Step-by-Step: Looking Up an Ancestor’s First World War Record
This is a step-by-step guide to accessing military records both through LAC’s website but also on-site.
Category Archives: Technology
One form of remembrance: mapping Toronto’s World War II casualties
Today, Canadians across the country will observe Remembrance Day. The tradition of remembering the casualties of war on November 11 first began in 1919, following the end of the First World War. Through public commemorations or more private ways, citizens will think about the sacrifices of thousands of men and women who have risked their lives for country, faith, and… Read more »
Third History Matters series lecture uncovers Toronto’s subway past
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Young-History-Matters-talk.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJay 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… Read more »
Transcription in a Digital World
You are cleaning out the attic of your house and find a diary from the early 1900s written by a distant relative. What do you do with the diary? How do you make it useful to the general public? Donating it to a museum or an archive is a good start. However, in order for the diary to be useful… Read more »
The Sound of History
http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/americanradioworks/podcast/arw_4_3_john_biewen.mp3?_kip_ipx=972215519-1283174810Podcast: Play in new window | Download A few months ago the American Radio Works posted a very interesting podcast on the art of making radio documentaries. The podcast included a live presentation given by Stephen Smith and John Biewen about a new book Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound. While the whole discussion is very interesting, the second… Read more »
Sharing History Through Used Books and the Internet
In honour of both the September crunch and ActiveHistory.ca‘s own expanding book review section — be sure to check out Mitch Primeau’s review of The Second Greatest Disappointment (1999) — I’ll be devoting this month’s post to some of my favourite used book websites. History tends to involve a few more books than other disciplines — okay, a lot more…. Read more »
The e-Book Revolution
I bought an iPad. Before you cheer or frown, let me tell you, I’m filled with an immense surge of guilt—not because my purchase left a hefty dent in my wallet, but because I have needlessly contributed to the e-Book revolution. As Thomas Hager explains, Bottom line is stark: paper and ink books are on the way out. There, I… Read more »
Time Machine Being Built South of the Border
The first steps towards building a historical time machine are underway south of the border. A group of American history educators have founded an ambitious plan to create the “Civil War Augmented Reality Project.” This first time machine will be a literal window into the past. By taking advantage of smart phone and tablet computer technology, as well as their… Read more »
Can We Redeem File-Sharing After the Download Decade?
The term “download decade” is an effective description of the first ten years of this infant century and the first rising chapter of the so-called Information Age. It accurately distills the blind conspiracy between the exponential availability of high-speed Internet, the gradual decrease in the cost of personal computers, the rise of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and websites like Napster and… Read more »
An environmental 9/11
by Jeff Slack Public outrage mounts with every successive failure to mend the gaping wound in the Gulf of Mexico seabed. Struggling to affirm his leadership in the spill’s wake, President Obama recently described the disaster as “an environmental 9/11,” underscoring the need for a bold new energy-environment policy. Through reference to the still-poignant memory of 9/11, the president seems… Read more »