 87 museums across the country were part of the initiative, and early data indicates that it helped to boost attendanc. While the removal of admission fees increases accessibility, and – in turn – public enjoyment and appreciation of museums, the reality is that museums across the country are suffering from a lack of resources. To be effective stewards of the cultural heritage that they care for, museums need adequate financial support.