By Greg Kennedy The government is trying really hard to make Canadians feel like the War of 1812 was important. Variations of these themes announced on the government’s website, 1812.gc.ca, are routinely expressed by politicians, directors of heritage sites and members of local historical societies: “Canada would not exist had the American invasion of 1812-15 been successful.” The war “set… Read more »
The Western Corridor War of 1812 Bicentennial Alliance (WCA) is one of 7 regions in Ontario set up by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812.
This is the third in a weekly series of posts leading up to the mini-conference The War of 1812: Whose War was it Anyway? being held at the University of Waterloo on May 30th. By Ian McKay and Jamie Swift Warmonger politicians customarily indulge in high rhetoric, attempting to rally the citizenry round the flag and boost the bloodletting. Or… Read more »
by Mike Commito This week marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the luxury ocean liner, R.M.S. Titanic. The vessel was on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City when it struck an iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, sinking in the early hours of the morning. The ship was supposed to make history through… Read more »
“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… Read more »
An exploration of how digitization changes the context of photography, with a particular emphasis on post-mortem photography.
The Government of Canada has declared 2010 to be the Year of the British Home Child. Earlier this month, Canada Post released a commemorative stamp to honour this recognition. The stamp, designed by Debbie Adams of Adams+Associates Design Consultants, contains three images: the SS Sardinian, on which home children migrated from Britain to Canada; a photograph of a home child… Read more »
In this post, I look at controversies surrounding a statue of Nellie McClung, due to her early-20th century support of eugenics.
