Tag Archives: Heritage preservation

Three Tools for the Web-Savvy Historian: Memento, Zotero, and WebCite

By Ian Milligan “Sorry, the page you were looking for is no longer available.” In everyday web browsing, a frustration. In recreating or retracing the steps of a scholarly paper, it’s a potential nightmare. Luckily, three tools exist that users should be using to properly cite, store, and retrieve web information – before it’s too late and the material is… Read more »

From the Classroom to the Front Lines of Heritage Preservation

By Christine McLaughlin I’ve spent many years in a university classrooms studying and teaching history. In true academic fashion, I’ve published an article that critically analyzes public history production and memory in a postwar industrial city. My recent appointment to Heritage Oshawa by City Council has offered me the opportunity to translate this theoretical engagement into concrete action. This has… Read more »

Commemorative Controversies: Edward Cornwallis, Collective Contention, and Historical Memory

By Lachlan MacKinnon On 30 May 2013, the controversial statue of Edward Cornwallis standing in downtown Halifax was once again thrust into public debate. That morning, the rear of the monument’s base was found to have been graffitotagged with the word “fake.” Similarly, the plaque bearing Cornwallis’s name was defaced with the words “self-righteous ass.” This was the latest salvo… Read more »

Ottawa House: Public History and Active History

      No Comments on Ottawa House: Public History and Active History

By virtue of its very lack of polish, commitment to community artifacts, and desire to treat different social groups fairly, Ottawa House presents more than a frozen past. It is not perfect, but it shows an active past, where goods moved along a range of trade networks to reach destinations far from their starting points.

Active History on the Grand: Heritage Trees in Ontario

I think that I shall never see, A poem as lovely as a tree. – Sergeant Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) While many of us may be familiar with the designation of built heritage properties under the Ontario Heritage Act, recently municipalities have been using the Ontario Heritage Act to designate individual trees as heritage trees.  Municipalities like Burlington, Pelham, Thorold, Cambridge,… Read more »

The Memorial Library: History without Historians

      9 Comments on The Memorial Library: History without Historians

The failed campaign to “Save the Memorial Library” (STML) at Mount Allison University is a fascinating study of the importance – or, lack thereof – of history in contemporary Canadian culture.

Active History on the Grand: History and Bricks

      1 Comment on Active History on the Grand: History and Bricks

Two years ago Brant County proposed to sell eight community buildings to save costs. These buildings served as schools, daycares, museums, and community centres for the rural residents of Brant County. This article examines the fight to save one building, Langford School.

Recreation to Re-creation: Restoring Natural Heritage in Public Parks

Growing up in Cambridge next to Soper Park, the park became an extension of my backyard.  I spent many days exploring the park, wading in the creek, catching crayfish and racing home-made boats.  As a child the creek seemed mysterious and ancient.  It was dammed with stone and concrete dams, and walled in with massive stones, broken by sets of… Read more »

Renaming Schools: A sign of a society in dialogue with its past

The Halifax Regional School Board’s decision to rename Cornwallis Junior High fits into a long Nova Scotian tradition of changing names with evolving social and political conditions in Nova Scotia.